Wedding Hair and Makeup in New York City

The choice mostly comes down to who travels and how many people need services. At a salon, you travel with finished hair and makeup across the city, which works well for one or two people with an easy route to the ceremony. With an on-site team, the artists come to you, you get dressed in the same room, and the group stays together until the car arrives.

Travel is where on-site quotes start to differ. Brides by SB publishes a $100 flat travel rate for Queens, North Brooklyn and Manhattan below 92nd Street, while other areas may add round-trip mileage and $75 or more per artist. The same page says overnight accommodations may be required for early-morning weddings or locations more than a 1.5-hour drive away. Some packages fold travel in: Sophie Moiseeva includes NYC travel in its listed packages. Ask for the travel charge for your exact address, not just the borough.

Space matters too. An on-site team needs a table, a chair, good light and outlets, so ask who supplies each one, and check hotel or venue rules on access, parking and loading with the venue itself. Privacy is easier in a hotel suite than in a busy salon, and touch-ups are simpler when the artist is still nearby. Reverie lists on-site touch-ups starting at $600 with a four-hour minimum, which gives you a sense of what keeping an artist through the ceremony can add.

Every figure here is one business's published price, checked September 28, 2026. Treat them as examples of how menus are built, and confirm the current price for your date in writing.

The packages show what gets bundled. Sophie Moiseeva's Classic package covers wedding-day hair and makeup, one trial, a touch-up kit and NYC travel. The Elite package adds five hours of on-site touch-ups and one additional wedding-party member, and the Bridal Party package covers the couple's hair and makeup, four additional wedding-party members, one trial, five hours of touch-ups and NYC travel.

To estimate your own total, add up the pieces. On Reverie's menu, for example, bridal hair and makeup ($700), both trials ($500) and hair and makeup for two wedding-party members ($600) come to $1,800 before travel, tax or gratuity. Then add anything the quote leaves out: travel, parking, tolls, an early-start fee, lashes, extensions, a second look or touch-up time.

For a broader comparison, The Knot reports a national average of $300 for wedding-day professional hair and makeup from its Real Weddings Study, excluding trials and gratuity, with a Mid-Atlantic figure of $360. Those are survey averages across many weddings, not an NYC price, and the city menus above run well past them.

A trial is useful but not always required. CEO Beauty says its trial is an additional service and not required, and Reverie lists hair and makeup trials separately from the wedding-day services. A trial is where you test the look, the products, lashes, how the hair holds, and how well you and the artist understand each other.

At a trial, you and the artist talk through inspiration images, try options, and refine details until the look works. Sophie Moiseeva also sends a trial-preparation questionnaire and a wedding-day timeline questionnaire. Bring your inspiration images, any accessories or veil you plan to wear, and a list of skin or allergy concerns. If you can, schedule the trial on a day with an engagement shoot or another event, so you see how the look holds up over several hours; ask first whether the artist allows that.

Timing advice differs by artist. Sophie Moiseeva recommends a trial two to three months before the wedding, Reverie recommends three to five months, and CEO Beauty suggests two to three months and advises against leaving it to the last month. Follow the policy of the artist you choose.

One detail changes what you do next: a trial may not reserve your wedding date. Reverie says scheduling a trial does not hold the date, and Brides by SB says the date is secured only by a signed agreement and a 20% prepayment. Before the trial, ask whether it has to happen before the contract, whether its price is credited toward the wedding booking, what a second trial costs, and whether your trial artist will also be your wedding-day artist.

Service times are published, and they add up fast. CEO Beauty allows up to 2.5 hours for the primary client's hair and makeup and 50 minutes for each service for everyone else, plus 30 minutes per person for extensions. Brides by SB allows up to one hour for each hair or makeup service; its own example says five people receiving both services need five hours plus 30 minutes of setup with two artists. Sophie Moiseeva generally plans about two hours for the primary client and about 45 minutes for each additional person.

The Knot's timeline guidance gives similar ranges: two to three hours for the person getting married, one to two hours per wedding-party member, and a suggestion that the primary client be ready four or five hours before the ceremony.

To build your schedule, start with the time everyone must leave the getting-ready location, not the time of the ceremony. From there, subtract the rest in order:

1. Travel time to City Hall, the ceremony site, portraits or the car pickup, plus walking, security and check-in.
2. A buffer for traffic, weather or a late elevator.
3. Getting dressed, which goes faster in a button-front shirt or robe that doesn't pull over finished hair.
4. The services themselves, using your artist's written times, with the person getting married usually finishing close to last.
5. Setup time for the artists, which Brides by SB puts at 30 minutes in its example.

Doing the math on published times shows why teams split the work. With CEO Beauty's figures, you plus two people having both hair and makeup is up to 2.5 hours for you and 3 hours 20 minutes for the other two, close to six hours of chair time in total. A hairstylist and a makeup artist working side by side shorten the clock, and the artist's final written schedule is the one to plan around.

The number of artists depends on how many services you book and how much time you have. Brides by SB says one artist may handle up to six to eight services depending on the timeline, and larger groups may need more artists. Its page also says services cannot be rushed, so adding people without adding artists usually means an earlier start rather than faster work.

Count services, not people. A person getting hair and makeup is two services, and someone getting hair only is one. Once you have the count, ask the provider for the number of artists they will send, the start and finish time, and any service minimum, since some businesses require a minimum number of services for an on-site booking. Get all three in writing, along with any early-start or overtime fee if your ceremony time moves.

Service menus often use role labels such as bride, bridal party, mother or extra people, but anyone can book the service itself. CEO Beauty lists hair and makeup for bridesmaids, mothers and extra people, Reverie lists wedding-party services, and Sophie Moiseeva offers additional-person services and packages.

The easiest way to book for your partner, your attendants or a parent is to describe the service each person wants rather than the category: hair styling only, makeup only, hair and makeup, beard or facial grooming if the business offers it, lashes, extensions, veil or accessory placement, touch-ups, or a second look for the reception.

Menus may price people differently. Ask whether a given person is priced as the primary client, a wedding-party client, a guest or a grooming client, whether a minimum applies, whether the artist has worked with that person's hair texture and preferred finish, and whether guests who aren't in the wedding party can join the booking.

A short conversation now saves a scramble later. Ask each artist you are considering:

• Can you show recent work on skin like mine, including tone, undertone, sensitive skin, acne or mature skin, and on hair like mine, including curls, locs, braids, protective styles or extensions?
• Which products do you use, and can I bring my own for allergies or sensitivities?
• Are lashes, veil placement, extensions, hair padding and a second look included, and do you offer airbrush makeup?
• What should I do the night before?
• How do you clean brushes, combs, tools and palettes between clients, and which items are single-use?
• Is a touch-up kit included, and will you stay for touch-ups, and for how many hours?
• Is travel included for my exact address, and are parking, tolls, mileage, lodging, early starts, overtime or extra artists charged separately?
• What deposit do you require, when is the balance due, and is the deposit refundable?
• Can I reduce the number of services after booking, and what is your cancellation policy?
• What happens if you are ill, delayed or unable to travel, and is a substitute artist guaranteed?
• Can you communicate with me, or with family members, in Spanish?

Whatever you agree on belongs in the contract: the date, the address, the artists and assistants, each service and who receives it, the start and finish times, travel, minimums, the deposit and balance, cancellation and reduction terms, substitutions and illness backup, touch-ups, products, and any overtime or early-start fees.

Two quick checks are worth a few minutes. The New York Department of State says anyone practicing cosmetology as the state defines it must hold a cosmetology license, which covers services to the hair, head, face, neck or scalp, and a separate business license is needed to operate a business. The Department's procedure licensing chart lists makeup application among the procedures it classifies, and the exact requirement can depend on the service. The practical step is to ask your provider for their New York license type and look it up in the state's licensee search.

On cleanliness, New York's health regulation Section 10.24 says implements used on a customer must be kept clean and sanitary and thoroughly cleansed after each customer. The Department of State's beauty-salon safety guidance also covers kits and single-use items and notes that clients should be able to see this work happen between services.

These come up once the main booking decisions are made.

With your group size, departure time and rough budget in hand, you're ready to contact artists. Start with the hair and makeup category in our directory, send each business your date, address, number of people and services, and ask for a complete written quote you can compare line by line. Once your artist is booked, the guide to what to wear to a City Hall wedding in NYC helps with the outfit side of the morning, and the step-by-step City Hall wedding guide covers the appointment your schedule is working back from.