Today we’d like to introduce you to Deidre Heid.
Deidre, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
(It only let me put one name but want to make sure you include my business partner, Natalie Watterson as well!)
In 2012, Natalie and I ended up waiting tables at the same restaurant in Hillsboro Village. She moved here with her twin sister from Los Angeles and I had come on a whim from Michigan, where I grew up. As any good friendship starts, we truly did not like each other at first. But we were forced to work many shifts together and eventually found out that we were both in the beauty industry as well. As it turns out, not only did we work at the same restaurant but we unknowingly got a job at the same salon that was getting ready to open shortly.
Once we started working two jobs together, we grew on each other and eventually became best friends. After years of working in the same salon and doing weddings together on the side, we started throwing around the idea of going into business together. Throughout these years, we both met our now husbands (on Bumble!) and ended up getting engaged the same weekend (unplanned!) As we continued talking about the idea of starting a hair and makeup agency, our husbands eventually got sick of all the talk and encouraged us to put our ideas into action.
We scheduled a ” happy hour business meeting” at Barcelona in Edgehill Village and started brainstorming ideas. A few months later (in September of 2019) we quit our jobs and launched a business that we thought would be just the two of us working weddings together. Our hope was that we could get one wedding per weekend in order to survive financially and not completely stress our husbands out!
Before we knew it, we were getting multiple inquiries for the same dates and we realized we needed more and more artists to help us accommodate all the brides who were interested in booking us. Fast forward to now (6 years later) and we have 25 of Nashville’s most talented hair and makeup artists on our team and we do around 300 weddings per year.
In the past couple of years we saw a need for other services besides hair and makeup in Nashville’s wedding industry, so we have added spray tanning services and also dress steaming as well.
I know they say not to mix business and friendship, but we like to defy the odds around here! 🙂
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Working in the wedding world is not for the faint of heart, especially when you’re dealing with what people are going to look like! It’s an important job that we don’t take lightly. As our company has grown, we have had to trust other artists to represent us when we aren’t there. That’s a hard thing to do knowing that one person’s bad day could cost your small business an unpleasant review. We are lucky to have hand picked a team we trust and admire, and for that we are thankful every day! We deal with all kind of emotions on wedding days- from the stress of a sudden breakout to a bride changing her mind about her hairstyle to a mom asking if we can make her wrinkles disappear 🙂 Working in weddings takes a special kind of calmness and confidence that not every beauty industry professional possesses. Not to mention, we can pretty much never call in sick. In six years and over a thousand weddings, we have never once cancelled on a bride. It’s just not an option in this industry!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are a hair and makeup agency focusing on weddings. We are known for our upbeat, positive presence that we bring to a wedding day. Not to mention making everyone look like the most gorgeous version of themselves. We have gotten tons of reviews from brides saying they felt like they were hanging out with some of their best friends while we were there and that’s our favorite compliment! The getting ready part of your wedding day is supposed to be relaxing, memorable and just plain fun. The glam team you choose makes a big difference in that! We are also the only wedding vendor in Nashville to offer dress steaming services.
How do you think about luck?
We definitely don’t chalk any of it up to luck, but the fact that God has truly and tremendously blessed our little company. We strive to run every aspect of our business with integrity and pride ourselves in being honest, reliable and overly appreciative for every single person who chooses us to do their hair and makeup!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theagencyofbeauty.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theagencyofbeauty
