I honestly cannot in good conscious give BTV higher than 2 stars or recommend them as a company, especially to women of color. I contracted with them back in February 2023 for my September 23rd wedding and I am so unimpressed with them. I’m sur...e they have good artists but I can’t say that was my experience with them. Everyone was so kind but for the amount of money spent with them, I am so unimpressed.
I did my hair and makeup trial in March 2023. The makeup artist could not match my skin tone or do anything that was close to my inspo pictures. For context, I can do my own makeup and wear makeup regularly enough. I then did a second and third trial with different artists. Paid for each trial (they comp’d $25 on the 2nd trial and fully comp’d the 3rd trial).
For the third artist, I was told I was getting a master artist. I ended up giving up on BTV for makeup artists and booked an entirely different artist for myself but keeping the third makeup artist for my bridesmaids who were not women of color thinking that it’d be easier for her. Not a single person who got their makeup done with her was happy and each spent time redoing her makeup before the ceremony started.
As for the hair, I was extremely disappointed. I did a different style for my trial and decided for the wedding I wanted to do hollywood curls. Very clean and sleek curls and I even showed inspiration pictures. The hair stylist spent no more than ten minutes teasing my hair and curling it. I could have done a much better job curling my hair. Overall, a very disappointing experience and I just can’t believe I spent $2,500 on this.
Inspiration pics posted versus what my hair looked like.
Update:
I'm not sure what photos the vendor is referencing in the comment of "You looked so gorgeous in your photos" which leads me to believe they posted a generic response. I did three different trials with three different make up artists and none of them did work that was worth a $200 session despite that I provided very specific feedback after each session with what I was looking for and provided photos of what I was looking for. Communication of what I wanted was not the issue. In addition, during my hair trial I trialed an updo because the stylist said should I want to do it half up or fully down it would be much easier to do. In addition, I paid $200 for a curl job that I could have done much better. Please reference the BTV job (pic of me in a wedding dress) vs how I did my own hair (pic of me in the pink dress). Had I known what I waste of money this would be, I would have searched harder or gone elsewhere. Also, the fact that they do not show any portfolios of stylists until you sign the contract is a red flag. The comment "We receive many inquiries each year along with hundreds of positive reviews because of our team's ability to work with such a wide range of clients" is why I booked with them originally, however, they were unable to place me with the correct artists. I would not recommend this company to anyone unless you have very simple asks.