Wedding Makeup Artist Bursts Into Tears In Front Of The Bride & Gets Kicked Out Of The Reception — ‘Just Inappropriate’
She says she was overwhelmed. Others feel like she made the day all about her.
Karkhut | Shutterstock It's a tale as old as time: Nothing sparks drama quite like a wedding. But usually, wedding drama is between family, or a bride and her bridesmaids or, in the worst-case scenario, the couples themselves.
But in the case of a wedding going wildly viral on social media at the moment, the drama was between the couple and the bride's makeup artist. It's got almost everyone, professional wedding vendors included, calling foul.
The makeup artist was kicked out of the wedding twice after bursting into tears in front of the bride.
The makeup artist has since deleted her videos after apologizing for the incident, but that has done little to quell the discourse about what went down between her and a couple at their upscale wedding, which several posters have summarized in videos.
It seems that what was at the heart of the conflict was the couple feeling a bit upstaged by the hair and makeup artist's desire to document the details of the day for her portfolio.
This is certainly understandable — it is the 2020s, and social media is pretty much THE key tool that wedding vendors use to market themselves nowadays. However, this particular vendor took it much too far in a way that has people calling her out for a lack of boundaries.
The makeup artist says the groom snapped at her for taking too many videos.
In her own videos on the matter, the makeup artist describes a sort of perfect storm of a day — a large, fancy wedding where she had tons of work to do, little time to eat, and a pace that left her spread razor-thin by the end of the day.
But what she goes on to describe — and especially what attendees of the wedding have described — makes it clear that the uproar was mostly caused by her overzealous attempts to document the entire wedding.
Bridesmaids from the bridal party have also taken to social media to share their side of the story. They say that the makeup artist was so intent on documenting the wedding that she began to interfere with the actual photographers and videographers hired for the wedding.
At some points, she actually had to be asked to move out of shots and even made efforts to document every moment of the groom and groomsmen, people she obviously didn't even do any hair or makeup work on.
Tellingly, she also posted several videos to TikTok from the wedding — likely weeks before the bride herself will have access to any photos or footage she paid for, spoiling the surprise for her friends and family. One of her bridesmaids called this "the most disrespectful part."
Taken all together and it's probably not surprising how this turned out: When she asked the groom to film another TikTok, he snapped at her that enough was enough, and that's when things boiled over.
The makeup artist then burst into tears, forcing the bride to console her. Soon after, she was removed from the wedding.
In her own video, the makeup artist shared that she was so overwhelmed by a combination of exhaustion and hunger that she simply broke down, in disbelief that the groom had gotten so angry. We've all been there — emotions run high and you have an adverse reaction. That's human.
But the circumstances couldn't have been worse. The bride was suddenly forced to console her — in the middle of her wedding reception.
Soon, she was asked to leave by one of the wedding planners, at which point bridesmaids say she attempted to escalate the situation by confronting the wedding planner. Eventually, security had to be called to remove her permanently.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, social media sentiment quickly turned against the makeup artist for what seems like a pretty clear case of an inappropriate approach to the job. Several wedding vendors have weighed in as well to offer the story as a sort of cautionary tale with the moral that "the wedding is not about you."
The makeup artist posted an apology in which she explained several misunderstandings that led to the conflict.
To her credit, once the videos she posted had blown up and the backlash began, the makeup artist seemed to quickly recognize where she misstepped. She also provided more context — she said the groom used profanity towards her, which is part of why she was so upset by the encounter.
Regardless, in a since-deleted apology video, she profusely apologized to the couple, including for posting video footage of their wedding before they'd had a chance to see it themselves, which she's since deleted.
She also explained that she has a big personality and that this is typically a major part of her wedding services. It seems her clients often include her in the festivities not just for makeup touch-ups but because she's something like a friend for the day.
It also seems that she misread this particular couple's level of interest in that sort of thing, and especially how willing they were to be involved in her content creation of the day. Unclear communication seems to have contributed to the conflict as well.
Here's what is for sure: Everyone, from the bridesmaids to the people on social media dragging her, has all agreed that her hair and makeup work is absolutely stellar. You can clearly see this in the small bits of footage of this wedding that still exist online, as well as the other videos on her account.
It's unfortunate that in the social media age, a single bad day can become the sum total of who we are in so many people's eyes — and no apology afterward is ever good enough for people on social media.
That is the economy and business culture that social media has created, in which self-promotion is a nearly life-or-death necessity to succeed, which caused this mishap in the first place, which is a sort of bitter twist and a sign of the times.
But this makeup artist didn't create that climate, and every single one of us has stepped in it at work at one time or another. This artist seems to have a litany of elated brides in her portfolio, but only one wedding truly went sideways. She seems to have learned from it.
Hopefully, the rest of us can learn to have some grace for these foibles too.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.