Ask The Experts – The True Cost of a Wedding Make-Up Artist by Tori Harris Make-Up

Late last year I put up a post about the true cost of a wedding DJ, the post was about the preconception that all wedding suppliers put their prices up as soon a someone uses the word wedding! I know wedding suppliers get tarnished with this a lot, so here on the blog I am trying to displace this myth and explain to all you lovely brides and grooms why wedding suppliers charge what they charge.

Having covered the area of the wedding DJ, today we are looking at the role of the make-up artist, with make-up artist by Tori Harris Make-Up. I hope you find it useful. I’d love to hear your views on the subject at the end of the post.

I’ll pass you over to Tori…….

When you are booking a make-up artist for your wedding day its easy for most grooms to believe that you are just booking someone to apply some cosmetics to make you look pretty – but there is so much more to it then that!  Weddings are expensive, and a make-up artist adds to that expense.   To save money you may be tempted to do without an artist and do your face and hair yourself  – after all, isn’t that what you do every morning?  But your wedding morning isn’t like any other morning – for a start you’ll want to look your absolute best as all the attention will be focussed on you.  You’ll be nervous and feel under time pressure too.   Booking a make-up artist may not be cheap but it is good value, as you’ll get a lot more for your money then you may think.

The cost of a make-up artist varies depending on their experience, the size of the wedding party to be made up to some extent the location as travel expenses are normally paid.  A good make-up artist will keep up to date with trends, pay for and attend training updates and spend time tracking down and experimenting with new products and colours.  Generally speaking you get what you pay for – when you book an artist with say three to ten years or so experience you not only pay for their service on the day but also everything they have learnt during their career. This shows in the attention to detail in their make-up kit and the products they have tried and tested to ensure they will stand up to the demands of a long wedding day. Their experience of weddings – from knowing how the morning will run to how long be needed to have everyone ready on time takes some responsibility off you, relieves the pressure and leaves you to enjoy your pre wedding morning.

Prior to the day you’ll have a trial with your artist who will sit down and work out with you what look to go for.  When you are trying something new or slightly different – hair and make-up – its great to have a professional there to guide you in the right direction with regard to what suits you, how to make the best of your natural features and what will compliment the rest of the look.  An additional bonus is that make-up artists are used to working with photographers and will advise you on little changes to make to ensure your look is photograph ready and will look perfect in your wedding pictures which you will enjoy for years to come.

Make-up artists are self-employed or owners of small limited companies with a business to run.  Weddings are fun and people in the business are passionate about getting them right – from the trial to the day itself, but there is a lot of hard work to do behind the scenes. As with every small business the make-up artist is responsible for her own costs: tax returns, accountants, professional website and marketing.  Of course a big expense for the make-up artist is the building up and maintaining of the make-up kit itself and the continual restocking of quality products, brushes and hair equipment.  A good artist will use only the best quality products – and will carry a wide range of products to choose from.  Indirectly these costs have to be earned – mostly in the summer months – to cover the whole year.

The hours can be long and weekends are busy for the make-up artist – especially in the summer months.  A love for the job, an interest in each individual bride and the sense of pride in being a trusted and reliable professional who shares an intimate part of your very special day make it all worthwhile.  Hopefully now you have a better insight into the real worth of your make-up artist!

If you would like to book a make-up trial with Tori Harris please visit

www.toriharrismakeup.co.uk
www.toriharrismakeup.tumblr.com
FACEBOOK
@ToriHarrisMUA 

• Photo credits: Tony Pick Photography, Jade Sayers Photography, Caroline Hancox Photography, David Modern Vintage Weddings, Gary Nunn Photography