The full package

How to offer an unforgettable experience to clients who choose you for their salon appointment and the benefits it can offer.

With consumers all over the globe wanting nothing more than to feel their utmost best on their wedding day, it comes as no surprise that they often turn to the experts for help. Wedding season presents salon owners and hair and beauty professionals with a great opportunity to boost revenue, whether it’s by closing the salon for the day and getting in some caterers to offer a pre-wedding party, putting together a bespoke treatment list in the weeks leading up to the big day or simply nailing how you market your wedding treatments. Luckily, the experts are on hand with tips to make a lasting impression.

Salon System Nail Expert and Owner of Sketched by J-A Nails, JulieAnne Larivière, believes that having customisable bridal packages are a good way to open up to the bridal market. Julie advises making it customisable by offering interchangeable options, so the bride and her party don’t feel pressured to book in for services they may not need or want.

“If you have any contacts such as bridal shops, photographers or trade near a certain venue, why not try and do a little networking?” Julie added. If you build a good relationship with those businesses, they will likely recommend you to their customers and vice versa. Social media provides many powerful platforms when it comes to marketing your business for a certain type of service, so Julie advises gathering some bridal nail images in an album and use a paid promotion to reach a wider audience, or use this album to advertise your business on local bridal groups, and other platforms.

Salon System Expert, Jaz Moger, agrees with Julie that it can be beneficial to separate the bridal offering when it comes to the marketing technique and advises having a distinct section on your website with your offering so it’s clear for customers.

“Creating an Instagram guide including your bridal offerings as a look book is a simple but effective way to appeal to the nearly-weds.

“Also, have a physical look book of nail designs that clearly explains the time to create, costs involved and after-care requirements so the bride understands what’s involved. These could be made up using previous bridal images from a professional photographer, showcasing close-up shots of the all-important manicure.” When doing this, just ensure you credit the photographer and you’re both winners!

We believe that timing is key. With wedding days usually being the most important date in one’s life, it’s essential that a fair amount of time is spared for the preparations surrounding the day itself.

Ruth Atkins, Lash Expert and Salon System Educator, agrees that in order to create the perfect look, brides and salons need to be looking ahead a good few months before the big day when it comes to lash treatments. If this is a new treatment for the bride, Ruth would always recommend having a full treatment and at least one infill before the actual wedding day. This gives the bride a real experience of what the lashes will feel like, the maintenance involved and, if there are any issues, time to get them resolved so that when the honeymoon arrives, the last thing on her their mind will be the worry over their lashes. “Preparation on all counts is key.” Said Ruth.

Ensuring your wedding services are an experience for the party in question is what will make you stand out to what else is on the market.

Lisa Stone, Waxing Expert and Salon System Educator, sees the importance in creating a great experience from first impressions to last, so that your bridal client is made to feel special and valued.

“Make sure you are giving outstanding customer service and an excellent thorough treatment by taking time to go the extra mile. Get to know your clients, show interest in them and their forthcoming wedding. Always remember what they tell you and make sure that you create a warm and welcoming environment that will make them feel they want to return, post-honeymoon!”

With the planning of a wedding being stressful enough, it’s your job to ensure your offering of beauty treatments are as seamless as possible. In line with this, Lisa highlighted the importance of ‘making it easy to book’ as there is nothing more annoying than getting an answer machine or navigating a badly laid out website. Lisa advises updating your system pre-wedding season so that clients can book online anytime of the day: “This will create a flexible service and accommodate your clients, allowing you to be well-remembered.”

Linton & Mac’s Jaye Macdonald representing, L’Oreal Professionnel, revealed that ahead of any kind of wedding service, the first step she takes to define what the bride and her party need, is to have an in-depth consultation: “This is complimentary but vital to understand what their needs and wants are.”

During a consultation Jaye covers everything from the pre-wedding celebrations, aesthetic and personal style: “We also advise on hair treatments depending on the condition of the bride’s hair and we play around with mood board-based ideas of colour schemes and styling. The bridal package isn’t limited to just the wedding day, but the hen party and honeymoon too - the bride should have all her needs covered.”

Pinterest boards are a godsend and makes for a fabulous starting point and Jaye explained how it’s so important to know what the bride is wearing, as the hair must compliment the dress. From there, the team navigate towards the essence of what the bride is looking for and customise that to suit her in the best way possible: “One thing we do is to prep the bridal party ahead. By that we mean, at the final bridal hair trial, the bridal party are given the right complimentary products to use up to the wedding, so their hair is ready by the time the big day comes round.”

To ensure she gets the most out of the incredibly busy wedding-season, Carol Ritchie, Matrix Artist Ambassador, explained that she works with other freelancers, which has proven to benefit all of them as each member of the team can really cater from small to large weddings and offer hair, make up and nail packages.

In order to successfully market the packages that she and the freelancer professionals offer, Carol uses her website to showcase her wedding services: “It has all the information they need to access. It’s very clear with a pricing structure and frequently asked questions and links to my social media.”

Showcasing past reviews of wedding treatments is a great way to stand out from competition and increase bookings as clients find comfort in seeing examples. Carol said: “It’s important to showcase past reviews from previous brides as it puts a lot of people at ease and gives them an idea of the type of work you create and what they are essentially committing to.”

Arranging a trial or a series of the ahead of the wedding day is equally important for both the professional and the client. It gives the client an opportunity to feel assured whether they would like to use your services for the wedding, but it also gives the professional an idea of how much time is required based on the treatment type and style.

Carol explained that pressure in a trial is a no-go as coming across as pushy can deter business: “During and after the trial I never put pressure on the bride to make a decision. They can go away, think about things at their leisure to reach their decision.”

In terms of marketing his services in a way to make them stand out online, Rory Mason, Director at Rory Antonio Hair & Beauty Lab, uses Instagram to promote wedding work using images and reels: “We’ve used a combination of information on packages, examples of packages, tutorial reels and video footage from our previous brides’ big day to create a variety of engaging social content around our wedding packages.

“We also like to switch up our hashtag strategy when it comes to brides as it allows us to expand our reach even further. We also work closely with one of our local magazines where we run additional bridal offers such as half price bridal rehearsals, which allows us to track where our bookings are coming from

and how effective it is.”

We were keen to find out from Rory’s previous feedback what brides have said made his wedding services stand out, to which he responded: “After a bride has had their rehearsal, they’ve booked their final appointment and a deposit has been taken, we always send out a bridal care package with some complimentary products, a little bottle of prosecco and a thank you card – this is always so well received, it’s just a nice added extra to show our appreciation for choosing us.”

Owner of BE Ironbridge, Brooke Evans, recognises the importance of ‘trial and error’ throughout wedding trials: “If it’s an existing client, then I already know their preferences and have some idea of what kind of style I think they’ll like and what will work well for them. Some clients like to completely change up their style for their wedding, others will stick to something more classic and a bit more them. Extensions are always a popular choice for weddings as they can add volume and length and make the bride feel more glamourous.”

Brooke revealed how her team offers a variety of options to suit every bride, whether they want to come into the salon or they’d like the team to travel to their location, she realises flexibility is important: “I think the key when working with brides is to remember that part of our job is to take some pressure off them and make sure that the day runs as smoothly as possible. We can tailor make a bespoke bridal package, or we work closely with our make-up artist and nail technician to offer packages.”

Despite social media being increasingly popular to generate new business, it’s important to never forget the power of word of mouth… people talk!

Owner of French & Ivi, Tracey Ann Smith, revealed that she has been fortunate that her services are communicated a lot via word of mouth, which has proved fantastic for the salon’s reputation and is something which brings a lot of business: “For us, we use our social media platforms to share our work and our bridal services as our research has shown that our bookings come 90% via social media.

“From showcasing our wedding work to communicating our offers and full bridal service, this is now our go-to marketing method.”

With time being of the essence surrounding a big day, time management and punctuality are elements which are going to contribute massively to the overall experience for your bridal clients.

Owner of Alex Thaddeus Hairdressing, Alex Thaddeus, revealed that he likes to secure dates and start plans as soon as a wedding is booked. This gives Alex and his team a clear timeline for consultations, booking in trials and working on the colour/condition of their hair in plenty of time before the wedding day: “A thread of communication is then established and maintained regularly up to the wedding date, which is so important.”

By following these tips and words of advice from our trusted experts, you can attract more bridal parties to your salon and capitalise on the lucrative wedding industry.