Hey babes! Hope you’re doing just fine! This week I wanted to share some valuable information with you regarding timing and timelines on your wedding day! I know, I know it’s not a very “fun” subject to go over. However, I do receive MANY questions regarding the timing of how beauty services are executed by the majority of my bridal clients, so I’m taking time to share that information with ALL of you, whether you want it or not. You’re welcome!

In a perfect world, all brides would get to sleep in on wedding day, then have breakfast and relax, until beginning hair and makeup services. However this is not the case for most brides/bridal parties. There are many wedding day appointments that begin well before the sun is up, especially if bride’s are getting ready for a morning/early afternoon ceremony. Although, if the ceremony is set for an evening start time of 4/5pm, an average start time for glam is usually around 8-9am; ending by 1/2pm. ( of course, this is all dependent upon start time of the ceremony; first looks; photos; number of hair and makeup services; and number of HMUA artists. I know that’s a lot to take into consideration, but don’t worry, we do all the thinking and calculating for you!

Check out the answers below to some of the questions I get asked most regarding wedding day timing!

How long does it take to complete each beauty service?

Majority of services take about 30-45 minutes of time to complete. However there are outliers here. Some services can take up to an hour or more. More often than not, clients will say “Can we add an additional hair service, it’ll just take 2 seconds because they only want curls!”No, no it won’t. We are in the business of creating quality, lasting hairstyles or makeup applications. So if I spent only 2 seconds on your hair or makeup, you would know, and you would NOT be thrilled with the results or the fact that you paid the prices you paid for the service. Please be respectful of our craft and understand that quality takes time, babe!

What is an average amount of time it takes to glam an entire bridal party?

An average amount of glam time needed is about 5-6 hours. Within this timeframe, a single artist can complete approximately 6-8 services; 2 artists can complete 12-16 services; and 3 artists can complete 18-24 services. Trust me, these hours are going to FLY by. It’s going to feel like 2 for you.

How many artists would be available for my bridal party?

This answer may vary for most bridal hair and makeup teams, but for Beauty Brigade, we base the number of artists on the number of services booked. Here’s our rule of thumb we typically follow:

2-8 services: 1 artist

9-17 services: 2 artists

18+ services: 3 artists

In some cases, the bridal party is constricted to a very limited timeline, so an additional artist would be added to meet the timing requirements. Beauty Brigade does assess an additional artist fee in these situations. The reason why this fee is added is to accommodate for the artist(s) time and efforts, since the minimum number of services per artist has not been met.

How does everything work if we can’t access the venue until later?

This actually effects about 98% of my bridal clients. Many venues don’t allow access until a few hours before(typically 2-3 hours) before ceremony start time. I can tell you right now, we cannot accommodate 15 beauty services with 2 artists in 3 hours. It is simply not feasible if you want quality work! This is why I always suggest beginning work offsite at a nearby home, hotel, or AirBNB. Here is an example of how this would work:

If a bridal party with 6 services has access to the venue at 11am and needs to be ready for photos by 1pm; this amount of services would require 4 hours of working time and 1-1.5 hours of set up/breakdown/touch up time, for a total of 5-5.5 hours. Clearly with the 2 hour venue restriction we would need to begin much earlier.  The BB artist(s) would arrive at a nearby location(home, airBNB, hotel) to complete the majority of the services, in this case 4 services would be completed before the artist packed up their kit and drove over to the venue. Once at the venue they will need to unpack their kit once again and finish the last 2 services; perform any touch ups needed; pack up the kit and head out for the day.

The BB team does assess a venue change fee when this option is selected. This is added because we need to account for the time it takes for us to pack and unpack our kits multiple times; plus the additional mileage and drive time. If you are a bride that absolutely does not want to change locations on wedding day, that is fine too, just know that additional artist and travel fees would be assessed and added to the final bill, and these fees could far exceed the cost of venue change fees.

I hope these questions helped you understand how timing for wedding beauty services is super important! The BB team will build the perfect timeline, catered to your requests and needs. Our team will have you and your squad looking and feeling Fab, while also being on time for your first look; photos; and all other aspects of wedding day!