Author: emilyvphung

What is your story? How did it happen? How did you know they were the one?

These are the questions you get most frequently asked as a bride; I would know since I’m probably one of the many that ask. We all want the details. We are the audience – along with your guests – who listen intently as you tell your love story. How does that look for you as the storyteller, or more importantly how do you want it to look. 

With all of the things we are inundated with today as a society, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and get lost in someone else’s story and aesthetic. There are so many categories and styles that may not always be one fit. On top of that, there are the themes, the colors, and all the many little details.

Think of your wedding as the embodiment of your love story. How do you visually want it to unfold.

You take your guest on a journey of where it all happened up until this magical point of your wedding. That will help you streamline your story and make it your own – after all no story is exactly like yours… and the best part is you get to tell it and relive it.

There are the different themes; romantic, rustic, modern, ecletic, black tie and there are the different styles; classic, trendy, elegant etc, what does it all mean? The buzzwords are all there, but can quite describe your full story. Lucky, with a plethora of wedding vendors, blogs, magazines and websites at your disposal, you get to chose whatever it is that feels right for you. That’s where I come in.

As the narrator and the main character of your story, you get the visually be the representation of your story. You get to look however you want, and in the most beautiful way. You get to play a part in your own story and how it is seen.

Your look can give meaning to your story, if you let it.

As a makeup artist, I can help you translate your story into a design you get to wear all day long. Makeup is an expression of who you are and want to be. You can represent yourself, or the character you want to play, above all else, makeup has the power to create and express emotion, it is yet another part of your story that gives it life and visuals.

What makes you feel the most beautiful is whatever you decide it to be – whether it is always having your favorite lipstick on, not leaving the house without mascara, or just showing off your radiant skin. There is so much that can be read through the image of yourself. People analyze your face and facial features before you even say a word to them.

Expanding on my Instagram “get to know me” video, I wanted to open up on how I got into makeup, what it means to me and why it is my passion to explore the beauty I see with you.

This summer marks my 8th year since I started doing makeup.. professionally that is! I am so grateful that I get to do what I love, and share that with so many of the people around me. Doing makeup has afforded me so many new friends, and opportunities that I would have never imagined possible. It has definitely taken me out of my comfort zone, as well as given me many challenges along the way that has brought me deeper into who I am. As I look back on when I first started makeup, and I see how much it’s meaning has changed and grown with me.

My first ever encounter with makeup is thanks to my sister; she passed on to me the grungy black inner liner, and curled lashes with loads of mascara. We would both call in our orders to Avon and excitedly wait for their arrival, or browse the shoppers by our house on Fridays. I would carry this look on with me all throughout high-school, adding in a MAC’s black track winged liner on special occasions. There was not a day I didn’t go without a little mascara. As I got older I started to watch YouTube and experiment with my look and try to undo the major pluck job I did to my brows in high-school.

Smokey eyes of all colors like dark purples and browns dominated my look with pale lips and lots of highlight, and of course my false lashes and mascara. I was obsessed, so much so that my now sister-in-law pushed me into taking some makeup classes as a hobby. From there I met artists, who gave me the basics of doing makeup for others, which I had never done before. This led me on a whole new career path, and to meeting some of the most influential makeup artists I’m lucky enough to call friends and countless others who have all been a part of imparting their wisdom on me, and helping me define my own aesthetic and artistry. The world of makeup is where I’ve found so much of myself, and where I strive to have every client, model, and friend I do makeup on, help find themselves. Makeup to me has been something I’ve worn on and off, depending on my mood, but it’s meaning runs much deeper for me: in the conversations I have, and in beauty I see in the world. I’ve learned to truly love my face, regardless of what look or product I’m wearing at the moment, or no makeup at all. So it’s my turn ask you, what does makeup mean to you?

Makeup doesn’t define who you are, but it adds to another facet of your character.

It’s no wonder why makeup and aesthetics is so important in movies. We can start to understand and integrate that concept into your life and one of the biggest days of your life, your wedding. It is my passion to help your find that in yourself and fall in love with that, after all it is a love story!

Makeup has been a part of my story, learn what it can do for you…

Let yourself be the narrator of your love story, one piece at a time..

Visit my IGTV and Twitter if you haven’t had the chance!

“The Storytelling Principles told through Yoga” is an infographic created to deliver a new take on how people view yoga. I created it as a way to combine two of the things I enjoy that many people wouldn’t necessarily put together.

I wanted to created emphasis on how universal storytelling can actually be, and how you can find the main aspects of storytelling in many of our daily practices.

Like many things in our lives, stories stem from our routines and relatability. We want to feel like we belong and that there are others who are like us – doing the same things and thinking the same things. This is why the most important parts of our lives include relating to others, whether it be in the stories we read, or the yoga poses we do; we want to find common ground. I’ve practiced yoga for 10 years, and always find that relatability in the poses I do, whether I’m feeling flexible or not, there is always something in each pose or a modification that I can find a place in.

The exact same idea goes for a story, the reader must relate to it – if not as a whole, to some aspect of the story – in some way. 

The universality of storytelling is key to why stories are so revisited. Each read yields a new pathway for expansion of feelings and knowledge; no one read is exactly the same for each person, or even the same person the second time.

Yoga poses create the same feeling for the practitioner; a deeper understanding of oneself through the pose is invoked as the journey continues on.

Yoga also adheres to a formula – even though as time has passed and the formula has been manipulated and changed – there is always a basis of the origins like that of the story spine. The reader and practitioner can assume what might happen, but like most good stories, the audience is kept focused and engaged until the very end.

Whatever way you like to take your stories and your yoga, there is a plethora of media to give you exactly the kind of connection and interaction you crave.

Storytelling is integrated in every delivery system we use – from our phones to our laptops, or in person – the principles are employed to get the message across. 

My hope is that this infographic begins to break down the notion that storytelling principles are only meant for stories in the conventional sense. Each of our lives, actions and processes possess a story and if we look closely and begin to see that stories exist in so many aspects of our lives, truly being universal in and of itself.    

My live tweet contains a recurring dream of mine. As I recalled the dream, I in real-time tweeted upon awaking from my nap. Following along with the tweet, you can see how the story begins to unfold. 

My dream is about my grandma who passed away when I was 5 years old. Although I was young when she passed, she and I were inseparable. This is the story of her teaching my sister and I life lessons, like she would in real-life. 

Through learning to cook pho, 3 life lessons are told. With each layer of pho that is prepared, we follow the cohesion of the story. It is laid out in an easy to follow format and leads into one another. 

The story begins with the journey of anticipation of learning to cook pho, then the conflict of a sassy granddaughter asking for, and wanting more, therefore leading into being taught her valuable life lessons. I enjoyed writing this piece in a live tweet because of the suspense that could be manipulated. With each tweet, the reader is given information, but is made to wait for any new information. Since it was laid out that there were 3 life lessons, the reader knows and waits in anticipation of what these are. 

Each tweet could be made into a cliffhanger and then a resolution in the next. It plays on the reader’s interest, and continues to feed to the story spine outline. 

They continue to make pho, and then conflict arises, and from that a lesson is learned. It uses this format 3 times until the resolution of a completed bowl of pho, and the end of the dream. The story is used to convey symbolism with the bowl of pho representing life. It’s is a simple tale, as well as a dream that comes back to me because of its simplistic, but significant nature. It reminds me of a combination of proverbs or universal truths, and truly represents the importance of life for me. Because it is summed up fully in 3 lessons, it is an easy read that still holds the readers attention, and stays present even after the story is finished. 

The relatability of the characters is another part of why I love this story. Even though it is very specifically Vietnamese because of my background, it can relate to anyone. The grandma can be substituted for any mentor figure, and the precocious child displays aspects of everyone. The child continuously asks what the reader is thinking, which can be applied to all parts of life. “The WHYs of life.” 

Luckily, the grandma soothes the child, and the reader. Every single time I dream this story and recall it, the meaning changes for me. It guides me through different journeys in my life.

Although I’ve written this down once before, documenting it on Twitter is short snippets, help me edit and sum up that parts that came back to me naturally, instead of adding in parts that I’m forcing myself to recall or fill in gaps.

I like that the reader is able to take this journey with me, and recollect the story as I do. It creates an intimacy with the reader, and the writer. The snippets feel interactive and casual, as well as less intimidating for novice writers, like myself.

All in all, I enjoyed writing out the snippet story, and weaving a fun and widely accessible adventure for myself, and the audience. 

A yearly re-read of mine, and one of my all-time favourite books is The Joy Luck Club. Although I know most of the stories by heart – the book is comprised of eight short stories linked together and interwoven into a larger overarching story – I read the book time and time again. The feelings invoked by the stories change every single time I read them. New memories are triggered, and new perspectives are gained with each “new” read.

I often get asked why I come back to this specific book, or what about this book makes it so interesting after all these years. For me, it is the relatability of every single character.

I am each character in a sense, as well as I’m not truly just any one of them. The characters are humanly flawed; they are likable and unlikeable, and they are dimensional in every facet of their decisions. Much like humans are in real-life, we can understand their reasoning, and therefore we get to know them with each new dialogue, thought process, or action they perform. Through this understanding, we unconsciously unlock our own memories and emotions. With each new time that we root for a character, or disagree with a character, we are faced with the “why” that comes up for us. We are forced to delve into our own understanding of the story and the feelings that surround it in our own life. 

The Joy Luck Club follows the lives of four women, and their journey from China interwoven with the lessons they hope to bring for their daughters in America.

Beautifully written, the short stories impart the wisdom that is universal in every single parent – the dreams of a better life for their children learned from their mistakes. As a daughter of immigrant parents, I was sheltered from my parents’ pain and struggle. I grew up not truly understanding where I had come from, and usually misinterpreted my parents’ intentions for my future. I am so deeply touched by the stories in this novel because they are words that my parents have never had the want to share with me, so as to protect me from the past.

In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch. Over there, nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning, because I will give her this swan – a creature that became more than it was hoped for.

Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

In reading this novel, I can see my parents, and all parents through another lens – the lens of a human, who didn’t necessarily know exactly what they were doing when they started a family, or a new life in Canada. We have the misguided perception that our parents are to be idealized, or that they are somehow superhuman. The humanization and relatability of every single person is so deeply woven into the theme of this novel, which is an integral part of why it was such a huge success. I feel that I am reading my life and the life of my parents, and of all parents. I know that I am reading the life of daughters, mothers and friends. I feel that by inviting in my emotions, and experiences, the story belongs to me. 

Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of you mother, and her mother. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh.

An Mei, The Joy Luck Club

What captivates me about a story is that sense of belonging; you want to feel that connection. You want to read a story that isn’t necessarily yours, but to have that ability to make it true to you.

These are the stories that drive meaning. These are the stories that last because they get to be continually recreated by you, time and time again.