Lack of Hair/makeup vendors for poc

Hi Renae,

Congrats! I know it can be difficult finding an artist to accommodate lovely melanin skin. I personally find it difficult as well for even myself.

I would love to chat with you regarding your vision for make up, I understand undertones and color match pretty well. Maybe I can help!

Let's Chat! You can send me an email at ***********@*******.*** If you prefer.

Cheers!
Amanda

Hi Amanda, thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely check her out! I'm sure your daughter really appreciated the dedication you had in finding someone that would knowledgeably bring out her best self

I'm not holding POC vendors responsible for anything but at the same time, I don't want to fault them for prioritizing their own bottom line. Unless you're suggesting that Weddingwire prioritizes adding POC vendors to their listings (whether it be through promotional advertising rates or otherwise), it makes sense that these vendors don't want to pay for advertising fees to a community that won't give them a proper ROI. If I'm a qipao maker, I could spend thousands of $$$ advertising here or use avenues (like Chinese social media) that are much more cheaper with a larger much more relevant audience.

This is a problem with the wedding industry in general. How many wedding shows, wedding magazines, and wedding events highlight non-Eurocentric customs/traditions?

This is something I ran into when looking for my mua/hair stylist. My daughter is biracial and it was extremely important to me to find someone who knew how to do makeup for her & style her hair as she is my MoH. I booked with a really lovely young woman named Vicki in St Catherines, I went to her for my trial specifically because I was able to see her work on a multiple women of colour. She made me feel absolutely beautiful and confident that she could make my daughter feel just as good on our day & we had a great discussion on how important it is to have representation in our portfolio. She is on wedding wire under Victoria Makeup & Hair, I hope you are able to find someone who makes you feel confident before hiring.

I think it's simple economics. A makeup artist specifically catering to Asian skin tones for example, or a hair stylist who specializes in working with Black hair probably doesn't think it's worth paying the advertising fees on Weddingwire since the vast majority of users and vendors that advertise here are white. Then again, the vendors listed on Weddingwire are also just a small fraction of potential vendors out there, even those that don't specifically cater to POC.

That being said, I do find some benefit to this community beyond vendor searches. Sometimes people seek advice on general logistics, costs, etc and the forums here can be a great resource for that. And while there aren't too many of us, the forums do feature a number of POC that can provide prospective.

Hate to say it but most vendors that cater to POC are not on Weddingwire. This site is pretty white-centric when it comes to wedding talk - you'll find very little discussions and advice on wedding customs and events that are grounded in non-European traditions.

For vendors, you're better off looking through Google/Kijiji listings/Instagram or asking local Facebook groups for advice. My wife encountered the same problem with finding a make up artist that can work with Asian skin tones and had to go off this site to find a suitable vendor. Same goes with traditional clothing from our culture.