We are delighted to announce our involvement with the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post Bride of the Year competition. One lucky couple will win a once in a lifetime fairytale wedding, worth over £11,000.
Your wedding will take place at The Isla Gladstone, and will include a four course wedding breakfast for 40 guests, drink on arrival, a glass of wine per person during the meal and an evening buffet for 80 guests. This part of the prize alone is worth £6,000.
Wedding stationery is crucial and for the prize The Elite Invitation Boutique at The Printstore UK are experts. They will take care of everything from save the date cards to wedding invitations for day and evening, RSVPs, the menus, place cards, orders of service and thank you cards.
You’ll also win £750 worth of vouchers to spend at Coast, who have launched a beautiful bridal range of dresses. Prices start at £295.
The lucky couple will also win photography by leading wedding photographer Zoe Photography.
So, from the excitement of getting ready to the end of the speeches, our expert will be there to capture the day and afterwards present you with a preview disk of around 250 images, a disk of higher resolution images with printing rights and a coffee table album.
In addition to this you will also be lucky enough to have Marry Me Films record your special moments.
Includes full day coverage, from preparations to evening reception, a musical highlights ‘trailer’ capturing the most poignant footage cut to your favourite song and a main feature film customised to each bride and groom.
And finally!
We have donated our top wedding package!
Up for grabs is the bride’s hair and make-up (both a trial and on the day), plus hair and make-up for three bridesmaids and mum.
You’ll also win a ‘second look’ for the evening and a two hour 'Rouge Booth' set up at the wedding reception offering hair and make-up touch up's for guests.
And you’ll even be treated to a 'Pearl Package' hen party for up eight people at the Hope Street studio with a make-up lesson, make-up for all eight guests, light refreshments and a gift for the bride.
This alone would usually cost over £1,000, so if you are looking to organise your special day, why not enter?!
So how do you stand a chance of winning? It’s easy – just follow our step by step guide:
Complete the on-line entry form and tell us in 150 words why you should be our ECHO Bride of the Year.
Entry to the competition closes at midnight on Wednesday, May 11. All entrants must be over 18 and will be given a unique four digit reference number to identify the bride and for use as a vote number.
Photos will appear in a special online gallery on the “myecho” website from Wednesday, May 25.
Readers can then vote for their favourite bride by collecting tokens from the Liverpool ECHO and each bride can get online bonus votes.
Voting tokens can be collected in paper from Wednesday, May 25 until Saturday, June, 4.
All paper tokens must be received at the Liverpool ECHO offices by 5pm on Wednesday, June 8, with the appropriate paperwork. Voting tokens without the appropriate paperwork and/or received after this date will not be counted.
Five finalists with the highest number of votes combined online and token “votes” will feature in paper.
The winner will be decided by a panel a judges and announced in paper
And just to tempt you- here is a few images taken by Zoe Photography for the launch shoot, which featured in Wednesday's Echo. We loved working with Face of the Echo, Leanne Higgins, and we think she made a beautiful bride!!
Another set of pictures found in a very dusty box!
We were lucky enough to work with the upmarket concierge company, Quintessentially, on their Manchester launch.
The opening party was held at The Lowry Hotel and featured The Girly Show, a collaboration of London's hottest and most requested dancers and singers who regularly work with TakeThat, Kylie and Dianna Ross. They also feature in the famous 'Eric Prydz- Call on me' music video and various 'Lambrini' adverts.
Not only did we spend weeks working with the girls in Manchester and in London we were also invited to the launch itself, which was quite the celebrity filled bash!
We loved the press board- can you tell?!
Oh yes and the real stars of the show!!
(PS- Sian would like to apologise for her horrendous outfit- there is no excuse!!)
Whilst re-decorating our Hope Street Studio we decided to create a 'behind the scenes' board for our clients to have a sneek peek at what we do on set.
We came across these images, of a fantastic film we worked on many moon's ago!
Mechincal Pink was directed by Rosalind Gildea, who we have been lucky enough to continue to work with over the past few years.
These pictures are of the make-up and hair we designed for Tania's character.
Its a WRAP- well you can't expect us to work so long with wigs without at least trying them on afterwards!
Sarah is a girl after So Coco Rouge's heart- a wedding theme of pearls and lace?! Sounds like heaven!
Not only was Sarah and Paul's theme beautiful, they both are too, and it was such a pleasure being involved in their special day.
Sarah decided on pretty yet natural hair and make-up for her big day, and we took make-up inspiration from the colours in her flowers which not only suited her skin tone but her personality too!
Hope Street Hotel proved the perfect venue for their day, and we think both Bride and Groom look stunning in these images by Zoe Photography.
Many of you may not realise that So Coco Rouge work regularly with City Shoots, run by lead photographer Zoe Richards.
The first part of the City Shoot experience is with one of our team providing a mini makeover before working with you 'on set', to ensure you look your best at all times! Just like a celebrity has on their photo shoots!
After your shoot with Zoe or one of her team, you will enjoy complimentary Coffee at Hope Street Hotel, before returning back to the City Shoots studio to receive your So Coco Rouge Makeover lesson plan and to view your stunning images, before taking them home on disc with you!
Chrissie's husband decided a City Shoot was the perfect gift for her birthday, and I'm sure Chrissie will agree it was! We had such fun and the images we created are beautiful!
It was the first time we had visited Atlantic Tower, and the views of the river Mersey are just breath-taking. We were looked after so well, that I can only imagine how amazing it must be to have your wedding here!
Here's a few images from the day! Doesn't Laura look gorgeous!
Most of you who watch channel four soap 'Hollyoaks' will recognise Jessica Fox, who has played Nancy Hayton for many years.
I was lucky enough to work with Jessica last month with Photographer Amanda Littler, her assistant John Charles Taylor and Stylist Nic Cole at the beautiful Great John Street Hotel.
It was wonderful working with Jessica to create a soft, beautiful make-up and hair which is rather different from her characters eccentric looks!
I began by setting her hair in heated rollers to create a natural volume and to ensure the soft curls didn't drop under the studio lights.
I used Make-up Forever's HD foundation, concealer and powder sparingly as Jessica's skin didn't need much coverage- lucky girl!
Inspired by the rich red tones in the room we were shooting in I used a mixture of MAC shadows in copper, gold and burgundy shades to compliment Jessica's brown eyes.
It was a fantastic day working with the whole team and I love the images!
As the So Coco Rouge studio is decorated in similar tones, I think these images will look beautiful on our portfolio wall!
Today was one of the most inspiring days of my life so far.
Since I began my training eight years ago, I have been itching to 'give something back' and work with women going through tough times, but it wasn't until more recently that I heard about Look Good Feel Better.
I came across the programme whilst working for Max Factor in 2008, at my local Boots store. Various members of staff from each cosmetic house took it in turns to volunteer at the local hospital workshop where women suffering from different types of cancer would come for a relaxed and informative skincare and make-up lesson.
I then came across more information about the charity, through my admiration for top make-up artist Caroline Barnes' work. I was under the impression that LGFB only accepted volunteers from employed cosmetic consultants rather than freelance make-up artists, but seeing Caroline's support convinced me to give the team at LGFB a call.
As it was my first time, I was asked to observe the other volunteers, but step in the help the women if I felt ready to do so.
I arrived at the Linda McCartney centre, Royal Liverpool Hospital 30 minutes prior to the start of the workshop to help set the room up and to get to know the other volunteers. Today we had eight ladies attending the workshop, all various age ranges and at different stages of their treatment.
Dianne, who led the session, demonstrated the LGFB 12 step programme on one of the ladies, using the products kindly donated to each of the women by many cosmetic houses such as Chanel, Elizabeth Arden and Clarins.
The other 7 women used the 12 step technique on themselves, whilst Sally and I offered them guidance.
Once the women had completed the session, they all admitted they had thoroughly enjoyed the session, and that they felt gorgeous and fabulous!
More importantly, they all felt they could recreate the look at home, meaning they can feel and look fabulous every single day!
Today left me feeling inspired by the ladies 'positive energy' and thirst for life. I definitely want to continue working with LGFB and would love to organise fundraisers and become more involved in the charity in the future.
As far as I'm concerned, today was the start of my most important career role yet.
Max factor's UK ambassador and long term Look Good Feel Better supporter, Caroline Barnes, demonstrates the 12-step skincare and make-up regime on the Confidence Kit DVD, offered to all patients, for a small donation, through the website.
