Software for bridal and event makeup artists

A wedding books a year out, has its trial two months before and happens at 6 a.m. on a Saturday in a hotel suite 45 minutes from home. In between, the bride changes the number of bridesmaids three times and asks whether travel is included. What protects you isn't the kit. It's having the date, the start time, the headcount, the travel fee and the cancellation terms in writing, with a retainer paid.

From inquiry to wedding morning

1. The bride fills out your "Wedding inquiry" form: date, venue, ceremony time, how many people need makeup, airbrush or traditional. If the ceremony is before 11 a.m., a conditional question asks what time hair starts, so you can plan the chair order.
2. You send a proposal with each service as a line: bridal makeup, the trial, the mother of the bride and each bridesmaid with quantity and per-person price, lashes as an add-on, a travel fee and an early-start fee before 6 a.m. Give it a 14-day expiration and a 50% retainer.
3. The accepted proposal can create a signature request for your contract: date and start time, minimum headcount, travel and parking, what happens if the date moves, and the clause that the retainer holds your date and isn't refunded. If her parents are paying, they sign too, in order.
4. Create the retainer invoice from the proposal. The bride pays by card through your Stripe account or by Zelle using the details on the invoice. Then block the date on the Google or Outlook calendar you connected, so your glam booking page stops offering it.
5. Two months out, the bride books the 90-minute "Bridal trial" from a single-use link, paid at booking. Upload the trial photo to her client portal; she pins what she wants changed on the image or approves it with her name.
6. The balance invoice is due 14 days before the wedding, with email reminders. Share the day-of timeline as a PDF through Document Tracking, with each person's chair time.

A typical week in wedding season

• Monday: three inquiries from the weekend. One date is already booked, so you reply with a referral and keep her as a contact for engagement photos.
• Tuesday: two proposals go out. One gets opened four times in a day, and the mother of the bride asks about the travel fee to a vineyard 70 miles away.
• Wednesday: the bride accepts, signs the contract from her phone and pays the 50% retainer.
• Thursday: two in-home glam appointments for a gala, booked and paid from your page.
• Saturday: 6 a.m. call time, six faces. The balance was paid two weeks ago, and you log 140 miles and the hotel parking in Expenses.

All 13 tools, one by one

Weddings run through Proposals, E-Signatures and Invoicing; in-studio and in-home glam runs through Scheduling. Here's how each tool fits:

• Link in Bio: your Instagram opens a page with the wedding inquiry form, your glam booking page, portfolio highlights and your starting prices.
• Short Links: a short link and QR code for your booth at a bridal show, so you know how many people scanned it that weekend.
• Forms: the wedding inquiry with date, venue, ceremony time and headcount, with conditional questions for early starts and destination weddings.
• Scheduling: the paid bridal trial and in-home glam appointments, with a required question for the address, bookable up to 365 days ahead.
• Proposals: the wedding package priced per person, with travel and early-start fees as line items, an expiration date and a 50% retainer.
• E-Signatures: the wedding contract, signed in order by the bride and whoever is paying, with a certificate and an audit trail.
• Document Tracking: the day-of timeline PDF or your bridal price guide; you see whether the bride and her planner opened it.
• Screen Recording: of little use, because it records a computer screen. Use it to walk the bride through your mood board in a short video (up to 5 minutes on Solo).
• Notes & Boards: a board of the year's weddings by stage (quoted, retained, trial done, paid in full) and a product list for each bride.
• Time Tracking: helps little with flat packages. Use it if you bill hourly for touch-ups on a photo or video shoot.
• Invoicing: the retainer and the balance created from the accepted proposal, with the balance due two weeks before the wedding and email reminders.
• Expenses: products, lashes, gas, tolls, parking and your assistant's fee with receipts, so you see what each month of the season left you.
• Automations: a proposal with no answer in three days gets a follow-up to the bride, and every new inquiry gets a thank-you right away.

Travel fees and the retainer

Put travel in the proposal as its own line, so the bride sees it before she signs: a flat fee by zone, or a per-mile rate past a radius you choose. SoloWOS doesn't calculate distance, so you enter the quantity. For your own taxes, the IRS business standard mileage rate for 2026 is 72.5 cents a mile through June 30 and 76 cents from July 1; log the miles for each wedding in Expenses. The retainer is a percentage on the proposal (1 to 99%). If a bride cancels, SoloWOS doesn't decide what's refunded: your contract does, and you refund by hand in Stripe if you need to.

Licenses and taxes

• Whether applying makeup for pay needs a cosmetology or esthetics license depends on your state. Check with your state board before you take paid work, and again before a destination wedding in another state.
• Tips: the IRS list of occupations for the "no tax on tips" deduction includes makeup artists. For 2025 through 2028, voluntary tips paid in cash or by card can be deducted up to $25,000. If you're self-employed, the deduction can't exceed the net income of the business, it phases out above $150,000 of modified adjusted gross income ($300,000 on a joint return), and it only covers federal income tax: self-employment tax still applies. Ask your tax preparer whether you qualify and how to claim it.
• Form 1099-K: payment apps and online marketplaces send one when you pass $20,000 and 200 transactions in a year, but card payments are reported whatever the total. All income is taxable, cash included, whether or not a form arrives.
• If you pay assistants as contractors, collect a W-9 before the season starts; the W-9 guide explains it. SoloWOS doesn't issue their 1099s.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state; check yours with a lawyer or your licensing board.

SoloWOS, HoneyBook or GlossGenius: which fits

Bridal artists usually pick between a client-workflow app like HoneyBook, built around proposals, contracts and payments on one project, and a beauty booking app like GlossGenius, built around appointments. SoloWOS sits closer to HoneyBook, with a booking page that handles trials and in-home glam.

Choose HoneyBook or GlossGenius if:

• You want a payment plan built into one project: HoneyBook's payment schedules split it into several payments. SoloWOS creates the retainer and the balance from the proposal, and any third payment is an invoice you make.
• Most of your work is in-studio appointments and you want a beauty booking app with forms and waivers (GlossGenius Gold).
• You want payments processed by the same company that makes the software.

Choose SoloWOS if:

• You want card payments in your own Stripe account and a published price that includes every tool.
• You want the bride to approve the trial look on the photo itself, with her name.
• You do weddings and in-home glam and want both in one account.

Prices and features checked between October 17 and 23, 2026 on each company's site.

Start with these three

Proposals with your bridal package saved as a template, E-Signatures for the contract, and Invoicing for the retainer and the balance. Add the inquiry form before the next bridal show.

Free tools that help

• Mileage deduction calculator for the drives to venues and hotels.
• Project cost calculator to check that a bridal package covers product, travel and your assistant.
• Payment fee calculator to see what a retainer paid by card nets after Stripe's fee.
• Freelance rate calculator to price a face from the income you need over the season.
• Free proposal template to adapt into your bridal packages.

What SoloWOS won't do for a makeup artist

• No mileage or zone calculation: you enter the travel fee as a line on the proposal.
• No automatic payment plans. The retainer and the balance come from the proposal; a third payment you create yourself.
• No portfolio. Trial approval is one file per version (PNG, JPG, WebP or PDF up to 25 MB, up to 50 versions).
• A meeting type has one written location, so ask for the address in a booking question for in-home glam.
• Reminders go by email, not SMS.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.