How to find a reliable Wedding Hair & Makeup Artist in Scotland and the Red Flags to look out for
Searching for your Wedding Supplier
It’s such an exciting time when you have just got engaged or have just set a date, and when it’s time to start planning your wedding, it can be exciting but also overwhelming. As a retire Wedding Makeup Artist myself with over 10 years experience in weddings, I have talked to a lot of Brides about wedding planning, the good and the bad.
You may already have some suppliers in mind that you have followed for a long time or you may be at the very start of researching the best wedding suppliers out there. So how do you start, where do you start, how do you know who you can rely on?
Where to Look
If you already have someone in mind, there’s a good chance you are already following them (maybe even stalking their social media pages), you might have been recommended someone or even been to another wedding and liked a supplier you met there.
If you are unsure and just at the start of planning, or maybe you don’t live in Scotland or the area you are getting married in, then it requires a bit more research. Thankfully with google (and now AI) it’s quick and easy to put into a search engine where you are getting married and what you are looking for. The downside of this is maybe a lot of inaccurate information and outdated websites from people who may no longer be working in the industry but still have a presence online.
It can be tedious going through pages and pages of google, to only find out who you had your heart set on isnt’ available or doesn’t cover your area, so you are back to square one. This is when things like maybe Facebook Groups, AI and Wedding Directories can come in handy. One of the great advantages of the Scottish Wedding Hair & Makeup Directory is there is a large number of Professional Wedding Hair & Makeup artists listed in it, and you can also search by filling in the form with your details and I personally match the artists to you to save so much time.
The Red Flags
I dont want to come across negative or put a dampener on your wedding planning, but in all honesty, there are a lot of suppliers out there who are unreliable, unprofessional and sadly complete and utter fraudsters.
I am going to share some red flags to look out for and how to avoid booking someone for your Wedding Day who is unreliable and unprofessional.
For me personally, the first red flag is communication (or should I say lack of). Now I get it, wedding suppliers are busy, but this does not mean that they can’t at the very least acknowledge your email or enquiry. If you are reaching out to them for the first time and feel that you are waiting weeks for a simple response, I would take that as a sign to move on (there may be a personal reason for the lack of response but they would likely reach out and at least confirm this).
Lack of reviews anywhere. I know it can be hard to get reviews from Brides, often after the wedding things get busy for them and they don’t always think to leave a review, but with Google reviews and social media reviews, you are likely to get some. Pay attention to these reviews, do they all say the same thing, was the communication and whole experience great and no issues? If you dont see any reviews, I would definitely dig into it a bit more. Go to Facebook groups or forums, these can be great places to research in. I have seen quite a few recently and the same supplier was mentioned again and again and all bad reviews with words of warning about using them. This has no doubt saved a whole other of stress to some couples out there planning who were considering booking this supplier.
Don’t fall for a big following on Social Media. Recently the number of suppliers I have seen letting brides down, have actually had a big following on Instagram. In fact, if anything I think someone with a smaller followers list is actually a benefit. If someone has a large following, they may not be doing just brides hair or makeup for example, they may be looking to move away from the wedding side of it and maybe focus on that, so it could mean they are not as invested and could easily cancel on you. I am not for one minute saying that any wedding supper out there with a good follower count is going to let you down or is not a professional and invested in their business, just don’t fall back on the security that the person you have booked has for example 50k followers so they must be reliable and professional.
Unprofessionalism. This is a big one, if at any point in the process you are getting vibes or any hint of an unprofessional supplier, walk away. If they can’t show professionalism in the run up to the wedding day, they won’t show it on the day. I’m not talking about someone being able to have a laugh with you, or a bit of banter, but this must be mutual and respectful. The good thing is if you feel this early on in the process, it’s a good time to walk away and you won’t lose anything as you haven’t committed to them.
Be wary if they don’t have any kind of contract and rely on messages or phone calls. You must get some kind of contract to finalise all the details and exactly what services, numbers etc are booked in. You are leaving yourself wide open to last minute changes and cancellations, so make sure you have something in writing on the exact number and services etc you will get.
Ask if they have a back up in place or a plan to fall back on if anything happens. Sadly, we are all human and things happen in life, no one can predict what might happen, but if you know that there is a back up or people they can call on for support, this takes away this element of risk. Ask the question if you aren’t sure.
Final Thoughts
It might sound a bit over the top and you might think it will never happen to me and hopefully it won’t. But looking out for these red flags is a good place to start. If at any point you feel something is off, then walk away. Please do ensure before you pay any booking fees that you are 100% as often these are non refundable so if you suddenly get a vibe that they might let you down and you cancel, you are likely to lose your booking fee or deposit you paid so if you have already signed up then change your mind, make sure you do it ASAP.
One thing I can guarantee with the Scottish Wedding Hair & Makeup Directory, is that each and every one of the members listed on the website, are professional, working artists. I might not have personally met every one but I do know them through our community, and I trust these people 100%. I stopped letting just anyone join just to fill up the numbers and try to make the directory look bigger, or to take money off people who I truly didn’t believe were a fit for the Directory. So I can assure you that anyone listed on this website are trustworthy and reliable, we even have a community so that in the highly unlikely event a member couldn’t make a wedding, one of the other members would step up.
