make-up by Wenwen Zaspa

Even beautiful girls need talented makeup artists to make them look absolutely stunning, whether they are posing for a magazine or prepping for a high-profile show. But if you are an ordinary-looking girl like myself, you probably dream of looking and feeling pretty even for just once in your life -- on your wedding day. And you're probably wondering how.

Luckily, there are extraordinary makeup artists who can make even the plainest Janes look pretty. They don't do it by camouflaging your face and painting an entirely new one over it. Their talent and experience enables them to bring out your best features so that you will look beautiful and still look natural at the same time. For my wedding, I was really lucky to have Wenwen Zaspa and his team.

I first heard of Wenwen from my girl friends Jet and Osita, who both got married in October 2009, just a couple of weeks apart. Images are worth a thousand words, so here is what my friends looked like on their respective wedding days:

photo of Jet by Dondon Colinares / photo of Osita by the Banana Book team

Now, if you're like me and you're not rolling in dough, one of your first questions would probably be: how much? Well, the best person to answer that would be Jingjing Zaspa (09205578432 / 09322334097), Wenwen's sister, who handles the business side of things. The rates vary, depending on what you have in mind. Let me just put it this way: for someone of Wenwen's caliber, his fees are fair and totally worth it.

Here's why:

This is what I look like (L) on ordinary days, and (R) during my wedding.
(OK, I'm still no Anne Curtis, but I did love how I looked during the wedding.)

one of our prenup photos, by RockPaperScissors

My sister (in the yellow dress) also looked stunning.

In addition to making us look great, Wenwen and his team (which, at my wedding, consisted of Abbai Pila and Aries Baguio) had the priceless ability to make us laugh while getting prepped up. The few hours before your wedding can be the most tense moments you'll ever have -- all those months of preparation, after all, are about to converge in a single afternoon -- but their stories, jokes and verbal sparring had us laughing so hard, we simply forgot to worry.

Worth it? Definitely.

In the end, perhaps, beauty is only skin deep. The eye shadow washes off after the wedding; the blush fades. What's really important about looking good is its by-product: feeling good. It is the little kick that you get out of a dream come true. It is the self-assurance that enables you to walk on air as you walk down the aisle. It is the serenity that makes you forget about the crowds, the flashing cameras, the little details, and focus on what really matters: the person waiting for you at the altar, and the life you are about to have together.