There’s more to wedding beauty than just having your hair and makeup professionally done on your wedding day. When it comes to wedding skincare, the work begins months before your wedding. After I published a post last summer about hair and makeup tips, my good friend Diane, a former pro makeup artist, sent me some of her suggestions for additional tips. You, my friends, are the beneficiaries of her knowledge.

TL;DR here’s the video version

Start New Skincare Regimens Early

Do not start any new skincare treatments or products within a few weeks of your wedding. You want to do anything new at least one month before your wedding, preferably even further in advance. Your skin needs time to adjust and potentially react to any new treatments.

Facials

If you’ve never had a facial before and you plan to get one before your wedding, do it at least a month in advance. Even if you don’t have sensitive skin, facials can cause your skin to react in an unexpected way. Some people experience breakouts, redness, or other irritation. If you have a bad reaction, you want to give your skin plenty of time to calm down before your wedding day.

If you regularly receive facials and you know how your skin reacts, judge accordingly and plan your facial for an appropriate amount of time pre-wedding. At least a week out is preferable. And don’t try anything new, including aestheticians! Stick to your usual so you don’t get any nasty surprises.

Makeup

If you usually don’t wear a lot of makeup, you may not want to go overboard with makeup on your wedding day. A full face of makeup can feel weird if you’re not used to it. If you’re uncomfortable, that will show in photos. Plus, if you usually don’t wear makeup but wear a lot of it on your wedding day, you may feel that your wedding photos just aren’t “you.”

Wedding day makeup is meant to be “more” than your everyday look, but there are ways for your makeup artist to do a natural look on you that will reflect your style while also looking good in photos.

If you do normally wear makeup, then you can feel free to amp it up a bit on your wedding day. A makeup trial is still recommended, just so you can be sure that the look you’re envisioning is what you really want.

Hair

The same rules apply to hairstyles. If you wear your hair down all the time, but are thinking you want an elaborate up-do for your wedding, do a trial run to see what you think. And be sure to have someone take photos of you with your hairstyles. Some brides think they like their look, but when they see their photos later are disappointed because they don’t look like themselves.

Sunscreen

Let’s face it, we should all be wearing sunscreen every day! But it’s especially important in the months leading up to your wedding day. This goes for your mom and your bridesmaids as well There is nothing worse than tan lines in photos!

Tan lines can take months to fade away, so you’ll need to be diligent about staying out of the sun and applying loads of sunscreen for several months. If you want to have a tan look on your wedding day, a spray tan is the easy solution. They are quick, inexpensive, and easy to find. Bonus: they don’t irradiate your skin!

Never get a spray tan on the day of your wedding. You will look orange! You want to do this at least one day, probably two days, before your wedding. Many photos will be taken of you at your rehearsal dinner, so you need to give your tan time to settle.

And don’t worry, you can shower regularly after getting a spray tan. It just needs a few hours to be set, and then a shower or two to get the initial orange-yness off.

If you’re looking for a primer on sustainability in skin care, check out this article on Yoppie.