Wedding Hair and Makeup in Sydney CBD & the Inner City

Who covers the city for weddings

Eight Glamr artists who do bridal work cover the CBD and inner city, and two of them are based within five kilometres of it. You see each artist's full price for your address, travel included, before you send a request.

If you want one artist for both, Bela, Inez, Elisa, Zainab and Abrienne do bride makeup and hair. Nadine, Sarah and Rebecca do bridal makeup only.

The prices on the cards are for a Sydney 2000 address. Your own address can move them a little, and the exact figure is on screen before you send anything.

Where city weddings happen

City ceremonies cluster in a handful of places. St Mary's Cathedral on College Street and St Andrew's Cathedral, next to Town Hall, are the big church weddings. St Andrew's only marries couples from February to November, never on a Sunday, and often takes bookings more than a year out, so your hair and makeup date follows theirs. The Garrison Church, on the corner of Argyle and Lower Fort Streets in Millers Point, was built from 1840 as the colony's first military church. For a registry wedding, the Pyrmont Wedding Registry sits on the harbour at Wharf 10 on Pirrama Road, the same stretch as Doltone House Jones Bay Wharf.

Getting ready is usually a hotel: Park Hyatt Sydney or Shangri-La in The Rocks, The Langham on Kent Street, Capella on Bridge Street, Crown Towers at Barangaroo, Ovolo on the Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf, or Ace Hotel, behind the façade of an old brick factory on the edge of Surry Hills. Just as often it's an apartment in Pyrmont, Zetland or Potts Point, or the family terrace in Surry Hills. Your artist comes to whichever it is.

Build the morning backwards

Start from the time you need to walk out the door, not the ceremony time. For a 3pm ceremony at a city church ten minutes away, many brides aim to be dressed and ready by about 2pm, so the photographer gets the last hour.

As a rough guide, bridal makeup takes about 90 minutes, and bridal makeup and hair two and a half to three hours. Each bridesmaid or mum takes around 45 minutes for makeup, or about 90 with hair. The bride usually goes last, so her makeup is freshest for the photos.

So a bride, three bridesmaids and mum, all makeup, is about four and a half hours in the chair. Add a half-hour buffer and your artist starts at about 9am. Add hair for everyone and one person working alone would be starting before dawn. That's why you put the whole party in your request and let your artist plan it: they set how long your party takes and reply with the time they'll start and finish, so the plan runs at their real pace, not a guess.

Things to sort out in the city

• Book the room from the night before. City hotels rarely hand over a room before the afternoon, and an early start needs it at breakfast time.
• Choose the room with the biggest window and put a chair facing it. The harbour looks lovely behind you, but your face needs the daylight on it.
• Leave your artist's first name at reception, or meet them in the lobby. Some hotels need a room key to work the lifts.
• Travel into the city is in your price. Parking isn't. Arrange a spot for your artist, such as hotel valet or a visitor bay in your building, or cover their parking on the day. Parking and access notes go on your booking page once it's confirmed.
• If photos are outdoors, plan for them. The Royal Botanic Garden needs a photography permit for a two-hour slot between 8am and 5pm, and that slot can set your ready-by time. Observatory Hill and Barangaroo Reserve sit high and open to the harbour, so they're often breezy. Tell your artist, so your look is set to hold and your lip colour is one that lasts.

Have a trial first

Every artist who covers the city for weddings offers a bridal trial. You request it the same way as the wedding: on its own, or added to your wedding request with its own suburb. Many brides do theirs one to three months out, once the dress and accessories are settled.

Bring photos of the dress neckline and wear a top cut the same way. If you can, book it for a day you're going out, so you see how it wears after eight hours and how it photographs on your phone. A trial also tells your artist how long you take in the chair, which makes the start time on the wedding morning more accurate.

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.

Nearby

Getting married outside the city? See wedding hair and makeup across Sydney. Or look at nearby areas: Surry Hills, Pyrmont, Potts Point, Barangaroo and Darlinghurst.