#bridalhairstylist #weddingbusiness #weddingmakeupartist

11 Sept 2025

Watch on YouTube

A short YouTube monologue by Marissa Brennan about commission structures in the bridal/wedding beauty industry. The speaker recounts working for a team that paid 50% commission, describes feeling resentful and replaceable, and complains about long payment delays (often 3 weeks to a month). She contrasts that with her current approach: paying 70% commission to helpers, plus charging an assistant fee and hourly travel. The piece is aimed at bridal hairstylists and wedding makeup artists considering fair compensation models.

Questions this video answers

50% commission.

70% commission.

Payments sometimes delayed three weeks or up to a month; example: waited four weeks for $170.

An assistant fee and travel charged per hour.

You used to work for a team who paid 50% commission. So did I, and it sucked. Put yourself in that position. How did you feel when you were making 50% for me? I felt resentful. I felt like I was doing a lot of hard work and not feeling compensated for it. When she would ask me to do weddings, I would feel like replaceable. Bailey. Exactly. That's exactly how I felt. I was on a team of like 20 people. I was replaceable and I was replaced. And that's fine. Paying 50%. Today's Day and age that they're going to be able to pay any bills with that or not. You exactly. You hate it working for a team because you had to go downtown, be paid three days. No, I just got triggered getting paid three days. I would get paid three weeks after three weeks, sometimes a month after. It was awful, you guys. I was waiting for my hundred and seventy dollars, you know, four weeks after. Yeah. Put yourself in the mindset of you working for somebody else. What you would want, what you would expect, what you would then be willing to do for somebody when you do feel like you're getting compensated fairly. Me personally, I pay 70 commission. I charge an assistant fee, and I charge travel per hour.