New gig!

Well, folks you can now get my services at a salon one day a week! Haha- I know it's not much, but hey..it's a start. I decided to try to fill the rest of my schedule by finding a great blow dry salon downtown. My sister, Beth, works at Drybar in L.A. and loves it; I've been waiting for one to open in Chicago, but no dice. So, I went browsing on my own for another great salon with the similar idea going on. Enter, Blowtique: a super cute blow dry/updo salon smack dab in one of the best parts of the city. Since I'm sort of out of the cutting/coloring game in terms of hair, I knew that a blow dry salon would be my best bet and doing what I actually like to do in the hair industry. Lucky for me the ladies at Blowtique thought I did a pretty good blowdry/style followed by an updo, and hired me on the spot. I'll just be starting out one day a week until I can figure out my schedule with all these weddings coming up (which I'm super excited for), but who knows after that! Here's a little more info on Blowtique for those of you that are interested:

Services

$35 blow dry $70 up styles

photos via Blowtique's Facebook page

Be sure to come visit me!!

CTP Workshop sneak peek

Uh, yeah. I told ya...

Dress by Alice Padrul Bridal Couture
Hair & Makeup by Debra Petrielli
Florals by Larkspur
Hairpiece by Erin Lindsay Designs 

Florida, family, and sun poisoning

For spring break my family decided to take a trip down to Florida to visit my Uncle Vito. The old man retired there not long ago, and had been asking us when we were going to finally visit him. So, we packed oh, about eleven of us in the RV and drove down for almost a week long visit. I had a great time spending time with the family and hanging out with cousins that I hadn't seen in a long time. My family is very close so I still love taking vacations with them (we missed you, Beth!). We spent most of our time visiting beaches, sitting by a campfire, and warming our bones. I warmed my bones a little too much one day, what with the sun poisoning that was bestowed upon me, but that's neither here nor there. Here are a few shots from the trip-- mostly some pics from our day trip to Sanibel Island. Enjoy!

Our lovely host, Uncle Vito. Thanks a million, guy!

Check out my instagram for some more good'uns: @debrapetrielli

Trial run with Felicia E.

The funniest thing happened to me recently with a client; I was emailed by a lovely bride about her wedding that would be taking place on the south side of Chicago. She would need hair services for herself and for her mother, and wanted to know all the basic information that all brides ask me when they first send me an email. I emailed Felicia back with all the information that she might need. In the mean time I received a phone call from the sweetest woman telling me that she found me on Yelp, and that she and her daughter needed hair services for an upcoming June wedding. I called her back and chatted about all the details and answered any questions about things that she might need to relay to her daughter. Five minutes later Marsha is calling me back on a three-way phone call with her daughter, and surprise! It's Felicia who sent the email a week or so before. Haha- they didn't know that they were both contacting me about Felicia's big day. I thought it was pretty funny, and it made me pretty happy that they were so interested in my services. So, we had our double trial run on Sunday morning (since Mom also wanted to know how her hair would look with her dress). They were two of the sweetest people and I am so excited to be apart of the big day in June! Here is Felicia's totally romantic updo that I came up with. She has the most beautiful naturally curly hair. I went through her entire head touching up and recurling her locks, and used her natural wave to help shape the perfect bridal updo for her. What do you guys think? 

Trial run with Lauren M.

I met the loveliest of brides recently through someone that I work for, and we had our trial run this past Friday. Lauren was such a doll and even supplied the two of us with mimosas-- um, awesome! She didn't have too specific of an idea as to what she wanted for her wedding hair; just that she wanted it off her face, romantic, and messy-put-together. So I came up with this!

What do you think? Super babe, right? I think Lauren can totalllly rock the faux hawk bride look (which we might even make a little more exaggerated), and I'm so excited to see it all put together on her big day! 

Special shout out to Becca for sending Lauren my way! Thank you!!

Styled shoot for the CTP Workshop

I had the best time Saturday getting the beautiful Erin ready to model for Christy Tyler's photography workshop styled shoot. Christy sent me a Pinterest board with her inspiration for the shoot, and then sort of let me have at it the morning of (in case you're wondering, she wanted a very J.Crew look for both the hair and makeup). She also entrusted me to be the sole makeup artist for the shoot-- a first for me. I was super nervous and Erin was such a trooper. Her hair took me a lousy 20 minutes to complete and then I spent another 40 panicking on her makeup application. I don't know why I was so nervous since I've done makeup on other people before, but this was going to be the first time the makeup was professionally photographed. Those cameras pick up everrrry little mistake and can wash out parts of the face as well. And since Christy takes the most gorgeous photographs I really didn't want to let her down. The makeup (shown below) was meant to be very clean with a bold lip. You can't appreciate it completely through this phone picture, but I think it turned out pretty well for my first time! Haha- and I really love how her hair turned out, as well (how about those real flowers for her hairpiece? gorgeous, right?)

So, how did I do?

I am so excited to see how the shoot turned out-- I've already seen a peek or two (which I'll be sharing with you shortly), and as usual Christy does not disappoint. And Erin and her boyfriend Evan were the most beautiful, precious couple I have ever seen. Seriously.

Surprise Wedding Hair

So, last Saturday I went to the always lovely Sylvi Davidson's house for a client that she set up for the both of us. We were both under the impression that she was going to a wedding, when in fact it turned out it was her wedding. Surprise wedding hair! Haha- so we fixed her up reallll nice and sent her off to her intimate ceremony with just a few close friends and family. I hope her wedding day was just perfect, and that she loved her hair for her big day! 

Thanks, Sylvi for setting me up with that lovely client!

Trial run with Rachel T.

Hey folks! The blog has been a little slow lately I know, but I promise I've got some good stuff coming up. These past few weeks and been busy, busy and now I'm back with a little bit of wedding hair, and a trial run with the adorable Rachel. 

So, Rachel who was referred to me by Christy Tyler of Christy Tyler Photography (shout out to you, love-- thanks for sending me the cutest client ever!), and I had such a lovely morning trying out some hair ideas for her wedding. She wanted something loose and romantic, and her only requirement was that it wasn't slicked back from the front. I didn't get a shot of the front, but I think we figured out something that was perfect for her. She seemed to really like it and I'm super excited for her July wedding! 

Thanks for a fun morning, Rachel!!

Committed

The Green Wedding Alliance had their bridal show on Sunday, and Kpoene of Mignonette Bridal asked me to do some models' hair for the big fashion show. Little did I know when I was signing up I'd be doing 15+ models. Yipes! Everything went smoothly and fabulously, and the models couldn't have been lovelier. Here are some great photos from the day thanks to CALM Skin Care. Be sure to check them out-- they just launched their natural & refillable makeup line (which can be seen on all the models). Pretty gorgeous, right?

Enjoy!

Short hair

The lovely model, Grace, is an active participant in the hair shows that come around in March. If you've ever seen or heard about these, you know that the stylists and pretty much allowed to do whatever they want to your hair for 3 days. Her hair always gets chopped. This is the growth (minus some trims, I'm sure) she's gotten over the past year with her asymmetrical cut. So, needless to say I had to be a little creative when I was pinning up a 'do for the WGN segment where she'd be wearing a veil. This is what I came up with-- and I swear the left side of her head wasn't as flat as it looks in the first picture : ) I'll share more photos from the studio as soon as I get my hands on them!

Washington D.C.

This past long weekend I helped chaperone the 8th grade trip to D.C. My mom is an 8th grade teacher and Kate & I were lucky enough to go along for the trip. I do say "lucky" because it was an amazing trip seeing all the monuments, memorials, and museums..the 43 8th graders were just the interesting little souls we had to travel with. Growing up in a house full of 4 girls you forget how much farting a group of boys can do when they are together. Gross. Haha- aside from their obvious tummy issues the trip was great, and I do enjoy spending time in hotels. Here are a few snapshots from our trip there!

Featured on WGN!

Check out the Chicago Green Wedding Alliance feature on WGN today-- I did the hair for the Mignonette models wearing Violet Bells veils & hairpieces.

Sorry!

I'm sorry I've been totally MIA lately. I promise I'll get back at it as soon as some of my life-craziness slows down. I'm moving in to a new place pretty soon, so I've been busy prepping for that. I also went to Washington D.C. this past weekend and I've got a bunch of hair stuff coming up. Busy, busy! I'll have some hair + bridal goodness tomorrow after I have a little work. I'm doing some models' hair for a WGN segment featuring Mignonette Bridal! So. Very. Exciting! I'll keep you posted!! For now, here are some photos Kate took of some of the painting business that went on in my new bedroom. I'll show you a proper before + after once I'm officially moved in! 

Sally W. wedding photos

Remember Sally? Well, she was so lovely to work with and her wedding was totally gorgeous. I've finally got my hands on the photos by Maypole Studios (check Bethany out-- she's crazy talented) and I wanted to share a few of them with you guys here! Take a look and let me know what you think!!

Gah- she and Jesse are just way too cute!

Some of the updos from her wedding are still some of my favorites (parts 1, 2, & 3) 

if you want to give them another look!

Trial Run with Kelly U.

Sometimes I partner with the fabulous Nika Vaughan for weddings-- she books weddings for me as part of her team. Here is a trial run from yesterday's booking with the very lovely Kelly. Kelly is the amaaazing talent behind the pretty well known floral shop in downtown Chicago, Fleur. The flowers and arrangements that come out of that shop are to die for-- you should definitely go check it out. Anyway, back to our trial-- Kelly wanted something natural, messy but put together, and pretty. Easy enough, right? So we came up with this:

That stray curl was pinned in place after this photo was taken, don't worry. What do you think? We're going to set it slightly more off to the side, but other than that this is basicall it! I think it's perfect for her Indie campground wedding in June! 

I'm so looking forward to her wedding day-- 

and I'll be sure to share plenty of photos the day of, so be sure to check back!