Last year I liaised with a number of other wedding experts and together we wrote a fantastic ebook, full of essential hints and tips to help you organise your wedding with the minimum of fuss. It’s called Secrets from the experts: how to remember your wedding for all the right reasons and avoid a whole world of work, stress and tears! It’ll be available to download from this very site soon, so keep your eyes peeled!
Sam at SJB Hair & Makeup kindly offered her thoughts regarding choosing a hair and makeup artist, and here’s what she had to say:
1) What are your top 3 tips for anyone choosing a hair and makeup artist?
i. Do your research
Unless you’re of the lucky few and you’re 100% sure about what kind of hair and make-up you want for your big day, you need to do some research. Start by
researching online at websites like Pinterest and in wedding magazines to gather ideas of the look you hope to achieve for your wedding day. Once you have an fair idea then you can start to look for your hairstylist and makeup artist in your local area.
Most professional artists use social media platforms to showcase their work like
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter…start following those artists you like, look at their galleries on their websites. Focus on their “real life brides”…models are models for a reason, and are easy to make look good. The best way to judge someone’s work and get a feel for their style is to look at their work on real brides, so you can see the actual hairstyles they have created to last all day – not just for a photo shoot – and make-up that makes us “normal” folk look amazing. Ask yourself – do you like their work? Do the pictures show a variety of styles? and don’t forget to check out their testimonials.
ii. Choose whose work you love and someone you click with
It’s super important that you “connect” and feel at ease with your chosen artist as you are placing a lot of trust in this person on the day. Your chosen hair and makeup artist will be spending most of the morning with you on your big day so it’s important you get on with them. It’s more than likely you’re going to feel nervous, anxious, excited so you need to feel relaxed and at ease with the person you choose. Call them before you book anything to have a chat; are they friendly, do they make a good impression on the phone, are they willing to give you their time and come across as flexible and open, and do they listen to your ideas about hair and makeup?
iii. When you find the right one, book them!
Book early…remember like all your suppliers there is only one of them! If you like them and find you have a connection to them and their work get them booked in and your wedding date saved in their diary.
2) What’s the biggest mistake people make when choosing their hair and makeup artist?
Not doing their research to see if the artists is the right fit and offers the right service to you the client….that includes style as well as cost.
3) What’s the best or most unique thing about your service?
At SJB hair and makeup, I like to offer a full and comprehensive service to all my clients, and I am extremely passionate about what I do. For me it’s about creating a hair and makeup style that works for each individual, so I consider the clients wedding dress, personal style, venue, personality as a whole to ensure the hair and makeup we go for works for every aspect of them and wedding their day. I develop a strong bond with my clients, and for that moment in time we become friends – I never forget that for most my clients its their first experience of a wedding day,and its important I make their experience a positive one. Recent feedback from a bride wrote, “when we met you said you look after your brides and you do 100%!”
This is, and always will be, my aim for every bride I work with.
You can see more of Sam’s amazing work over on her website – check it out and tell her I said hi!
