Bridal Makeup & Hair in the Sutherland Shire

Your wedding morning, wherever you're getting ready

Enter the suburb you're getting ready in, who needs makeup or hair, your date and the time you need to be ready by. You'll see the artists who cover your suburb. Each one shows the total for everyone you added, with travel already in it.

Bridal artists who cover the Sutherland Shire

Elisa is the local, based in Engadine, a short drive from Sutherland.

Other artists travel in for Shire weddings too. The prices on the cards are for one bride getting ready in Sutherland (2232), travel included. Enter your own suburb and your bridal party to see your total.

Every one of them offers a bridal trial. Your bridesmaids, mum and flower girl go on the same request as you.

Elisa also travels to the Southern Highlands and the Hunter Valley for weddings. But if you're getting married in the Shire, you're on home ground.

Shire venues, and what they mean for your morning

Plenty of Shire weddings happen near the water, and where you're headed shapes how you plan the morning.

• Cronulla. Rydges Cronulla Beachside looks out over the beach, and its wedding packages include a private area for the bridal party before the reception. Cronulla RSL and Cronulla Surf Club host weddings together as Esplanade Events, with views across Bate Bay. Pippis sits at Calico Marina facing west over Gunnamatta Bay and takes wedding receptions, so an evening reception there gets the sunset. Gunnamatta Pavilion is the big hall in Gunnamatta Park, on the same bay.
• Burraneer. The Royal Motor Yacht Club Port Hacking looks across Gunnamatta Bay.
• Sylvania Waters. Doltone House has the Belfiore Gardens, a formal garden with a gazebo for ceremonies, and its example wedding package lists a private bridal room or area.
• Royal National Park. Audley Dance Hall is a heritage-listed hall in the park, overlooking the Hacking River.
• Gymea. Hazelhurst Arts Centre, with Hazel restaurant inside, has gardens that work well for photos.

Ceremonies run from St Aloysius in Cronulla to the lawn at Shelly Park, beside the Esplanade walkway. Council asks you to book ceremonies and wedding photos in its parks, so lock in your spot before you plan the morning around it. For photos, Oak Park and Cronulla Wharf are local favourites, and Hazelhurst's gardens need a booking too.

Three things worth telling your artist:

• Parking. Parking near Cronulla beach is tight on a summer weekend. If you're at a hotel, find out where your artist can pull up and unload their kit.
• Bundeena and Audley. Both are a drive through the Royal National Park. Bundeena has the ferry from Cronulla, but your artist is coming by car with their kit. Once your booking is confirmed, add the exact address and where to park on your booking page.
• Sea air. A ceremony on the Esplanade means wind and salt. Say so, and your artist can plan makeup that lasts and a hairstyle that copes with the breeze.

Timing the morning

You set a ready-by time: the moment the last person needs to be finished. Make it the time your photographer wants you dressed, not the ceremony time. Your artist then replies with the time they'll start.

Here's how that works for a 3pm ceremony at Shelly Park, with makeup for the bride, three bridesmaids and Mum:

• Photographer arrives 1:30pm, bride in the dress by 2pm, car at 2:30pm.
• Ready-by time: 1:45pm.
• One artist doing makeup only usually starts somewhere between 8:15 and 9:15am.
• Bridesmaids and Mum go first. The bride goes last so her makeup is freshest.
• Hair for everyone as well adds a few hours to one person's morning. If you want it, add it to your party and your artist plans their start around it.

Those times are a rough guide. Your artist tells you their start time when they reply, because they know how they work.

Your trial

Book your trial one to three months before the wedding. It's the appointment that settles your look.

• Bring photos of your dress, the neckline and any veil or hair piece. Add a couple of looks you love and one you don't.
• Wear a top with a similar neckline to your dress.
• Book it on a day you're going out anyway. You'll see how it wears over several hours, and you can photograph it indoors and in daylight.
• Beach ceremony? Step outside into the wind before your artist packs up. Better to find out now.

How booking works

1. Enter the suburb you're getting ready in, then add your party: bride, bridesmaids, mums and flower girls. Add your date and the time you need to be ready by.
2. See the artists who cover your suburb, each with the total for your whole party, travel included.
3. Send a request to the artist you like.
4. Your artist accepts, or suggests a different time, with the time they'll start and finish.
5. You accept that time, suggest another, or cancel.
6. Once you've accepted, you pay online to lock in your date. The rest goes to your artist on the day.

A few artists take bookings straight away: you pay to lock in your date and your booking's confirmed there and then, unless your party is bigger than they take on alone, which waits for them to accept first. With everyone else, you send a request first and your artist replies with the time they'll start.

It works the same way on the website and in the Glamr app.

Popular Saturdays go early, so check your date as soon as you have a venue. Artists already booked at your time still show, at the end of the list and marked as not available, so you can see who can make it.

Nearby

Planning a wedding somewhere else in Sydney? See wedding makeup across Sydney. Close by: Cronulla, Miranda, Sutherland, Engadine and Sylvania, or every suburb in the Sutherland Shire.