How to Get Bridal Make-up Clients

When I was planning my destination wedding, there were so many little things I had to focus on. I was thinking about where to stay, where to have the reception, where to have the rehearsal dinner, who was going to do my hair. And the big one, who was going to do my makeup. While finding the dress is a huge deal, having perfect makeup might be the hugest deal. To find the perfect makeup artist, I had to do some research.

First, I wrote down all of the nonnegotiables. One of the biggest ones was that I wouldn’t book anyone who didn’t have a lookbook. Without samples of their work, I couldn’t make a good decision on whether to hire them. The second biggest nonnegotiable concerned the types of products they used. The best artists were able to indicate what types of products they used, and how long they’d used them. Finally, the artist had to be willing to travel. If they demanded that I show up to their shop for my service, they weren’t allowed on my list.

As a salon business owner, you want to broaden your client pool. One way to expand your services is to provide bridal makeup. Brides are notoriously picky, demanding, and purveyors of perfection. If you feel that you’re ready to deal with this specific clientele you’ll need to do the following:

Go to Bridal Trade Shows in Your Area
Use Social Media to Show Your Work
Be Willing to Travel
Use Quality Products

If you do these things you’ll be able to land bridal makeup clients. Below, I’ll go through the details you’ll need to be successful. Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Go to Bridal Trade Shows in Your Area

Bridal trade shows are an excellent place to go if you want to get bridal makeup clients. The shows host a variety of venders specializing in weddings. There are representatives there selling bridal gowns, advertising potential wedding venues, and offering food samples. As brides peruse the aisles looking for free stuff, they learn about different services available in their areas. If your salon attends these shows, you can advertise that you represent a salon offering bridal makeup. The best way to win over the potential clients is to provide them with a free makeover.

The free makeover should be a sample of what your full bridal makeup package would offer. You’ll need to write down the products you’ve used and describe why you’ve used them. You’ll need to discuss their vision for how they want to look at their wedding. You’ll use that vision to make sure you’re on track. After you’ve finished, you’ll ask the client if they’ll allow you to take their picture for your social media. To learn about why you should do this, keep reading. If you do enough makeovers you’ll have walking advertisements throughout the show.

Bridal shows serve as a place to advertise, to pad your lookbook, and to meet others operating in the industry. From your work at the shows you are likely to get referrals from those you speak to directly. But also, from those who come into contact with others in the bridal industry. As long as you network and make a good impression.

Use Social Media to Show Your Work

As I shared above, I wouldn’t book a makeup artist without seeing their lookbook. Social media is the absolute best way to display your looks. Interested parties will be able to scroll through your work to see if they’d like to hire you. They’ll be able to possibly make a decision on what type of look they’re interested in. They’ll also be able to reference a specific look to help you better understand their vision.

To start your social media lookbook use the work you did on clients at the bridal shows. This will give you a foundation. This will let potential clients know that you work specifically in the area of bridal makeup. In addition, you should include work you do at your shop. You can use work you completed for other events and work you’ve done to practice your bridal makeup skills. Using social media will be a great way to advertise your skills and to interact with a wide variety of potential clients. One thing I recommend is curating your page. Don’t overload it. Do you best to identify the best representations of your work.

Be Willing to Travel

If you want to get a lot of bridal makeup clients you’ll need to travel. How far you travel is up to you. It will depend on where you’re located. Are you in a busy city? A suburb? A rural area? If you are located in close proximity to wedding venues that will make your mileage lower. Brides generally want their makeup done as close to the ceremony as possible. Because of this, you’ll need to be willing to drive to those venues.

As a makeup artist that is willing to travel, you will expand your clientele. You will be able to work with brides throughout a predetermined area. You’ll need to share this information on your social media and on all of your advertisements. Be sure to highlight this during your time at bridal shows as well. Because you’ll be travelling, you’ll need to make sure you have excellent preparation. That would mean having access to a bag big enough to carry all of your supplies. It will mean figuring out the system you’ll use from sanitizing your tools. It’ll also mean ensuring that you have an assistant if you need to do makeup for an entire bridal party. Since you will be travelling, you should also make sure you have a standard rate for travel. You could include a base fee and then a per mile fee if you think that is appropriate. Finally, I’d say you should be cognizant of the chaos that goes on before a wedding. You’ll need to make sure you are flexible.

Learn how to brand yourself as a make-up artist!

Use Quality Products

To secure a large number of bridal clients you’ll nee to invest in quality products. Quality products in this case are those that use longlasting clean ingredients. Ideally, the bride will be wearing the makeup you put on her for the entire night. It will likely be a long night. A night of dancing, eating, and picture taking. Because the makeup will have to last so long, you’ll need to make sure you use products that are up to the task. In addition, you want to be known for your level of quality. If you use excellent products you’ll likely get repeat customers. Those customers might come to you for hair or for makeup in the future. Especially if the pictures came out well and they received tons of complements. One tip I’d offer is to make sure you write down the products you use for the bride. You never know, she might have someone run out and pick up the lip color you used for a refresh during the night.

As a hair salon owner, it is a good idea to figure out ways to expand your clientele. Working with brides is a great way to enter a new market. You’ll be able to network with others in the industry and you’ll likely get repeat customers for your standard services. With these tips, getting started should be easy.