Bridal Stylists: I Went From $85 To $2,300 Brides (When You’re ACTUALLY Ready To Raise Prices)

Hey, I'm Marissa Brennan. I grew my bridal hair business to over half a million in just under 3 years, and here's how I went from charging $85 a bride to $2,300 without getting ghosted. TL;DR: you want to have 3 to 5 times more bridal inquiries than you could ever handle, and brides booking with you fast. So for more of a visual, here's the difference between a bridalpreneur who's ready to raise their rates versus a bridal pro who's not really ready yet. A bridal pro who's ready to raise their rates has a hair or makeup skill that matches their bride's inspiration photos. Like, she questions if she's the girl in the Pinterest photo that she brought you, because it looks very similar. They're getting around 50 to 100 monthly inquiries. They're booking more brides than they are getting ghosted. And for over 3 months, they've had a solid offer, services, signature hair or makeup look that they're known for. Now, for the bridal pro who's not ready to raise their rates, they likely have brides telling them that their hair or makeup look doesn't match the inspiration photo that they're showing, and they low-key know it. They're getting around 10 to 20 monthly inquiries. They're getting ghosted more than they are booking brides. Constantly having those slower-to-book brides in their inbox. And in the past 3 months, if they switched services, switched their offer, starting a new signature hair or makeup look, they're not in the place to raise the rates right now. Because the biggest mistake I see when it comes to bridal hairstylists and makeup artists increasing their rates is that it's an emotionally charged decision. So for example, you saw an Instagram post where someone is charging $500 for bridesmaids' hair and makeup, and you're like, I can do that. Or you have a bad client and you tell yourself, oh, it's because my rates are low that I'm attracting in these budget brides. And they're problems because they're attracted by my low prices. While this is true, it's not exactly a reason to go higher with your prices right now. Or it's the top of the year, you're booking for next wedding season, and you're like, I deserve a price increase. Like, girl, yes, I get you. I want you to get your bag. However, I want you to do it without getting ghosted, because not everything justifies a price increase. And if you just add a couple more zeros to your prices, you might wind up getting ghosted more. So that's why I narrowed in these 3 key factors that you want to have in place so you know it's time for a price increase. So factor number 1 is going to be your hair or makeup skill has elevated, because you can't charge $200 for bridesmaid hair when it's giving Blow Dry Bar service. That's not going to cut it. So this means, are you taking classes for your hair and makeup skill? Even if you're 3, 5, 10 years down the line, you always want to make sure that you're elevating your skill. You're practicing more than you're working, because leveling up your skill never sleeps in this industry. So that is going to be numero uno, because this is literally what sells your services. Factor number 2 is going to be you're getting booked more than you're getting ghosted. If in the past 3 months you got ghosted 10 times with your current rates, what makes you think increasing your prices is going to book you more brides? Yeah, I know. And the third factor is going to be you're getting anywhere from 50 to 100 monthly inquiries. This is a sign, green flag, that you have major demand. Brides are like, I want to work with her. The visibility is there, your marketing is working, brides want to work with you. And it means at bare minimum 20% conversion rate, you're booking anywhere from 10 to 20 weddings a month. and that's like really good. So if you have those 3 key factors, you might be ready for a price increase. Now let's just say you have them, you're ready, you're like, okay, what do I not want to do before I do a price increase so I don't get ghosted? I got you. One thing that we don't talk about enough is when you increase your rates, you can't just stay the same because what got you here won't get you there. So that even means with your mindset as well. So what you don't want to do when you increase your prices is look at what everybody else is charging, take the average, you go a little bit above so you can book more, or you go a bit below so you can book more. That's letting somebody else dictate your profit, and you don't account for expenses or taxes that you have to pay, and then your profit is underneath. So let's say you charge $150 for a bride, $85 for bridesmaids, your average bridal party sizing is like a bride plus 5, so all in that's around $575, right? In the United States, if you're earning anywhere up to around $50,000 a year, federal taxes you want to save is around 12 to 15%. So that's going to come off of every service that you book. So for the wedding at $575, 15% taxes you want to save is $86. Now you want to save around 15% for expenses as well. That's on like the lower end, bare minimum. So that'll also be $86. So what you're really profiting is not the $575, you're profiting $403. And let's just say you average around 50 weddings a year that you work, your annual income is going to be around $20,150. Girl, no, there's no profit profit in there. So this is why you never want to base your rates on what somebody else is charging, because they likely didn't account for expenses, savings as well to profit on top of that. And if you want a calculator to find your hourly rate of exactly what you should be charging with a formula, so you're not just basing it off of what everybody else is charging, this is actually what I teach you inside Bridal Boss Academy. I'll link it in the description box for you below. The next thing you don't want to do before you increase your rates is ask your industry friends for advice on your pricing. So here's what I mean. Let's say you tell them, I'm raising my rates to $700 for bridal hair, and you're like so psyched and hyped, and their instant reaction, I could never charge that. That's not advice that you need. That's them letting their fear talk to you. That's their money mindset that they just projected onto you, and that's not what you need at this stage, my girl. What's happening is you increasing your rates is reminding them of what they're not doing. It's reminding them of, oh, I can never get So all of these mindsets start to come into play and they project all of that onto you. So then what does that do?

That makes you question it and that makes you say, ah, I wanna make sure that I belong with everybody. Maybe I won't get booked.

And then you bring your prices back down. That's maybe that has happened to you. That's definitely happened to me before.

And you're like, guess I shouldn't raise my rates because I'm not gonna get booked and nobody else charges that in my area.

And that becomes your inner narrative. So then what also winds up happening is nobody else challenges the base rate of what everybody charges in your area. So then everybody stays undercharging. Because nobody wants to go higher than that because nobody charges that in this area. When in reality, you probably could charge that and definitely get booked, maybe even more. Because if you stay stuck in that narrative of I can't charge that in my area, nobody else does this, you're going to stay stuck working more and earning less because nobody decided to challenge the we don't charge that here. So that's why I say just keep it to yourself versus looking for that outside validation or find a community of like-minded pros that can celebrate it with you. Like if you do have industry friends that are like super hype, super supportive, and would never say that to you, for sure share it. But oftentimes a lot of stuff gets brought up when you talk about pricing. I'll never forget when I increased my prices, I started hearing I was out of budget or no from brides more, and I like totally freaked out. And I need you to know, when you do a price increase, you don't want to freak out because you will hear out of budget more, and that's normal. That's okay, because what got you here will not get you there. We need to step into a new identity of you, of a new identity of bride you're going to be attracting, and we need to shed the old one. So let me give you an example. So back in high school, I was always the party girl. I was always out at bars, always drinking, having a good time, until one day I decided, you know what, that's just not the life for me anymore. I don't really want to be a drinker. I don't really want to be the girl that goes to bars all the time. But I wanted to keep the same friend group because I love my friends, loved hanging out with my friends. So I was like, okay, I'm just not gonna drink, but I'm still gonna hang out with my friends. So we would hang out, and every time I would see them, all they would be talking about is the next party, the crazy stuff they did last weekend when they got wasted. And they would constantly say, oh, you could just do one shot, you just have one drink.

You really don't drink anymore?

And that was the narrative and topic of conversation that I constantly had to navigate. I had this expectation that I could keep this friend group who was rooted in this identity when I knew I wanted to go into a whole different identity. I thought that they would change along with me, or that they wouldn't ask me the 'you can have a drink' kind of questions all the time, when in reality what got me here won't get me there. So I had to shed that identity of that friend group in order to take my bridal business seriously, in order to step into the 6-figure version of myself. So I had to let go of the friend group, that identity, but also let go of that expectation that nobody's ever going to ask me again if I want to drink, because that's not realistic. And it's the same thing with your bridal business. It's not realistic that every time you increase your prices, you're never going to get anyone who questions the budget, says you're out of budget, ghosts you. It's still gonna happen. So I just want to like prep your nervous system that you're going to get it a little bit more in the beginning, especially because you're shedding that old bride that you've attracted in, right? Everything you've done up until this point got you the business you have right now. So in order to get a new bridal business, just adding a couple zeros isn't really going to be the trick. We need to level up your visuals, your brand, your positioning, your messaging to align and attract. And then we're gonna slowly shed that old bride. She's still gonna come in, she's still gonna say, what are your rates, in your inbox. And you need to mentally prepare for that. Be neutral. You don't need to have any emotions around it. Set your nervous system to expect that. So before you increase your prices, here's a few audits and journal prompts that I have for you. So grab a pen, grab a piece of paper, and let's get to business. First thing you want to audit is your offer. Ask yourself, are my services and packages hyper-specific for one specific bride? Did I create my services because that's what everyone else in my area does, or do I love doing that myself? Number 2, you want to audit your messaging and positioning. Am I trying to attract every kind of bride so I can be inclusive? Do I stay surface level with my messaging because I don't want to come off as not inclusive for every bride? I don't want to offend anybody. Body. Next, you want to audit your portfolio. Can I tell the types of venues my brides would book based off of the images that I post of my bride, or do I post anytime that I work so that I show up today? Audit your signature looks. Are my brides showing me my work at trials, or am I constantly seeing somebody else's? Do my brides hire me because I'm an expert in one look and I'm constantly seeing the same look, or am I always seeing a new look every time I have a bride? Get really honest with yourself here, okay? And remember, if you have 3 to 5 times the amount of inquiries than you could ever handle and brides are booking really fast, it might be time for a price increase. And if you want the most easy, no-brainer way to do it, I have a price yourself to profit calculator where you find your hourly rate, exactly what to charge for bridesmaids, travel fee, trials, the strategy on how you can raise your rates and not get ghosted and get your brides actually excited about your price increases. You'll find all that inside of Bridal Boss Academy, linked down below for you. I hope this was helpful and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye!