“The big day”, “Day-W”, “My wedding day”, however you want to call it, it will be one of the most important days in your life. It’ll be your next big adventure, your new chapter and your new beginning. This is why, as the bride and the center of attention on the coming special day, you have to look good. Scratch that!

You have to look your best with your wedding dress and one way for you to do this is by choosing the best bridal makeup artist. It has to be a major to-do on your bridal checklist.

Because choosing the best bridal makeup artist is as important as everything else you have to do, we know that it is added pressure so have we figured that we’d give you two scenarios.

So is there an Easy and Stress Free Way to Choose your Makeup Artist for your Wedding Day ?

Choose the scenario that best represents your current availability:

Easy, Breezy Bride to Be

Wow, you have enough time in your hands. You probably have a wedding planner or you probably have a group of people helping you plan your wedding! Great! Since you’re mostly free to do this task by yourself, here’s what you should remember when choosing a professional bridal makeup artist:

• You have to get along well with the makeup artist.
• You have to be familiar with the bridal makeup artist’s past work.
• You have to research others’ reviews on the artist’s work.
• The artist has to understand the preferences you have with your makeup.
• The artist’s rate has to be within your budget.

With all of these 5 in mind, you can start following these 5 steps:

1. Identify how much your budget is. Hiring a professional makeup artist for your wedding day may be costly but remember that you still have options. First thing, though, is you have to know how much you’re willing to pay for the makeup services.
2. Research different bridal makeup artists in your area. Make a list of bridal makeup artists in your area who are within your budget. List about 3-5 that you can choose from. If you don’t find an artist who’s within your budget, you have to decide if you want to compromise. Remember that this is a sort of an investment on your part.
3. Call the makeup artists, visit their websites and research reviews on them. Get as much information as you can on what the artist is like, how he/she works and if you’re getting your money’s worth with the services offered. Filter your list according to your preferences.
4. Schedule a trial. A trial makeup is like a preview of what you’re going to look like on your wedding day. Once you’ve zeroed in on who you want to do your makeup, schedule a trial makeup run.
5. Book with a contract. When you’re happy with the artist’s work, book them right away as they may have other engagements to consider. On top of booking them, you have to make them sign an agreement contract so both parties, this means you and the bridal makeup artist, understand what needs to be done. You can draw your own guidelines on the contract and you can review it with the artist so both of you agree on the terms.

Busy, Lively Bride to Be

Ok. If you’re on this scenario you’re probably DIY-ing your own wedding and you, for sure, have a mountain of tasks to do. The best thing to do is designate searching for the best bridal makeup artist to your maid of honor. Here are a few things that you need to be clear about:

• Since your maid of honor knows your personality, make sure that she knows what you’d like in a makeup artist – funny, light, accommodating and so on.
• Tell your maid of honor what your budget is on hiring a makeup artist for your wedding so she knows the price range your comfortable with.
• Make her compile links to the artists’ portfolio in a list.
• Allow her to organize this list from the lowest priced to the highest priced artist.

You and your maid of honor have to be on the same page. You’re best friends so it’s most likely that you are, meaning that you don’t have to put in effort to explain things deeper. Once you’ve taken into account the 4 items above. You can move on to these:

1. Check her list and do your research. You can do extra research on things that you need further clarification in. Once you’re done, eliminate choices on your list.
2. Let your maid of honor do the scheduling for the trial. By this time, you should already have your top choice. Let your bff call the makeup artist to schedule a trial makeup run. She should let you know when the artist is available and she should be in charge of allowing the schedules to meet.
3. Let your maid of honor draft up a contract. It’s highly likely that you’re going to be doing this with her but you can also hand her notes to organize. The contract should clearly state what needs to be done on what day. Approve the contract and get it ready when you book the professional bridal makeup artist.
4. Book right away. Now that you have your contract ready, book the makeup artist of your choice and wait for your big day to come.

The Bride Should be awesome

This guide should make choosing a makeup artist on your wedding day easy and stress free. Remember that you need to be awesome on your special day so: do this to-do as early as you can and communicate what you want clearly.