Unexpected Wedding Day Fees You Might Not See Coming
Can you believe the average cost of a wedding is $28k? This is the US average and each year the overall average increases. Some areas of the US have higher state averages based on tax and the overall cost of living. The top 5: New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York. Massachusetts, Connecticut, & DC. It makes complete sense to plan a destination wedding in the south or western states!
When shopping for wedding hair and makeup you’ll find out quickly it can be quite an overload of information. All beauty vendors will do things differently when it comes to pricing, upfront fees, and even the unexpected fees. Some pro’s will leave unexpected fees as just that, unexpected. We’re here to help get you prepared for any surprise charges to stay in budget and avoid sticker shock. Below you’ll find standard wedding hair and makeup fees for established bridal companies, however, you might not see these coming!
Hotel Parking: many hotels charge a parking fee for guests to park on their property, and if you’re getting married at one of these properties, your vendors & guests will have to pay for these fees. Parking fees can be expensive when traveling to a metropolitan area like Atlanta, Charleston, or Charlotte. Before you book the “getting ready location” double check the parking situation at the venue, hotel, or stand alone bridal suite. If you’re staying at a hotel with a large block of rooms sometimes the hotel will validate parking for vendors on wedding day. If not, expect to spend $30-$40 per person to park.
“Can stylists ride together?” Unfortunately, this is not a feasible option. Stylists live in different areas around the city and each artist would travel independently so they can head home to their families after work.
Venue Fees: this does not pertain to Beauty Asylum Hair & Makeup, but it is useful information for clients to know, because it can effect the getting ready process. On wedding day, most venues have a set time they will allow you to arrive on-site. You might envision everyone getting hair and makeup ready (together) at the venue, and as the date gets closer you’re caught off guard by the time restrictions at your venue. Popular + busy venues typically allow for a 9-10am arrival (including vendors) and this can significantly shorten the hair and makeup process, especially if everyone needs to be hair and makeup ready earlier in the day for pictures. Most venues offer the option to open earlier in the morning for a set fee. At Beauty Asylum, we offer the option to start at one location (ie hotel) and then travel to the venue to finish hair and makeup. (To ensure you get those getting ready shots with the photographer you’ve envisioned). This option typically will run into an earlier start time due to adding extra time into the schedule to pack/unpack and then travel to the next location . A relocation fee (per stylist) will take place with this option, and potentially an early morning fee if there is a start time before 8am. (see below)
Early Morning Fee Each company will vary on what is considered an early morning. At BA, the early morning fee would apply to stylists that have to arrive on-site before 8am; the $50 fee is charged by the hour, per stylist, for each hour prior to 8am arrival. The earliest or team will arrive for a wedding is 6am.
The fee is per stylist- this means if we have 3 stylists traveling on-site at 7am (before 8am) the total cost would be $150. If our stylist(s) have to arrival at 6am, the fee would double. Why? The standard start time for a wedding is 8am, but we understand winter months have less sunlight, and this means an earlier ready time for pictures. While we discourage early mornings, and prefer not to book weddings that require this kind of accommodation, we have put this fee in place to accommodate our stylists for the early morning request. If a stylist needs to be on-site by 8am with local travel, we would require them to leave by 7:00- 7:15am to set up by 7:45. Which really means our stylist would get up at 6-6:15am to get ready. Switch to a 7am call time and this would push for an even earlier departure. Most often this detail gets overlooked and BA does account for early morning inconvenience with these fees.
Relocation Fee- not uncommon and they exist for several services outside of the wedding industry. To narrow down the specifics- if vendors incur extra time to move to a different location and unpack/pack and unpack again, this is what we call an inconvenience fee for our time. If a stylist is relocating to a destination there may be an additional cost based on the distance for travel. Relocation fees are an addition to the cost of service.
Travel Fee the travel fee is not to be confused with lodging. The travel fee covers the cost of transportation for vendors that travel outside of their city limits. Some companies like to charge per mile while we like to charge for the amount of time we spend in the car there and back. Essentially, we love what we do, but we want to get back to our loved ones! You can find our travel breakdown and rates, HERE
Processing Fees are a necessary part of the business. When we say processing fees, we mean fees that cover the cost associated with completing your payment order. The processing fee will vary based on the provider from each company, and the provider they use. We use Square to process credit cards and their fee is 4%. As an alternative we also accept Venmo with 1.9%. Free options include Zelle and check.
Gratuity people who work your wedding deserved to be tipped. The makeup artist and hair stylist that get you camera ready, photographers, videographers all should receive gratuity. Often times our ladies would not receive gratuity and for this purpose we include automatic gratuity of 18% in all our invoices and services. The standard tipping amount is 15-25%.
Weddings are expensive, and there are many unexpected costs that can add up. If you want to avoid going over-budget, make sure you know all about extra charges before locking in the contract but also know the changes in the wedding day schedule/logistics can put some fees in place.
