I’ve been in thousands of locations getting Talent and Brides ready for camera, rarely are they ever sufficient, big enough or well lit for Stylists. Often are they overcrowded, without enough power, and with no room to work on or around.

In order for your venue to be well liked by stylists, clients & photographers, AND for your Brides to love the space their in, you have got to set it up for success. Here is a guide on how to set up your venues getting ready space for stylists. This will help ensure you have enough work space, light, airflow, and room for everyone to move comfortably.

If you are in the Albany Capital District are would like a FREE design consultation I or one of my colleges will literally volunteer to come there and tell you what you’re doing wrong and how you can make your space better.

This pic above is cute at first glance, but these stations are packed way too close.

CHOOSING YOUR SPACE

SIZE

Make sure you have enough space. PERIOD. You do not want your beauty room crowded. This is a huge liability for you. When it’s crowded, people make compromised decisions because they’re frazzled. They’re more prone to dropping things, burning things, breaking things, tripping, falling, should I go on? Not to mention they are terrible for the pictures your clients will be posting on social media every weekend! This is free advertising, treat it like it’s advertising.

WALLS & COLOUR THEMES

All your walls should be light, bright and neutral color so it doesn’t reflect color or absorb too much light. They should be light grey, white, greige, etc. to be able to work with any possible bridal colour palette theme and every possible skin tone.

FLOORING

GROOVED FLOORING IS THE WORST. Do not put grooved flooring in your beauty rooms! They become vessels for bacteria, junk, dirt, makeup and hair products and are a PITA to clean. Make sure your flooring has a smooth surface and is not pourous. This will save you money in the long run because it will take your cleaning crew a lot less time to clean it.

AIR & TEMPERATURE

Make sure your space has air constantly circulating through. We need lots of ventilation so we’re not inhaling clouds of hairspray & getting chronic sinus infections and so hairspray isn’t just sitting in the air falling on top of your furniture and floors. It gets hot in these rooms fast, which makes these girls turn red and sweat which ruins makeup and hair. Causing us to have to redo it or touch it up a few times. There should be plenty of windows that can be cracked open to let heat and fumes out. Windows should have screens to prevent bugs and other creatures from getting inside.

STYLISTS

The average wedding will have 2 Makeup Artists and 2 Hair Stylists. Some will have 1 of each and some will have 3 of each. You should plan for at least 4 stylists working simultaneously, around 4 styling chairs. So think about 4 stylists dancing around 4 chairs and 4 stations, 2 with cords for hot tools. See where I am going with this?

STATIONS

Rustic & Repurposed venues please pay special attention here… You guys are such minimalists and love using your reclaimed barn wood for styling stations, but stop. It doesn’t work. We can’t place a 1 foot long iron on a 6 to 8 inch wood plank it just doesn’t work. We need space for multiple hot tools, cases of bobby pins & combs and multiple bottles of spray without knocking everything over.

Also, don’t use anything that will melt. Don’t put a cheap plastic mirror above a hair stylists station that’s too narrow and be mad that it melted because the irons didn’t fit on the shelf properly and burned it. Ya dig?

CHAIRS

FOR HAIR We need STYLING CHAIRS that swivel and lift so we can raise and lower our clients, and pivot them as needed FOR MAKEUP we need tall chairs that swivel, unless your floors are uneven, then we need stationary bases. NO WHEELS. AND BIG ENOUGH FOR ALL SIZES TO FIT COMFORTABLY!

LOOK UP These hair stations are cute but they’re not big enough to put irons, hair products and makeup kits on. They need to be bigger then this. These styling chairs are too small, they won’t be size inclusive for all your guests, and they don’t have hydraulic lifts to lower and raise your hair clients. ALSO they’re on wheels. Your chairs should have sturdy stationary bases so they don’t roll or fall over.

LIGHTING

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE GOOD LIGHTING. We need face forward lighting not overhead, and not some dumb pretty candelabra that’s useless. Every station needs to be well lit so we can ensure every bride, maid and mom are getting the best possible service that will look good outside for first look photos, in the ceremony space and at the reception. The pictures will make a huge difference in your social media and website response.

You could achieve this in a few ways.

Avoid overhead lighting. Especially florescent lights, they’re the worst. This creates shadows on the face, tables and floors. Each station really should have a makeup mirror with a light strip on both sides and above. OR A Wall Mirror with strip lights on either side.

POWER

Wherever you place your Hair Stylists, they need to have power that wont constantly trip your breaker. There should be enough outlets for each stylists to run a blow dryer and 3 irons at the same time. They might also have a ring light to plug in if your lighting sucks. Which it shouldn’t because you’re gonna read this article and take notes, then you’re going to schedule a consultation with me to prevent that from happening. ;)

If you are in the Albany Capital District are would like a FREE design consultation I or one of my colleges will literally volunteer to come there and tell you what you’re doing wrong and how you can make your space better. BOOK ONE HERE OR EMAIL ME