The Bride Woke Up Like This

Most women want to look drop-dead gorgeous on their wedding days. But does drop-dead gorgeous have to mean wearing makeup? The fact that some brides are choosing to go makeup-free for their weddings says otherwise. Which is awesome, because women should never feel pressured to wear makeup if they don't want to, even at weddings. Especially at weddings.

ABC News ran a segment entitled "Brides Say 'No' to Makeup for Their Wedding Day," highlighting bride Carolynn Markey's decision to forgo makeup entirely for her 2012 nuptials. Markey told ABC that she doesn't wear makeup in her daily life and went bare-faced for her wedding in order to stay true to herself:

I don’t think you need to wear makeup to look beautiful. On my wedding day, I felt amazingly beautiful and I was shaking in anticipation and I was completely shocked I was getting married.

This is refreshing, but is it newsworthy? I think so, but not for the same reasons ABC thinks. The segment on makeup-free brides touts this as some sort of radical trend, even going so far as to gently suggest that makeup-free might be "extreme." The faint of heart should focus on natural-looking makeup instead: "Wear a little mascara, a little eyeliner, some blush goes a long way,” Anja Winika, site director of TheKnot told ABC.

But, as Markey later told HuffPo Live, sometimes the idea of wearing any makeup goes against what the bride believes in.

My friends did mention that I could wear just a light sort of natural look, but I've never even worn foundation. So the idea of wearing any sort of makeup was really weird. I have worn eyeshadow and lipstick before, but I didn't want to have to worry about it on my big day. There were just so many other things that I was worried about.

Exactly. The point of not wearing makeup is not necessarily not to secretly wear makeup but just look like you might be bare-faced. I find it pretty offensive that the automatic response to women not being interested in makeup for their wedding is to suggest a natural look. What could possibly be more natural than skipping makeup altogether? Please, enough of these "get the no-makeup look" how-to guides that involve a million different products. That is not the "no-makeup look."

Makeup-free is somewhat of a trend these days, born from women fighting back against absurd beauty ideals. I only wear makeup when the mood strikes. If I ever get married, I probably will wear makeup because it makes me feel glamourous. But I respect the decision of women who skip makeup entirely (for weddings and otherwise), and not because I think of it as a particularly radical or bold choice. Women are not required to wear makeup, ever. Do what is right for you, for your wedding and every other day of your life.