How to Book Your Wedding Makeup
Wedding season is fast approaching, and finding a makeup artist can be a little bit of a process. I try and make the process as simple as I can for my brides. But it can still be overwhelming combined with everything needed to schedule when planning a wedding. To help with that is this blog post. Basically the 411 on booking wedding makeup. All the basic questions I get asked and an overview of the entire booking process.
How soon should you book your artist?
To be completely honest this varies. The biggest variable will be the time of year you are getting married. Each town has a few months that book up pretty fast. For example, I’m writing this post at the end of December 2020 and my month of May 2021 has been completely booked for a few months now. Typically in Chico CA, I have found the most popular months to generally be May, the beginning of June, September, and October.
To be safe, once you have your venue and date set, reach out to the artist you want to get the process started.
How does the booking process work?
For me, the best way to book is to fill out the wedding booking tab on my website here. I created a general questionnaire for you to fill out letting me know the basic information about you and your wedding date. This is the easiest way for me to:
Make sure I have that date available so I can then send you over all my pricing and booking information.
If I don’t have the date available I will always send you referrals and contact information of other artists I know who I think will be available. This way you will not be left empty-handed at square one.
So what’s next?
Once I can verify that the date you want is open, I send you a general information sheet explaining my pricing for all services, products I use, a little about me, and how to secure your date by confirming and booking your trial appointment. Please read through this document. It has important information about what is included, late fees, holiday charges, lashes, and products I use so you are prepared moving forward. Once you have read through it to secure your booking I just need a confirmation of your wedding date and we book your bridal trial.
Bridal makeup trials are a requirement of all my brides. It gives us a chance to preview your look to make sure it’s exactly what you want and if you would like to make any changes. This is also where I have you sign the contract confirming the makeup start time, location, and how many people are getting makeup done. I love doing trial sessions because it’s a great opportunity for me to get to know you better. A few questions I typically ask; how did you meet your fiancé? How did he propose?
What your wedding colors are? What your dress looks like? Is your ceremony outside or inside? Did you pick a hairstyle yet? These questions help me get a feel for the makeup look you will be wanting.
I book out two hours for this session so we have plenty of time to talk and discuss the look and make sure it’s perfect. If you have a couple of different looks you are deciding between I usually suggest doing two eye looks, one on each eye. One always makes your eye pop more than the other and it’s different for everyone. So if you don’t know exactly what look you are wanting, this is a great way to figure it out.
I typically recommend booking this session 4-6 weeks before the wedding date. I do bridal trials during the week, I reserve weekends for weddings.
Great! We have done my trial! What’s next?
Once we have completed your trial, all that’s left is the wedding week! I usually check in with my brides around Wednesday or Thursday just to confirm everything and layout a general timeline. Then on the day of your wedding, I arrive at about 10-15 minutes before the start time to set everything up. Then we start the makeup process and get you ready for your big day
I hope this helps you get a clear understanding of the bridal makeup process. I tried to make it as easy as possible while also giving you thorough information and understanding.
Thank you for reading, and if you're a soon-to-be bride CONGRATULATIONS!
Xo,
Annie
photos by Ashley Carlascio and Kelly Kirklin
