A bride who has paid €180does not ghost.
Wedding enquiries arrive as DMs: “are you free on 14 June?”, “how much for me and four bridesmaids?”, “can we do a trial first?”. You answer, you hold the date in your head, and half of them go quiet. This is the setup where the trial is booked and paid in full from your bio, the date question costs €25 and gets a written quote within three days, and every enquiry lands in a pipeline that tells you which Saturdays are actually spoken for.
Free to start. You keep 80%. Date checks you don't answer in time refund themselves.
At the studio · free reschedule until 48 h before · fee kept inside that
The trial they book
instead of “are you free?”
A ninety-minute session type with three intake questions: the date and venue, the look, and anything you need to know about hair and skin preferences. Paid in full when the slot is picked, a fifteen-minute hold while they pay, reminders at 48 hours and the morning of. Full prepayment is already how bridal works; the difference is that it happens from your bio without a bank-transfer chase.
How bookings workThe face chart and
the wedding-day quote.
After the trial, one message from the booking: the products and shades you used, the two photos you took, and the quote for the day itself with the party size, the start time and the deposit that holds the date. The trial fee comes off the wedding-day price. Written down, it is the thing she forwards to her mother and the reason the date is confirmed that week instead of after three more DMs.
€144 to your balance · pipeline: trial done → quote sent
Four products,
switched on in this order.
The trial first, because it is the sale. Then the free enquiry form that puts every date into a pipeline, the €25 date check for the couples who want an answer before they commit to a trial, and a season letter that tells the list which Saturdays are still open.
- 1Day one · Bookings
Bridal trial, paid in full €180 · 90 min
Studio days only, Google Calendar synced. Intake: date and venue, the look, hair and skin preferences. Paid at booking, free reschedule until 48 h before, the fee kept inside that. The trial price is credited to the wedding-day quote.
- 2Day one · Leads & CRM
Wedding inquiry: date, party size, budget free
The link in your bio and under every reel. Date, venue, how many faces, budget band. Contacts land in the pipeline tagged by month; enquiry → date checked → trial booked → deposit paid → done. You see at a glance which Saturdays in June are spoken for.
- 3Week two · Forms & Requests
Check my date €25 · 3 days
For couples who want a yes and a price before they book a trial. Date, venue, party size, three reference photos. Your written quote within three days is the answer and the €25 comes off the trial. No reply, automatic refund.
- 4Week four · Newsletter
Season availability free
Monthly, September to April. Which weekends are still open next season, one real wedding, one product note, the trial link. The agent drafts it from your calendar; you edit and send before you post it.
2027 season — 9 Saturdays left between May and October
May 8, May 29, June 26, July 10, July 24, August 14, September 4, September 25, October 9. Everything else between May and October is confirmed with a deposit.
Book the trial (€180, credited to the day) or send a €25 date check and get a written quote within three days. Deposits confirm the date; enquiries don't.
Marie, Gut Hermannsberg, June. Soft glam for a bride in glasses: matte on the lid, nothing shimmery behind the lens. Three photos, before and eight hours later.
The long-wear base I switched to in July held through a 31-degree outdoor ceremony. Named in the trial notes for everyone booked from now on.
If you are a planner or a venue, the inquiry form has a planner field. Party sizes over eight get a second artist and a start time that works.
What the season letter
actually contains.
The open Saturdays by name, how to hold one, one real wedding with photos, one product note, one line for planners. Five blocks, monthly through the booking season, all free. Couples book five to nine months ahead, so the letter in October is what fills next June.
The agent pulls the open dates straight from your calendar and drafts the rest from your posts. You correct the list and press send.
A season in
two seasons.
Bridal has a booking season and a wedding season and they barely overlap. From September to April you answer date checks, run trials and send quotes; from May to October you are at venues at seven in the morning. The setup is built so the booking-season work fits in one weekday evening and the wedding-season work is already done.
- MondayPipeline and date checks
New enquiries sorted by month; €25 date checks answered with a written quote. Anything you can't do, decline in a line and the fee refunds itself.
- ThursdayTrial day
Two or three ninety-minute trials, paid at booking. Face chart and wedding-day quote sent from the booking the same evening.
- MonthlyThe season letter
Open Saturdays from the calendar, one real wedding, one product note. Sent to the list before the Instagram post.
- Wedding SaturdaysAt the venue by 07:30
Party size, start time and shades are in the booking notes. Balance was paid 30 days ago. Nothing to chase.
Numbers from
the market.
The NHBF's figure for solo beauty operators. A paid trial and a deposit-confirmed date are the two places that revenue leaks from.
In one industry dataset prepaid appointments show at 95.4%; open bookings at 82%. The trial is prepaid for exactly this reason.
Full upfront payment through a booking page is the norm for bridal work. A €180 trial credited to the day is inside the band.
Roughly €105 per missed slot and 2.7 missed slots a week adds up to about €6,200 a year for a solo artist. Deposits cut no-shows by about 55% on average.
Peak weddings run May to October. The season letter in autumn and a pipeline sorted by month is how next summer fills in this one.
Minimum $6, plus the monthly plan. ApplyForm's 20% is on what you sell from your own bio, with no subscription, and the CRM comes with it.
Market figures from published industry and platform data, September 2026, rounded. Your prices, volume and retention will differ.
“Will brides pay
before they've met me?”
They already do, for the artists who ask. 83% of consumers accept a deposit on a service over €100, and a trial is not a deposit, it is the service itself, delivered on the day it is paid for. What brides object to is uncertainty: state the price, the length and the reschedule rule on the booking page and the €180 reads as a normal appointment, not a leap of faith.
Keep it for the trial. Allergies, skin conditions and medication are health data under GDPR and need their own consent, collected at the appointment. The paid form asks about the date, the venue, the party and the look; the patch test and the questionnaire happen in the chair.
The reschedule rule is on the booking page before she pays: free until 48 hours before, fee kept inside that. A rule tied to the loss you actually suffer holds up better than “non-refundable” in bold. EU buyers have a 14-day withdrawal right on distance contracts unless the appointment falls inside the window; the checkout wording handles it.
You get both. Every enquiry is a contact with a date on it; the pipeline is just the list of Saturdays with a status next to each. Move a card when a deposit lands. That is the whole CRM.
Make the trial
the first payment.
Tell the agent your Instagram handle. It reads your bridal work and your enquiry replies, proposes the paid trial, the inquiry pipeline and the date check with your prices, and sets them up when you create the account.