Crazy bridal makeup prices!

Yikes. My MUA travelled to me, did an amazing job and charged £80 for the bride which included individual fake eyelashes. She charged £50 each for adult bridesmaids (no eyelashes) and no charge for the bridesmaids / flower girls under 16.

Reading this thread has made me realise I got a great deal!

My friend’s daughter is getting married next year and her make up rehearsal and for the day is £90 and £50 for mum and bridesmaid (each).
bargain!

silly people will pay silly prices

Wedding flowers can cost more than regular flowers. Here’s why…
generally for most events/ orders the clients will have a relatively open flower description I.e. pink roses. We can go to our supplier and pick the best offer we can find. There might be a dozen different pink roses to choose from. If they just said pink flowers- the choice would be even better.
when I’ve done weddings the shade of pink is usually very important. Brides will specify a variety of roses they want I.e. sweet Avalanche. There are fashions and colour trends each season and some flowers are in very high demand. If we have to get a specific variety will have to pay a premium price to ensure it. We brought off the Dutch auction houses and when a crate of flowers was brought in the clock would start running. As the clock ran down the price would decrease. The buyers could stop the clock and purchase the flowers. The first one to press their buzzer and stop the clock got to buy the goods. So if only those roses will do the buyer doesn’t hang around waiting for the price to drop. They buy them as soon as the clock opens to ensure they get them. It’s expensive.
also, if a bride wants a bouquet with 30 roses in and I can’t use up the others elsewhere ( possible if not shop based) she’s going to get charged for all 40. They come in wraps of 10 or 20.
also, the more experienced florist will be making up your wedding flowers. They command a higher rate, they have more experience.
Some bouquets are much more technical than others. A wired bouquet might take 3 hrs to make compared to 1 hour max for hand tied.
tldr: be as flexible in your flower selection as possible to make your flowers as cheap as possible.

Not sure about it being a recent thing…my mum
got her make up done professionally for her wedding in the late 70s, as did my aunts, and my grandmother got hers done professionally in the late 40s…

It’s always been a thing.

@Puzzledandpissedoff agree!! I had £80 minimum quoted for a tiny rose bouquet with some gypsophilia my mum is an ex florist and said she could put that together for less then a tenner! I got some identical faux ones in the end £16! And won't wilt and die the next day!

I don’t understand why people have someone else to do their makeup on their wedding day. It’s a new ‘thing’ I think which never seemed to happen till relatively recently.

How are they supposed to know you well enough to make you look like you? When I’ve seen people who’ve had make up done by someone else they look totally different and why would you want that on your wedding day? Isn’t the idea to look like yourself but better?

The only person I know who doesn’t look different wears very heavy make up every day anyway.

Yes I was thinking this, did the insurance not cover it? If so that's awful for you and I'm so sorry.

My own make up is fine for every day but I do not have the skill levels for top level makeup

I personally did my own make up but I did pay a hairstylist to do my hair and my five bridesmaids hair.

I found that as soon as you mention it’s for bridal, companies / stylists will hike their prices up.

Myself and bridesmaids all had our hair curled, mine took about 10 mins longer because she put it into a half up half down do but because I was the bride the cost was £100 more than the bridesmaids (I did justify this because I can’t really do my hair and I’m glad I had it done for my big day!)

I do think people have a right to change the correct amount for their work, make up can be extremely expensive. My foundation alone costs £40 and I imagine they’d have to have all shades plus all the other make up etc.

There are definitely people who will take advantage but I think each to their own if they are happy to pay for it

There was one supplier thread where a caterer claimed he sent his ‘A team’ for weddings, and ‘B teams’ for other events. Shouldn’t all his staff be equally capable?

Depending on what's required they may well be, but it's equally possible the A/B team is mere waffle to justify the prices
A friend learned this to her cost when paying a fortune for their "top catering manager", who turned out to be some kid who fancied himself an entrepreneur and was opening (then rapidly closing) venues all over town. Unfortunately the wedding venue was one he'd lost interest in, as the dismal result showed

Flowers are another one, especially nowadays when brides favour natural arrangements such as hand-ties, etc. Obviously premises and so on cost money, but the price difference for a simple bunch given as a gift and the same thing for a bride is obscene

It's because women fall for this. Do your own make up, don't wear make up? I did my own.

You don't have to have a TV licence. You can cancel at any time. Without a licence you cannot watch any live TV, or use BBC iPlayer. However you can watch other channels on catch up (C4, ITV, C5). So no need to pay for something if you're not using it!

I understand that wedding make up has to last so more/different products are needed, but I read one of those "Am I wrong?" articles today. A MUA had been contracted to do "party make up" for around £140.

She arrived, and did the woman's face.

As she was finishing (the "party make up") the MUA realised by the people arriving that it was a wedding.

She then demanded the bride pay not the £140, but £380 - as that is her "wedding rate".

She had already done the bride's make up, using whatever products she would use for "party make up", but she claimed she should be paid £240 more just because it was a wedding, and not for any other reason.

She was the person asking if she was wrong. She was told yes. People pay more for wedding make up because of the additional work and skill involved. She hadn't done wedding make up, she'd done party make up - in her mind it wasn't the products used, it was the word.

Did you have insurance?

We claimed the lost deposits on our wedding insurance after we had to completely change the date and location of our wedding due to Covid.

I also think the UK TV licence is a huge scam/rip off. Firstly, the money only goes to one broadcaster and secondly why should I pay for something I don't consume?

In answer to the question about normalised scams, I reckon paying minimum £2.76 for a cup of tea at Starbucks is right up there. It's a teabag and boiling water! Even if you factor in the 45 seconds of staff time (assuming they're on minimum wage) to make it, I feel like the markup must be pretty good.

Likewise pre-packed sandwiches especially if you have to buy them at the Services. I got caught up in horrendous traffic recently and pulled off to the Services to grab a sandwich - £4.30 for a bit of tuna and mayo on two slices of bread.

As others have said you’re paying for the skill and expertise. They also have a lot of makeup and brushes so their equipment will run into the thousands too. If people are willing to pay that amount I don’t blame them for charging as much as they possibly can. My MUA for my wedding day was essential - I looked absolutely amazing and it was so nice to have one less thing to worry about. She was expensive but worth every penny.

Whilst I'm sure it was frustrating to 'lose' your deposit, don't forget that these vendors lost their anticipated income during lockdown. For many it will have been their only source of income. They would much rather have done the promised work and got paid the full amount, than just have your deposit.

And that's what wedding insurance is for, after all. If you're paying out lots of deposits, make sure you have insurance to cover cancellation. You would then be able to claim your deposits back from insurance. Wedding vendors can't get insurance to claim for lost income when a client cancels or for unexpected events like lockdowns.

How does one train to be an Asian bridal makeup artist? Count me in!! 😂

What extra ‘planning and coordination’? It’s a buffet line. They just have to stand and serve the food, set up, tidy, same as any other event. And I don’t want any extra decoration or anything.

Not all weddings are buffets and many require sit down meals and lots of special dietary requirements.

Unless everyone gets food poisoning (which actually happened at a wedding I attended) I fail to see what requires extra charge to not screw up, different from a normal event.

You're right - in a rational world there's not much difference but if, for example, a server spills something down the brides dress, it's enough to kill a company dead.

Also entitled people will blast vendors on social media for ANYTHING. Even if the wedding went perfectly.

You're not wrong.

Like I said - why don’t they itemise what specifically costs extra.

I don't disagree that they should but ultimately some services cost more than others. If you don't want to pay the inflated costs you're free to go elsewhere 🤷🏻‍♀️

I paid £300 for someone to come at 7am and leave at 12. She did hair and make up for four of us. It felt excessive but she was brilliant, did a hugely better job than we could have done and it was very relaxing and enjoyable!

They haven't directly compared the skills but they are saying you're paying for the skills. Like if you pay a plumber and they fix a leak in 10 minutes, you don't pay just for those 10 minutes you're paying for the knowledge and expertise that has allowed it to be done in 10 minutes. PS. Being a makeup artist is a highly expert job.

Thank you I knew it must be more complicated than standard. It also needs trial runs etc usually.