What I'm "Worth"

I've had the chance to work with the Detroit Glam Squad as a hairstylist now for a few months.  I love it!!  The girls I work with are amazing artists in their own right, and it's a lot of fun to share a creative vision with someone and then execute it.

This past week I've had the opportunity to work with two brides.  And WOW--I don't think they could be any more different!!

The first bride was a joy!  She was a little indecisive at times, but whenever dealing with a bride, you expect that.  They want their big day to be perfect.  We had the opportunity to do hair and makeup for her, her mother, and her entire bridal party.  They were a blast!  Everyone was upbeat, positive, trying to make sure that everything went perfect for the bride, and extremely appreciative of our skills so that they too, could look awesome on the bride's big day.  I'd do these ladies again in a heartbeat!

Bride number two has been a different story.  She's been all but non-responsive until the last minute for absolutely everything.  I'd sent an email three days prior to confirm the trial date and didn't get a response until FOUR HOURS before the trial was supposed to happen.  Then, after the trial, there was a dispute about prices.  Mind you, I sent the bride a copy of our contract about three weeks in advance.  Over a month before that, I gave it to one of her bridesmaids, who was the original contact.

Apparently nobody read it.

We charge $65 for bridesmaids, $75 for the bride.  I did research before setting these prices because I wanted to be competitive and fair.  These costs match what people in this area pay to get their hair done in a salon--except if you hire us, we travel to you.

Turns out the bride was given slightly lower prices originally.  She'd been told $50 for bridesmaids, $65 for the bride.  No big deal, I can work with it.  Because she'd had my contract for about three weeks and didn't bring the discrepancies to my attention until the day of the trial, I did feel she was trying to bully me into lower prices, but I wasn't going to abandon her because of it.

It gets better...  Alongside both sets of the prices, we offered a 15% discount due to her party size.  Somehow, the math was done wrong and she'd told her bridesmaids we were charging $33 post-discount.

Let me see.... $50 x .85 = $42.50.

Maybe it was $50 x .15?  Nope.  That's $7.50

Did she do $50 - $15?  Hmm... still comes to $35....

Uhhhh........  I have no idea how it got to $33.

So now I've got a non-appreciative, cheap bride who wants me to work for LITERALLY half price because of her mathematical error.  I explained that I'd have to have her sign the contract at full price, because that's what we charge, but I would talk to the girl who originally gave her those prices and if there was a reason behind it, we might honor them.  She signed, wrote a check for the deposit, and I headed home.

When I called back later that day to explain the pricing options that I could let her pick from (NOT $33), she told me that she's not sure everyone is still going to want their hair done and that the number of people in the party may shrink due to the price.

Excuse me?  You JUST signed a contract.  Did you not read ANY of it?  There's a number of things that you should have paid attention to, but the biggest would be this one:

1. You are liable for the full amount on the contract, once signed.  (The only time this would be swayed is if we feel we've messed something up and want to make amends by lowering prices.  I was clear in saying that we MIGHT lower them.  Not that we would.)

Did I mention that this is a party of 11, and that both myself and the assistant I've hired are taking a Saturday off at Nordstrom (which is frowned on because it's retail) to do this wedding?  Did I mention that I'm paying the assistant?  Did I mention it's 45 minutes away?  Did I mention the bride's disorganization/non-responsiveness has been a pain in the butt?  Did I mention she wants me to stay for an additional two hours so that I can give her a second undo before the reception? (Which I had agreed to do for free before the price conversation came about)

I'm frustrated and I feel bad that she's gotten herself in this predicament, but I'm pretty sure it's not my fault.