Marissa Brennan (bridal hairstylist) presents a studio vlog demonstrating two bridal hair trial appointments: a textured low bun trial and a glam wave trial using extensions. She covers her pre-trial routine (studio setup, playlist, reviewing client notes on her Bridal Dashboard), scheduling norms (prefers trials ~4 months out, allocates ~2 hours per client with 15–30 minute buffers, limits to three trials/day), styling decisions made in-consult (front/face-framing detail, volume, texture, veil placement), photo technique (use window light, clean lens, move client for 360° coverage), and post-trial organization (airdrop photos to client and upload images + notes into her Bridal Dashboard). The video is instructional and client-management focused, aimed at stylists.
Questions this video answers
About four months in advance.
At least two hours per client, with a 15–30 minute buffer between appointments.
She only ever books three total per day.
Two packs of extensions.
11/11 (the bride's wedding is '11:11').
Foreign if you are new here, my name is Marissa. I'm a bridal hairstylist. For today's vlog, I wanted to take you guys through my bridal hair previews. I have two hair previews at my studio today. One is for a bride I have in December. She wanted to book a little bit early because I believe she's from out of town, so she's not local. So a lot of my brides who are out of town like to book pretty early for their trials. Normally, hair previews, I like to do them four months in advance. And my second trial, actually she's my first one I have today. She came in right before I got married, then I took my break and her wedding is actually this Saturday. However, we did two styles at her last hair preview and she just wanted to retry something else, something different. So I said, girl, come on in, let's do another trial. My first appointment is at 9am and my next appointment is at 11. Typically I don't do them back to back like that. However, that's just how they got booked. I like to give myself at least two hours per client for hair preview, sometimes even longer. And I usually like a buffer of like 15 minutes to a half an hour in between. I want to walk you guys through everything I do for my hair previews. Hopefully they're going to let me film a little bit of it. It's going to be a fun one. Let's go to the studio. Sam Foreign, welcome to my studio. I hope you guys like that little tour. First, get to my studio. Things that I like to do is unpack, set up my station, and I like to set the vibe. The way that I like to set the vibe is by putting on one of my favorite playlists. I do stuff on Spotify because I have a subscription, so I usually do Sizzle Radio because it's very like mellow vibes. The next thing that I like to do to prep for my hair previews before my client gets here is I like to use my bridal dashboard and I go in and I'll review all of their notes. So things like their venue, anything that we chatted about in emails, the hairstyles that they sent me in. So they're usually going to send me in what they want to do for their hair. So they're going to send me photos of their hair before they get here. So that way I have an idea of what I'm working with and their inspiration or reference photos of what they want to do with their hair appointment. This has helped me so much to be able to know exactly what my client is talking about. I'm the type of person, I don't want my client to come in and me not know their wedding day, their venue, or any details about their day that we've chatted about. We've likely been chatting in emails for like over a year. So I want to make sure that they are not like, did she forget about me? When you're working with so many clients, this has helped me keep so organized. I created this myself. You guys can grab a template if you want to create your own bridal dashboard to start getting organized or your hair previews because you can store things like hair photos. I put all my trial notes in there. I'll show you guys how I like to use it after the trial, but I've linked it for you guys in the description box below. Just wrapped up my first client's preview. She was so amazing. I'm so glad that she was my first client back from a little bit.
Of a break that I had.
She brought her sister, so I do allow clients to bring. To bring one family member or friend sometimes 2. My studio isn't crazy big. What she wanted to do with her hairstyle. Previously we had done two, so we did more of a sleeker bun. This time she wanted to try a little bit more volume up in here and. And she wanted to have her bun be covering her ears. Her biggest concern was the front, which is always my client's biggest concern. So I always spend the majority of my time doing my styling, doing the front of their hair. And also during our consult, she showed me photos of hairstyles where she liked her own hair, where she curled it in the front, and also hairstyles that she didn't like. So together we kind of mixed those and we were able to create like. So she was showing me a photo of her hairstyles when she curls it herself at home. And what I notice on there was what we did at her previous hair preview. The curls were down a little bit further on her face versus when she does it herself, they sit a little bit higher. That was something that I changed. We also added more volume here and she showed me a photo of a bun style I did that was a little bit more textured, so I added more texture in her bun and she loved it. I think the biggest thing for our clients is they really want to know how to communicate what they want, and they want to make sure that we understand it. So something I always do is I repeat things back. And I pick out things that I hear them say that they like or they don't like, and I repeat it back to them both on the same page. It's really helpful in getting my client that end result of the hairstyle that they want. And she was super awesome. And she let me film her hairstyle. Just came out so beautiful.
I want to give you guys some tips on how I like to take photos. As you can see, I am always touching my bride's hair up before I take the photo. When I put her in front of a window, this is going to help know that the hair is exactly where I want it to be and every piece is picture perfect. Then I cleaned off my camera lens. It seems minute, but trust me, it helps for better photos. I also will take my client and move her head around, and then I'm just working from side to side taking photos and videos at the same time. I lightly move their head and adjust it for different angles so then I can get like a 360 view of their hair.
It is kind of like riding a bike.
I also ask my client to move their head from side to side for a different angle. And of course, I always want to get some of the front. So I'm going to make sure that I touch up the front, make sure it's perfect before I start doing photos and videos. Next, I'm going to walk her over to a mirror and I'm going to place her veil for her. So I want to make sure that she gets that full bridal moment. That was me just being weird. And then I take pictures and I show her what it looks like inside.
First thing I do after wrapping up a hair preview is I go in my bridal dashboard and I write out all their notes and I add all their photos from my phone. I'll just airdrop it. And with my bridal dashboard, you can also use it as an app on your phone. So that's usually where I'll add the photos because it's just easier. So let me show you how I do that.
All right, so over in my bridal dashboard, I'm going to write out step by step, what I did for her hair. So I remember. Next, I'm going to find the app on my phone and pull up my client's profile that I just did a trial for. I'm going to add the photos. So you just tap and select them, and then you can add all of them to my client's profile. I like to do front, side, back. Whether we did a veil or not. And this is what it should look like and then you can pop them up and this is what it'll look like on your bridal dashboard.
Okay, I finally just finished my second trial of the day and let me tell you guys, I am wiped. Even after doing bridal for so long, trials still wipe me out. So I only ever book three total. I used to be the kind of girl who could do more than three in a day. I used to do like five or six but now she was so flipping cute. Her wedding is actually 11:11. We did a glam wave. She brought her mom with her. Her mom was absolutely adorable. I love when the moms come and they're so sweet and cute. Her hair was naturally virgin and she wanted to do glam waves. So of course we use extensions. I used two packs of extensions to get the glam wave. It was a little bit tougher than I thought. It was really holding that curl. So I whipped out my wet spray and that was able to get more of a curl and hold for her and she absolutely loved it. She was sending pictures to her fiance after the hair preview and she was just like giggling to herself cuz she's like he loves it. I'm like duh, he loves it. You look hot AF my girl. We went to. I always go to the front room, I take a bunch of photos and then I always will airdrop them to my clients. That way they can see them and that way when they go home they can show them to their girls and they can just relook through them. Then I'll place their veil so they can see see how it'll look and get that full bridal vision. But that is going to be a wrap on today. I am done with work today. I'm going to pack up. I have two weddings this weekend. I'm back in the studio on Sunday for trials. So maybe I will see you guys. If you want to hang out even more, find me over on Instagram at Marissa Grace Artistry. Cuz I know you want to hang out. I know you want to see the hairstyles from the weddings I'm doing this weekend. Find your girl. Thank you so much for being here with me today. If you love these kinds of videos, give it a thumbs up and have the absolute best weekend. I'll see you in the next one.
