Choosing Your Make-Up Artist

Photo by Bailey Pianalto Photography
MUA-Alexa Armstrong

When you are planning your wedding and trying to determine where your money is best spent, it is often easy to skip a professional make-up artist and try to save some pennies by doing your own make-up.  Of course a make-up artist will tell you this is a mistake, but you know who else will?  Your photographer!

Mike and I on the best day of our lives.
I love this photo.  I look so young and skinny.

From a photographer's standpoint, it is all about a whole day approach; those before shots of getting ready.  "I want to showcase that the bride was pampered during her big day.  It is all about the progression from beginning to end."-Kara Shelley from Life Expressions Photography.

No other day will have so many hours set aside for just photos.  Your wedding photos are the best investment that you can make towards remembering the day that you said I Do.  You want those photos to be stunning and to be able to remember 20 years later how truly beautiful you looked and felt that day.

But nowadays, YouTube has made everyone a make-up artist in their own right.  Videos of contouring, glamour make-up, and smoky eyes fill up the Trending boards.  So why should you hire an MUA for your wedding when you can do your own?

Photo-Life Expressions
Make-Up- Alexa Armstrong
Venue-Mallinson Vineyard and Hall

For one, most MUA do more than just make-up.  My friend and go-to MUA, Alexa Armstrong, is one of many artists who do more than special event make-up, including spray tans, hair, nails, and waxing.  When you hire an artist, you can often get packages that you might pay more for when you go to different people for them.  Even if your artist won't have time to perform all of your beauty regimen the day of, they can create a Week Of package for you or bring in others that they work with to help out.  Your MUA is going to be your best referral for other services as well, since they work so closely with vendors in the industry.


Your wedding day is not a day to experiment on a new look, and yet you do not want to look the same on your wedding day as you did on your engagement day.  An MUA can give you that fresh look, paying special attention to your eyes or creating larger lips, without the fear of overdoing your make-up and looking like someone completely different.  Your make-up artist can make you look like you, just a more defined and beautiful you.

Photo-E-Golden Moments Photography
Make-Up-Alexa.MUA

Finally, your home make-up is not made to stand up to tears, humidity, heat, wind, or Great Grandma's kisses.  Your MUA brings with them specialized kits for all skin types that will stay throughout your day of hugs and photos.  Alexa Armstrong has a line of make-up that is naturally derived and will not cause skin irritations which is extremely important on a day when you can expect to wear it for 10-12 hours.

Photo-Life Expressions Photography
Venue-Mallinson Vineyard and Hall

There are plenty of places to cut corners, and if you know that your make-up skills are on par with the videos you have been glued to for the last 12 months, then play around with your look for months before the wedding.  If you do want an MUA, call my friend Alexa.  You can find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/alexa17mua/ 

Your Wedding Vendors

Photo by Bailey Pianalto Photography
Flowers by A&L Floral Design
Venue Castle Bridge Event Center

 One of the most valuable aspects of hiring an event planner is the vendors that they bring with them.  These are vendors that the planner has worked with professionally on more than one occasion and trusts enough to say, "I think you would do well to use this person".  It behooves the event planner to well and truly vet those vendors, because their name is also on the line.

However, the first question you should ask when you are choosing your event planner is, "Do you receive a commission from your vendors?"  Many event

Photo by Bailey Pianalto Photography,
Stationary by The Prettiest Pixels

planners get a commission or a "kickback" from the vendors that they refer.  It may also be called a "referral fee".  Personally, I find this rather suspect in my line of business.  I know many planners that do accept and expect fees of this nature, however, I would not trust those referrals.

The most important referral that I ever get is the one that comes from someone I have worked for or with.  If I am referred to a client by someone that already trusts me and has worked with me, then I am already that much more reliable to my client.  But if I am only being referred because I am giving someone a 10% kickback, then I have no value outside of the money exchanged.  The same is true for anyone that I refer.  

The relationship between client and vendor is sacred.  I do have preferred vendors that I have worked with and have relationship with.  They do not pay me for that relationship, nor am I under obligations to use them.  If I refer them, it is because I value them and the job that they do.

Photo by e-Golden Moments Photography

Sometimes vendors will offer a discount.  If a vendor has offered to give me a discounted rate on their services for clients that I refer to them, then that discount is passed on to my clients.  This is a very big distinction.  Some planners hide these discounts from their clients and pocket the difference.  If your planner pays the vendors directly, it may be because they are charging you a different fee than the vendor is charging them.  Ask your planner if you sign all contracts and pay vendors directly.  It may seem simpler to allow the planner to sign the contracts and handle all the payments, but it does not assure you that you are getting what you paid for.

That being said, this begins my first blog in a series that I am calling Vendor Relationships.  I will share with you some of the vendors that I have worked with in the Greater Kansas City area and what clients need to know before searching out vendors.  Stay tuned.  I will publish a new article each Thursday, God willing and the creek don't rise 😎