Due to COVID I needed to change my wedding to Santa Rosa (from the bay area) last minute and find all new vendors 3 months before the wedding day.
I got recommended Brush by a friend, and although they were on the higher end of my budget I thou...ght it was worth it because of the great recommendation, and they were available.
First of all, I think the stylists did a pretty amazing job by the end of it! I thought they took direction well and I thought I looked great in photos. Lexie did me and my bridesmaid's makeup, and I would hire her ahead in a heartbeat! She was very personable, professional, and listened to feedback but also knew when to push back and give suggestions (which I really appreciated because I am no makeup expert!). I needed to reapply my lipgloss many times, but the rest of my face lasted throughout the night! Grey did all of our hair, and while I liked the end result, it wasn't as secure as I was hoping and all our hair had to be repinned a few times throughout the night. If she did my hair again for an event I probably would be ok with it, but may look elsewhere. I also wish during the trial she had better suggestions on different ways to make the front of my updo look good. She only had one suggestion which I wasn't a fan of, and while it worked out because I found a picture of a updo front I liked and she was able to recreate it, I wish during the trial she was willing to show me more pictures and options.
Also, for the ladies thinking about whether or not to do a trial.. DO IT! I'll be honest I left both my trials in tears and unsatisfied. In both trials, I showed pictures of what I liked and both times I didn't think I looked quite right. The benefit of the trial was day of the wedding I was able to give specific feedback and have pictures of what I needed to be changed. Yes, I wish we could have finalized it all during the trial, but at least it worked out. I highly suggest brides have MULTIPLE pictures of what you like and be specific. I was hoping the stylists could help give suggestions based on 1 picture but that wasn't the case. Also, I was expecting to be able to play around more during the trial, but that didn't seem to be the protocol.
Finally, my biggest criticism is communication with Danielle (the owner of the salon) is less than ideal. They said they were available so I immediately put a deposit, but then it took her many weeks to find me a stylist (and she wasn't giving me updates). It probably took at least a week each time to hear back, and sometimes it was longer and I needed to send an email follow-up. She said it was difficult to find the stylists to do my wedding, but that gives me the impression she took my deposit without actually confirming if a stylist was available (Note they work with contractors for all their stylists and they aren't in-house stylists). Also, because communication was so lagged, I was hoping to do my makeup trial at least a month before, but I ended up having to do my hair trial 10 days before the wedding and makeup 3 days before the wedding!! I left the trials in tears because I wasn't happy with how I looked but because of the last-minute nature, there was no way for me to look elsewhere.
Overall, I was happy with how everything turned out, just wish the process was a little less painful.
Photos credits to https://www.laurenfeddersenphotography.com/