My wedding was last week and I originally booked Lisa for my bridal hair. She ended up canceling a few days before my wedding for a family emergency, and sent Heather over to do my hair instead. I have to be really honest .. I thought both Lisa and Heather do fantastic with hair ... I was incredibly pleased with the hair that Heather did for my wedding, and she showed up on time and I was fortunate that she was available on short notice for my wedding. HOWEVER, there was a communication issue that really affected my wedding:
I specifically asked both Lisa and Heather how long my hairstyle would take. They both told me "about an hour." I thought that was awfully short for a wedding hairstyle, but stupid me, I trusted the hair pros! and mentally allotted an hour and a half to hair on my wedding day because I had a million other things to think about. I also let both hair stylists know that I would be doing my own make up after my hair (Yikes! Why did I do elect to do my own make up on my wedding day? Talk about more stress) and needed ample time to dress, and that I wanted to be done with hair by a certain time, which I specified.
I got to the venue a few min late but thought, No sweat, we still have plenty of time for hair because I allotted an hour and half to that. But as Heather worked on my hair, and the clock kept ticking upwards of two and half hours (plus some minor interruptions in between), I started to panic. Ceremony was supposed to start at 4 and it was about 3:15 by the time I was paying Heather and sending her on her way. I was still in shorts and bare-faced. My guests were arriving and the photographers were already there. Ugh!! Heather seemed kind of unaware that I had fifteen minutes to do make up, fifteen minutes to dress, etc before walking down the aisle on one of the biggest days of my life. It was utterly impossible to get ready that fast, and I am kicking myself for not clarifying adequate time with Heather prior to my wedding. I was completely rushed, ceremony was an hour late, and I walked down feeling frazzled, irritated, and not put together at all - not at all how I wanted to be feeling when I got married. I just really wish when they said, "an hour," I had at least doubled or tripled that so that I would have had time to calmly prepare for my wedding, instead of breaking out in hives because ceremony was supposed to start in 45 min and I was still in my shorts and didn't have a lick of make up on. I really, really, really wish the hairstylists at Blush Salon would have been realistic from the get-go and said, "Look, we're going to have to start at such-and-such time if you want to be done by 2 pm. We are aware that you still need to do make up and dress, and that takes more than 15 minutes, especially on your wedding day! So we suggest meeting at ______." As a bride, I don't want to be stressing about hair and timing issues on one of the most important days of my life. I would have been happy to meet with Heather much earlier in the day had I known it was going to take 2 1/2 hours, but I think there was a lack of awareness and communication to prevent that, and I am cringing looking back at my wedding, thinking "If only ...." If only I had thought to double or triple my time for hair, instead of taking their word for it that it would be around an hour, it would have lessened my stress considerably, ceremony would not have started an hour late, and I would not have lost an hour of daylight for photography or an hour better spent with my family and friends who were sitting there waiting for me to hurry up. read more