Blog | beautybyannkrause

Ann Krause
- Jun 12, 2020
- 1 min read

How one Chicago Couple Achieved Small Wedding Goals!

Having a small wedding does come with it's advantages! Couples who are able to scale back often find opportunities to get really creative (in ways that cannot be carried out with a guest list of 200).

When Elizabeth and Michael got married on a Monday morning last October, they were able to pull off a big surprise for their family and friends. It was their ten year anniversary that day, and they had told their favorite people that they were ready to get engaged, and wanted them to come along to select Elizabeth's engagement ring.

Completely unexpected to all, the couple arrived to pick up their wedding guests in a bus with photographer Mackenzie Maeder along for the ride- and to document the surprise wedding about to take place! As you can imagine, the intimate group of guests was absolutely overjoyed!

This wedding is a perfect example of how small can be really special!

Hair by Ann

Makeup by Tilly

Photos by Mackenzie Maeder

Ann Krause
- May 25, 2020
- 2 min read

The Number One Mistake Women are Making with their Beauty Products

Are you ready for this? The number one mistake we are guilty of making with our beauty products is that we are keeping them way too long! But it's okay, now is the perfect time to take on a super gratifying spring cleaning project that shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes!

The beauty of this is in the simplicity. Literally EVERY hair product, skin care product, and cosmetic has the lifespan indicated on its own container. We just need to know where to look for it!

My simple plan is explained below.

Set aside 30 minutes to sort through ALL of your beauty products each season.
Here is the key; you need to look for the tiny icon on each item that looks like a small jar-like container with an opened lid. This icon has a number inside like "12M". (You will usually find the icon on the side of a product toward the bottom.) This item is good for 12 months. Some will say "6M", "12M", etc. When you get into a routine, you can attach a small label sticker to each item indicating your purchase date before you even add it into your collection for easy sorting later!
Anything that has passed its lifespan gets tossed, simple as that.
Now you have the opportunity to curate your beauty product collection with intention moving forward. This is my favorite part of the process. For example; did you discard 10 beautiful lip colors? Maybe you need to keep on hand just 2 neutrals and 2 bold colors moving forward. Maybe after throwing out 12 hair styling and conditioning products that you thought you couldn't live without, you've learned to scale back to your go-to buys... or even switch over to some travel sizes to be less wasteful.

I hope that you found this helpful, and happy spring cleaning!

xoxo,

Ann

Ann Krause
- May 16, 2020
- 1 min read

Wedding Vibes from Our Real Brides

These days I think there's a lot of people who can't decide what to share with the world... I feel that way sometimes, too. I'm sure we're probably over thinking it. When I scroll through my Instagram feed right now, I'm looking for an escape. I particularly love to see; new outfit ideas, interior design inspiration, yogis who have mastered great challenges in flexibility, balance, and strength, and super clever cooking and backing hacks. Basically, I love to see beautiful things and be entertained. I am certainly not looking to a fashion blogger for some kind of profound insight or the answers to the world's problems.

So it's pretty much perfect that it's time for the blog when I share our Brides' photos with you! I hope you enjoy browsing through this collection of late Summer- Fall images (some I've never shared before) and that you find something here that makes you smile!

Michelle & Jason

7.20.2019

Photos by Nicole Morisco Photography