Customer reviews about Glam Me Up Down The Aisle - Long Island

TLDR: Poor scheduling, unprofessional, hires subcontractors without knowing their quality, stingy with refunds for unusably poor work, and only gives refunds if you sign a contract stating that you will not write a negative review I had an Extremely poor experience working with Glam Me Up Down the Aisle, specifically with Gina, the owner. This is the only negative review I am writing for my wedding - everyone else I worked with for our wedding was amazing. Four days before my wedding, Gina messaged to say that both the hair and makeup artist she had originally scheduled me with had an unexpected schedule change. She told me that she had booked artists (subcontracted) and “I do believe Melissa is going to be extremely happy with the outcome in the long run. As, I have worked with these artist's before and, know the work they do”. Originally we had agreed upon 3 hours total for makeup and 3 hours and 15 minutes for hair for myself and 3 other people. When she informed me of the replacement with the subcontractors, she also changed the scheduled include only two hours to do both hair and makeup. Bridal hair time had been cut to only 30 minutes from an hour and make up time was 15 minutes shorter. I was obviously upset, especially since I had opted instead of buying a veil to do an elaborate crown braid with hair extensions. Since our time had been cut by a third, I asked if there would be a serious discount proportional to the cut in time. When you are paying $1044 total for services, you expect full services. She came back offering to knock off $25 dollars. This felt like a complete slap in the face. My wedding planner helped to find someone who could do my hair last minute (only person we could find available at such short notice), so I would at least have my dream hair for $300. When I asked Gina to discount me the $300 so I could still have my wedding hair the way I wanted it, she responded that the contractors could actually work with the schedule we had planned, and there was no need to cut services. The morning of the wedding came, and thank goodness, the hair stylist she provided was able to do my hair beautifully. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the makeup. The eye shadow did not match the example (attached) at all, it was also poorly blended and went up instead of out. Spaced out uneven eyeliner, messy unbrushed brows, foundation was uneven and many shades too dark. Mascara was not well done and she kept getting it on my eye shadow. She offered to redo the makeup, but it was clear that she did not yet have the skill level for my bridal look. Luckily my Maid-of-honor came to the rescue, and between the two of us, we were able to fix everything with only running 15 minutes late for the first look. While Gina had initially stated that she knew the subcontractors and was confident with their work, when I brought photos the terrible makeup job to her attention she said she thought they would be fine from their facebook page (which implied to me she had never worked with them). She offered a partial refund of my makeup (my hair and makeup total was $325 for myself, so half for makeup would be 162.50). Gina offered an $100 refund while complaining in her email that she was personally taking a loss on this. Worse, there was a stipulation to the refund: I would not be able to write a negative review, since we were not able to do a trial run (who has run for a trial run when given 3 days notice when travelling from California to Vermont?). Clearly, I did not sign the paper and will not be receiving a refund. I believe in accountability in business and wanted this review out there. I understand that things can go wrong - schedules and subcontractors included. However, Gina was given several opportunities to solve these problems in a professional manner, and I was completely unsatisfied with how she handled these situations.