Booking beauty isn't everyone's top priority for their wedding, but should it be? I've talked to a number of brides, bridesmaids, and even other wedding vendors about things they wish they knew before booking their beauty vendor, how it affected their wedding, and what they would have done differently
1. "I would have tripled my beauty budget instead of spending money on those party favors"
- Not gonna lie, a good beauty vendor is going to cost you some dollahs, BUT it's for good reason. Good beauty aint cheap, and cheap beauty ain't good. It boils down to this. If your artist is cheap, do you think they're REALLY gonna invest in their makeup and skin prep? do you think you're wedding is going to be a priority? cheap artists often bail on a wedding when a higher paying job comes up, OR they can blow off a measly $100 job and go to the beach with friends, why? cause they can. You might see the dollar signs, but what you really should be looking at is professionalism, ability, communication, personality, reviews, and do they do weddings full time? Save up the money to work with the artist that you really want.
2. "I did my makeup myself and ended up late and stressed out"
- A lot of brides want the luxury of having an artist come to them and get them beautiful for their wedding, but it's really hard to justify paying money for something you can't hold in your hand.. AND I GET IT, trust me, I'm the first one to tell you this. Photos, you can keep, flowers you can dry out and decorate, rings are forever you can even OBVIOUSLY keep your dress.. BUT you can't scrape your makeup off into a cup and re use it.. I get it... BUT here's the deal.. A highly trained professional wedding beauty vendor offers things that will help you not only navigate through your day, but will also set the mood, the morning and ensure you run on time, stress free and that you can't put a price tag on. I've booked lots of second time brides and all of them have prioritized makeup and hair, for this exact reason. They realized the value of NOT being stressed TF out, not screwing up their liner, not worrying if their hair will go flat, and just enjoying their day made all the difference in the world.. Sometimes it's not about what you keep, but what helps you enjoy your day and be in the now.
3. "I watched youtube tutorials and thought it would be easy, I looked ridiculous"
This last year, I had a bride book me that initially was just going to use youtube tutorials to learn how to do her makeup for her adventure wedding in the North Cascades, but what she found out was none of the looks looked good on her. Youtube isn't designed to teach you how to do your makeup, it's designed to teach you how to do the influencers makeup.. and why is that? Because you don't have the same face, features, skin tones, eye shape, lip shape, so when trying to do techniques influencers are demonstrating on their own face, it's not going to work on yours. A pro artist knows how to accentuate YOUR features, match YOUR skin tones, correct YOUR skin issues and we also know what to use for the climate, location, duration, and weather for that day.
4. " I had a friend offer to do it for free, and I ended up scrambling to find a last minute artist because they bailed"
Yup, this happens, A LOT more than you'd like to think. April to August is "Last minute booking season" and the majority of the inquires are brides frantic, sometimes even in tears on the phone looking for an artist to come do their makeup and hair for their wedding cause their free "frendor" bailed last minute. I get it, saving a buck is awesome, but considering how often this occurs, it's something to really think about.. Here is an additional blog about this specific topic, because it DOES happen all too often.. Friends don't let Aunt Karen who worked for Avon in the 80's do your makeup for your wedding. Also, 99.9 % of the time, we're already booked on these poor brides dates. For my additional blog on this topic go here
5. "I chose the artist that charged the least for travel. They showed up late, I missed out on getting photos, the entire day was off schedule, and I was super stressed out"
I can't even tell you how many times I've heard this.. I had a bride two years ago who wanted to book me but didn't understand why I would require an overnight stay on a wedding 2 hours away, in the winter, over a mountain pass. I explained to her that it is a guarantee I will be there. If the pass is closed (which happens here in the PNW) the morning of her wedding, I'll already be down the street. She decided to go with an artist that didn't require an overnight stay. Guess what? The pass closed the morning of her wedding, the artist never made it.. This happens, it happens A LOT, and it sucks. Sometimes cutting corners and cutting budget is necessary I totally agree, but when it comes to literally the VERY first service of your day, when it comes to a service designed to be looked at not only ALL DAY, but in your photos for the rest of your life, you may want to consider cutting your shoe budget, or maybe skipping the Lattes for a month and putting that money where your face is.
For additional info on why you can trust Pacific Brides to make it to your wedding, ON time, no matter where it is check out this blog here
6. "I didn't read the reviews until after I booked.. They had poor communication, they showed up late, we finished late, I should have done more research"
Reviews are so important, Is your artist new? Is your artist established? Does your artist do weddings professionally? What services does your artist offer? Are they reliable? Did Brides like working with them? How do they respond ? Is your vendor really listening to you? Are they timely in their responses? Have you read their reviews? Do they have poor reviews? How do they respond to their bad reviews? When was the last time they HAD a review? You can learn a lot about your vendor by paying attention to things like these. Most reviews are going to be about the topics above, which are sort of some of the most important aspect about working with a beauty vendor. Cost is important, but really booking someone that is reliable, you like working with, and you love their work, is worth putting in the extra time to really do your research.
7. "My wedding planner was right, always listen to your vendors referrals, ALWAYS"
Guess what? Your wedding planner knows their shit. They know every aspect about your wedding, they have worked with numerous vendors, they know who works best with each other, they know which style will match your wedding perfect, they know who has the best personality to be a great fit with you the morning of your wedding, they know what they are doing. When a planner hands you a list of referrals, you take them. It's their job to style and help your day run without a hitch, and they know the vendors to trust with that job. Other referrals you should absolutely consider are photographers. They more often than not work directly with makeup and hair artists (same room as the same time) and they spend the day photographing the artists work. So they'll have the upper hand in knowing how well an artists work holds up from the beginning of the day to the wee hours of the of the evening (or next day for some)
8. "I waited too long, the Knot blog said to book beauty 3-6 months before my wedding, they were WRONG and all the best artists were booked"
Yup, by the time it's 6 months before your wedding, when you reach out to me, if your wedding is on a Saturday or Friday, I can almost guarantee it's gonna be booked. I start booking peak dates 12-18 months ahead of time. By the time February hits I usually only have less than 20 dates left for the year, and I can pretty much bet they aren't gonna be weekend dates.
If you're reading this and think "my wedding date is 8 months away, I got lots of time" I would start to mildly pannick, finish that glass of wine and start googling artists and get them on lock now.. Especially now that you're armed with super important awesome facts to help you find the best artist.
Weddings are a serious business. Vendors literally have no lives during wedding season, we miss out on spending sunny Saturdays with family and friends, summer vacations are out of the question, we work more in the months of April- October then most people do in an entire year. But these are the reliable, professional vendors, the ones that take their career and your wedding serious. We know what we've signed up for, and not a day goes by that we regret it at all. My motto is "I can sleep in November" because weddings and my brides are my number 1 priority.