Gail Gardner Blog

I am so pleased to announce that I have become a Finalist for Hairdresser of the Year 2015.  Such wonderful news.  xxx

I am still caught up in the wedding season and have been very busy working at some of the most beautiful venues around Essex. Please see below some of my most recent brides. I am now looking forward to making all my lovely autumn and winter brides beautiful over the coming few months.

Clare Wignall – Gaynes Park Barnes

Yun – Down Hall Country Hotel

Sasha – Leez Priory

Emma Young – Maison Talbooth

Gemma – Leez Priory

Caroline – Gaynes Park Barnes

Bride Sarah and bridesmaids – Hornchurch

Is it just me or are we all hoping for a little more sunshine before we accept Autumn is well on its way?  I am still holding out, I have yet to wear a pair of jeans or warm tights as I am holding out for more sun!!  Saying that, I cannot deny that I am welcoming the lovely smell of damp evenings with a hint of autumn in the air.  I love Autumn and I love Autumn Weddings!  Many brides incorporate gold into their theme, have pumpkins replacing centre pieces etc.  My bride is getting married at Leez tomorrow and it looks like its going to be a typical autumnal day, dry with bright sunshine.  I love Leez Priory in the Autumn.  The Fishermans cottage is nestled away surrounded by golden trees, this is where the bride stays the night before her wedding.  On the wedding day, Leez Priory looks stunning, breath taking with its rustic brick appearance opposite the beautiful lake surrounded by colourful trees.   Keep an eye on my twitter page to see my bride tomorrow.

Gail x

This summer has been one of my most busiest ever!  I have been lucky enough to work at some of the finest wedding venues around.  I have been working at Blake Hall in Ongar quite a bit and I absolutely love it.  It has to be one of the most perfect places to get a bride ready.  There is a place called the Coach House where the bride can stay the night before the wedding with all her family and friends.  There is the most fantastic set up.  There is a dressing table with four plug sockets (a hairstylists dream) with a lovely large mirror surrounded by lights.  There is a sink in the same room and also a sofa for all the girls to sit and watch while all the hair and makeup is carried out.  Such a lovely bright room with so much atmosphere.  Wonderful!  Brides, check it out.

Here are some of the photos I took on Saturday of my bride and bridesmaids there.

Firstly, my apologies for not updating my blog for a while but its Wedding season and its a pretty crazy time!  Congratulations to all my brides that have married over the past two weeks and a huge good luck to my brides that are getting married tomorrow and next week.

I have also been at a Lizzie Liros workshop for two days in London, which was so inspiring!  Lizzie is currently Australia’s leading Hairdresser of the Year and has been for seven years running.  Lizzie came to London to share and teach everything she knows.  She has to be one of the most inspiring people I have met and I look forward to incorporating some of her ideas and techniques into my own styles.  Lizzie is sponsored by L’oreal and also by  Phillips in Australia and has also taught the likes of J-Lo’s hairdresser.

Well that is what I call a crazy week!  I have met some wonderful people who are due to get married within a matter of weeks, lovely prom girls and wonderful brides.  I had a great time with my lovely proms as they wanted red carpet hair and dramatic eye makeup and they all looked stunning.  Also, congratulations to beautiful Kirsty who married at Crabbs Barn and to Diana who married in Chelmsford.  I also met many lovely brides to be this week with weddings taking place at The Reid Rooms, Leez Priory, Gosfield Hall and Gaynes Park.  I will be meeting you all again in a few weeks time.

I have another busy week ahead with more proms, trials and weddings so will try and update you again next week.

Here are some of the pictures of some of the lovely ladies I met this week.

Firstly, welcome to my new look website.  If you are having trouble seeing images or come across any problems, please be patient as my webmaster is currently in the process of updating it.  It should hopefully be running smoothly very soon.

It is now well and truly Wedding and Prom season, such a wonderful wonderful time of year.  This year I opened the door to many more proms than usual, as I have a 17 year old daughter and now realise just how important it is to them that they look and feel absolutely amazing on their very special day.  It is the closest they come to being a bride at this age and the overall price of the dress and shoes, carriage etc are along the same lines too!!

I have a very full few months ahead so unfortunately cannot take any more bookings for June, July and August but I do still have availability for September onwards.   If you would like to keep an eye on my movements and see how my brides look on their wedding day, you will need to follow me on twitter.  The link will be on this website soon along with a twitter feed.  You can also ‘like’ my professional Facebook page, which again, will be on this website soon.

Here are a couple of photos of my recent brides over the past couple of weeks. Beautiful Holly who married at a Little Saling church and had her reception at her home in Bluegate Hall and Sarah who married on Friday.

I now have a week ahead of trials, Proms and weddings so check back here soon to see how beautiful they all looked.  Gail x

Firstly a big Hello again.  I have been so busy with trials and weddings that I have not had a chance to update you all on my movements.  I have spent the last two weeks working at weddings in Hylands House, Essex, Leez Priory, Gosfield Hall, Crabbs Barn and Mulberry House in Ongar, Essex.  I have also carried out many trials with such wonderful brides and I am looking forward to meeting them all again on their wedding days soon.  I have a crazy week ahead of me so please please be patient if you have emailed me as I am working at weddings by day and backstage at CATS the Musical by night.  I will respond to every email I receive but it may take me a couple of days to get back to you and it may be at an unearthly hour in the middle of the night but I will respond, I promise.  This is just a very busy period at the moment.

I want to say a huge good luck to all my brides getting married this week, Victoria on Sunday, Emma at Leez Priory on Monday, Sally at Leez on Thurday, Aiste at Newland Hall on Friday and Holly on Saturday.  I can’t wait to meet you all again.

I will be posting some photos on here very soon of all my recent brides.  Gail xx

I have had a fabulously busy week with weddings at Leez Priory, Gosfield Hall and Castle Hedingham along with some wonderful trials too.  I also attended a Mac Masterclass in Contouring and sculpting makeup on Thursday which was just fabulous.  I always leave the Master Classes so inspired that I walk straight to the local Soho Mac Store and spend a fortune on all the latest products on the market.  I was up at 4.45am yesterday for a very early start at Leez Priory where the beautiful Lisa got married.  Lisa is one of the Queens Royal Horseguards and loves her job so much that she is one of the few brides that was going to actually miss her job whilst on her honeymoon.  We are now going into Easter Week, it really has to be one of my favourite weeks of the year.  Mostly because I have children who count the days down to Easter Sunday.  I always hides eggs all around the house with clues everywhere…I cannot wait!  This week, I have weddings at Hylands House, Leez Priory, Blake Hall and Castle Hedingham so good luck to all my beautiful brides.

One final thing….if you are getting married, and you have either not booked your videographer or cannot really afford a videographer, but would like to have the most important parts of your ceremony filmed, then I would strongly recommend you contact Kieron Hodges at snapweddingfilms@gmail.com.  Kieron is actually a Film Director from New Zealand who has recently come to the UK and has decided to focus on weddings.  He is amazing and I only know this because he did a short film for me recently.  He is extremely competitive as he is just starting out here.  If you contact him and mention you heard of him through my website, you should get a very competitive quote.  You may only want him to film the ceremony or certain parts of the day but he is certainly worth contacting for a quote.

Here are some photos from the Mac Masterclass Makeup.  I will be posting some of my recent brides on here soon, so keep popping back to see me.  Gail x

After another busy week of weddings and trials, I head straight into another full week.  I spent last night working on a local Cats production which is due to open next month.  Its great fun and I am looking forward to posting my Cats on here.  Tomorrow I am working at Gosfield Hall, where lovely Kirsten will be getting married.  On Sunday I will be doing a photoshoot and Monday and Tuesday I am working at Leez Priory where two more beautiful brides will be taking their vows.  Spring is definitely in the air and you can’t beat a Spring Wedding.  Here is a lovely photo of my recent bride Emily, who married at Pontlands Park.  Please remember to follow me on Twitter and facebook (from the front page of this website) to follow my movements and to see my brides on the day they get married……

I spent a lovely morning at Leez Priory today, preparing Rebecca and her very large bridal party, for her wedding day.  Rebecca stayed at the Fishermans Cottage the night before her wedding,  which meant we could start bright and early at 7.30am.  Rebecca wore a stunning Jenny Packham dress with matching accessories.  Rebecca had a beautiful vintage updo and her six beautiful bridesmaids all opted for a half up hairstyle.  I will upload some professional photos soon but for now, here are a couple of images I took this morning, of Rebecca.

This is lovely Ffion who flew all the way from Australia to her home town in Great Dunmow, to marry her gorgeous fiancé.  Ffion married at St Marys, the family’s parish church.  I met Ffion and her lovely bridal party for the first time on her wedding day.  Congratulations Ffion.

After another crazy week of wedding trials and working on the backstage makeup rehearsals for a CATS production,  I am looking forward to creating a beautiful hairstyle for my bride on Saturday.  My lovely bride Hannah is getting married at the beautiful Gosfield Hall.  Hannah has a large bridal party, so I will enjoy creating some lovely hairstyles for Hannah and her four bridesmaids.  I will try and upload a photo of Hannah on Twitter before she takes her vows so do look out for that.  I am also enjoying working on a production of CATS, we are in the rehearsal stages so I cannot upload any photos of my beautiful cats makeup yet but hope to do so later next month.   I am very proud to have also become an official Love Lust List supplier of Rock My Wedding.   RMW handpick their suppliers so I am feeling very pleased to be on this rivalled list.

I can see my busy year of weddings just about to start, especially as we head into March so do keep an eye on my professional Facebook page, accessible from the front page of this website.  Also keep an eye on twitter as I do try to put a photo of my bride on their before she makes her journey to take her vows.

Gail x

I am so happy to have been officially selected to be on the Rock My Weddings Love Lust List.  Only the chosen few get hand selected to be on this list and I am so pleased to be one of them.  The Love Lust List is a list of carefully selected suppliers that offer a first class service and outstanding work and commitment to the bride on her wedding day and only the chosen few make it to the list.

Also, another announcement.  I am exhibiting at Hylands House Wedding Fayre on March 1st this year from 11am to 3pm.  I very rarely exhibit due to work commitments but I have a soft spot for Hylands House as this is where I got married on my wedding day, so I will thoroughly enjoy being in that wonderful venue once again.  Do come along and introduce yourself if you are one of my brides to be of 2015/16 or if you just fancy having a chat about any hair issues you may have for your wedding day.  I will be taking bookings on the day.

Gail xx