Q: How do I talk to my mom, who never wears makeup, about her hair and makeup for the wedding? I would like for her to get hers done but she doesn’t think she needs it.
answers:
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VIDEO SUMMARY
Moms are just as much a VIP as the bride. What I will say to you is this your wedding is an amazing opportunity for you to get closer to your mom relationship, build with her, and have conversations about beauty. Up until probably the last ten to 15 years, hair and makeup was typically passed down from mother to daughter. That’s who we learned from. And if you weren’t shown own how to do your own hair and makeup, then typically it’s not something that you ever learned. Now, it’s a little different with Instagram and YouTube, but you have to remember that all the generations before us didn’t have access to it. So most likely, if your mom isn’t comfortable doing her own hair and makeup, it’s just that she’s never been taught to, and now she has years and years of not seeing herself in that light, and that’s okay. I would just invite you to approach her with compassion and love and again, use this as an opportunity to build a relationship. I think that that getting ready time in the morning is one of the most beautiful moments of your wedding, where you can have that girl time, because once the wedding starts, you’re focused on your groom and your guests and all the festivities that go along with it. But that getting ready time is such an intimate space. So I would talk to your mom about wanting to share an experience with her. Make it about the relationship, make it about the memories and the experience you want to share with her. And that will help to take a little bit of the stress off of it being about what she looks like, or it being about the hair and makeup services specifically. Let her know this is an opportunity for her to be pampered and her to be included, and it’s just something you want to share with her. A last thought I will leave you with. We have had the honor of doing makeup for so many moms and grandmas and aunties. I’m getting emotional even thinking about it. But when these people move on, when they’re no longer with us and we’re pulling pictures to memorialize our time with them here on this earth, oftentimes we look to those wedding photos. And it means so much when I have my brides reach out and share to me that they’re so thankful that their mom got the makeup services and they’ve never seen them look so beautiful, and they have that photo for the rest of their lives. So I just leave you with that. It’s a really special time. It’s tender moments in the mornings before your big day, and it truly is an experience that will last a lifetime.
VIDEO SUMMARY
Hey, I get it. I’ve been a makeup artist for twelve years. We’ve all got opinions about how we want to look, especially for event days, right? Mom’s allowed to feel how she feels. You’re allowed to feel how you feel. What I can tell you though is and what you might want to bring up with mom is she might change your mind on the day of. And if your artist is booked out for another event after you, or just you don’t have enough time in the timeline. If you don’t have a second artist booked, she may not be able to have it. If she decides last minute on the day of, which happens a lot, it might not be available to her. So your best bet is probably to book the appointment on the off chance that she will want it. She may still not want to. And then a secondary thought might be bring her and let her have a trial appointment or a preview appointment when you do yours. That’ll kind of let her see what she’s getting herself into. My guess is she will love it. They always do. And then she probably also will be convinced that she wants makeup for your wedding day.
2 comments
I have been asked this so many times... does the wedding industry inflate prices when they hear it's a wedding?
Here is my honest answer (as a former wedding photographer)... NO. Did I charge more for a wedding than a 50th birthday party or a family portrait session? Yes, absolutely. I charged A LOT more for a wedding.
Was I taking advantage of the emotional sell? Absolutely not.
The main reasons I charged more for a wedding were: the unseen amount of work involved in the 12+ months leading up to the wedding, the skill level needed on the day, the INTENSE pressure to create perfect "portfolio level work" no matter what the reality of the situation- but mostly it is to compensate for the time AFTER the wedding in post production.
Little known fact about wedding photography - the real job is sitting at a computer editing photos. Photographers spend many hours behind the computer carefully selecting and editing photos. They make adjustments, crop, and adjust colors to ensure each image it's best. Don't forget the time it takes for batching, renaming, importing, exporting and uploading the photos and preparing them for delivery.
Do you think this justifies why photographers charge more for weddings than for other types of shoots?
Couldn’t agree more! And on the videography side its an absolute ton of data + editing discipline.
Its a double sided coin- weddings are extremely high pressure but also high reward when we nail it.
Our products (photo video) in particular are the only thing that genuinely will last forever . Having fun and ALSO nailing the product is worth the price of entry and frankly more.