Modern bridal hair & make-up with Portraits Bridal, helping you feel your best self

Today we have the pleasure of introducing you to some of our absolute fave ladies in the biz - Nadia and Zara, founders of Portraits Bridal. We met these ladies a fair while ago and since then have seen countless campaign shoots, shows, and everything in between together, where we’ve been lucky enough to witness their incredible talent at work (whether that’s gold eyeliner like last year or fake dewy freckles a la this year). Considering your hair & make-up artists are often the first supplier you’ll see on the day (before your photographer, usually) you need them to make you feel at ease; Nadia, Zara and their agency of exceptional artists will make you feel like their best pal, hands down. Get to know them here!

Tell us about your business – what do you do?

We are Nadia and Zara and we run Portraits Bridal Hair and Make-Up Agency, in addition to providing a range of beauty services for brides to be! We have an extensive team of hair stylists and make-up artists covering London, the UK and overseas. We also offer a range of beauty services including: micro/nanoblading (eyebrow tattooing), eyelash extensions, hair extensions and most recently we have teamed up with an incredible CBD brand, Graces London, offering CBD products and massages pre-wedding and for the wedding morning itself.

What do you do differently to everyone else?

As hair, make-up and beauty experts with extensive experience in bridal and other areas, we try to take a modern approach to creating hair and makeup designs to suit each bride as an individual. Our clients are incredibly diverse in their look and style, so we work together to create a look that is a true reflection of themselves as well as fitting in with the style of the entire wedding itself!

Why & how did you start?

Several years ago, Zara and I worked together providing hair and makeup for the fashion world before stumbling across their first wedding! Realising how much we loved the experience of working with brides.....Portraits Bridal was born! As we came across more exceptionally talented hair stylists and make-up artists, the team gradually grew to 20 plus beauty experts who you now see on our Portraits Bridal Agency books today!

Who or what inspires you?

The legends and pioneers of the make-up world such as Pat McGrath, Kevin Aucoin and Bobbi Brown will always inspire us but more recent super talents such as Katie-Jane Hughes, Nikki Make-Up and Charlotte Tilbury are really at the forefront of our inspo! Hair wise we are currently obsessed with the work of James Ensure and we always look to celebs such as Jourdan Dunn, Cara Delevingne, Bella Hadid or Rosie Huntingdon Whitely for the perfect mix of glam with a bit edginess. We predict Bobs (wavy or straight) will be big for our 2020 brides and this totally gets us excited! We also love the slightly Avant-guard artists such as FKA Twigs as her style is super interesting and she stays true to herself.

Talk us through a day at the office/studio/wherever you work from.

I am a mum of two very little ones, so the day usually starts with a long walk doing the school run! Zara juggles a busy freelance diary, working within fashion and theatre, including working on a couple of west end shows! Once back in the studio space, corresponding with clients to have detailed phone consultations, booking in trials and allocating our extensive team or artists generally takes up a big part of the day! Maintaining our social media platforms is constantly running throughout the day. The rest of the time is client facing, be it trialing for brides, photo shoots for press/magazines and meeting our sponsors/suppliers to look at new products and discuss things to come!

What’s your fave part about what you do?

Making our brides feel beautiful inside and out! It’s such an incredible journey from the moment they get engaged and contact us, up until the big day! We tend to correspond along the way and seeing them from Trial to Aisle is magical! We are so passionate about hair and make-up so being able to transform our brides showing them off and making them feel a million dollars when they walk down the aisle is really an incredible feeling! Every person has their insecurities about how they look, but we work together with our brides to design looks that make them feel they are looking and feeling their best in such a momentous day.

What are you excited about for your business?

With social media and the beauty industry ever changing, we continue to evolve as a brand and try to offer the most comprehensive service to our brides. Our most recent Style Box 2020 Collection has been our most exciting yet! Sharing our most iconic beauty ideas with our brides to be in more than just one still image, we feel gives our brides more inspiration. We look forward to continuing to expand our super talented team!

Who are your fave 3 wedding suppliers?

1. Ann Marie Faulkner for her forward thinking and innovate veil designs, we are so proud that we get to work with her time and time again and love seeing our brides in her designs as her work complements our style so well.

2. Rime Arodaky for nailing it every time! The women that wear these designs seem to look so fierce yet feminine at the same time. We also love the campaign shoots, so much inspo there!

3. Pink Palm Events - having recently worked with this team, they have an insane ability in bringing ideas together to create breathtaking results! Super create, original and showstopping.

What’s your top advice for couples getting married?

Don’t leave booking suppliers to the last minute! Any reputable supplier will be taking bookings 12-18 months in advance....sometimes longer! So to avoid disappointment, do your homework and research sooner to get the best team of industry professionals on board!

To meet the gorgeous Portraits Bridal gals in person, make sure you grab your tickets now! We’ll be at The Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, Shoreditch, from 7th-9th Feb 2020…