By Tina Byland
Your best you begins weeks, months, even a year prior to your wedding day.
A common misnomer amongst ides is that looking your best on the big day results from an awesome day-of stylist team to give you the hair and makeup of your dreams. The reality, however, is that your best you begins weeks, months, even a year prior to your wedding day. And even more important, the rituals and habits you pick up preparing to be a ide are rituals and habits that will make you feel and look more beautiful even after your wedding day has come and gone.
As a ide, you’re likely to be juggling a multitude of different roles and responsibilities from the moment you are given that beautiful engagement ring. You’ll be planning and organizing vendors, wrangling a wedding party, handling family dynamics and the guest list, and still trying to just enjoy being a happily engaged couple with your sweetie. That’s all while doing whatever it is you were doing prior to becoming someone’s fiancé. This is a perfect recipe for stress and anxiety. And stress and anxiety are not friends of a healthy, beautiful ide.
So let’s eak it down to the very basics. There’s no need to add your health and beauty to the list of things that could potentially be stressing you out! We’ve got you covered from head to toe, inside and out. Here’s what you need to be the healthiest, most glowing ide you can possibly be.
Hair
Many ides start growing their hair out as soon as they get engaged in anticipation of their dream updo or to ensure some long, luscious beachy waves for photos. But there’s so much more you should be doing for your locks than just growing them out. Let’s start there, though, talking about length. Continue to trim your hair regularly. By cutting off split ends (this can be done every couple of months), you will actually find your hair looking healthier since the damage will be removed from the tips. This rings equally as true for ides with short hairstyles as well.
Hair color is another item that needs to be tackled sooner rather than later. If you are considering a new hue, or even just highlights, it’s best to try it on for size well before the big day. For a natural, healthy looking glow that grows out well and is tailored specifically to you, consider finding a colorist that is trained in hair painting. Hair painting, or balayage, is a technique straight from France where your colorist will paint color freehand on your locks without the use of foils or a cap. The list of benefits of balayage goes on and on, but it is known for its ability to grow out softly and healthily. It’s as if the om e trend met au naturale.
As your wedding day gets closer, pay attention to the products you are using on a daily basis. Try to limit your use of hot tools such as the hairdryer, straightener, and curling iron. Also, invest in some quality cleansing and conditioning products for your routine. If you are shampooing your hair daily, try to wean yourself from the ritual by substituting a dry shampoo for a day or two in between washes. Over-washing your hair strips your scalp of the natural oils that make your hair shine luminously. Plus, with the right dry shampoo, you may just find your “good hair days” turn out even better. And won’t that make things easy during that hectic week prior to the wedding!
TIP: If you are considering a new hue, or even just highlights, it’s best to try it on for size well before the big day.
Eyes
If they say the eyes are the windows to the soul, then the eyes of a ide on her wedding day should be wide, glistening, and ight. Adding an eye cream or serum with vitamin A, C, E and/or K to your skincare routine is a great way to lighten any dark under eye circles and the appearance of thinning skin around your eyes. A cream will also help keep your skin hydrated.
Using light reflecting eyeliners and shadows along the inner points of your eyes and your eye ows will also help diminish any signs that you’ve been staying up late at night planning and dreaming up your big day. However, while we are on the topic of light, make sure to shield your eyes from the sun with sunglasses each day. If you use contacts or glasses, treat yourself to a set of prescription shades. You’ll be so glad you did! Also, a little known fact is that sun and wind exposure can dull the whites of your eyes over time. So cover up!
With all of the cute sayings you can find on coffee mugs these days about needing caffeine before you can fully function each morning (#butfirstcoffee), you should be heeding that advice for your eyes as well. A little caffeine can go a long way to reduce any puffiness you may experience around your eyes. A plus to these creams is that they also tend to have a cooling effect (think cucumbers at the spa). We’re sold!
Before we move on, it’s a good idea to discuss your lashes. There are several options for you to consider if you would like to lengthen and thicken your lashes. And there’s a good reason to want to as well. Sparse, short lashes give the allusion that the eyes are smaller than they actually are. Long, luscious lashes do the opposite. Lash conditioners, biotin, and ushing your lashes each day are simple baby steps to better lashes. If you are looking for something a bit more dramatic, there are several over-the-counter treatments to stimulate lash (and eye ow) hair growth as well as prescriptions you can fill behind the counter. Another option? Eyelash extensions, which are semi-permanent (because your eyelashes have a life cycle just around two months), but give you a beautiful va-va-voom without having to apply mascara each and every morning.
Teeth
On your wedding day, you’ll be smiling ear to ear regardless of how you’ve prepared that fancy smile of yours. But how can you make sure it’s in the tip top, whitened and ightened shape? Simple.
First, avoid food and drink that are known to cause staining on the enamel of your teeth. Some of the most famous culprits are coffee, wine, soy sauce, and dark berries. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy yourself. Be mindful of your intake, use a straw whenever possible, and ush your teeth as soon as you can after a meal or beverage.
It also goes without saying that you should stay on top of your biannual dentist appointments as you near the big day. A cleaning and checkup from the dentist is your best and safest way of insuring a healthy smile on your wedding day. If you feel that your teeth could use a particular pick me up, ask your dentist about whitening your teeth a month or so prior to the big day.
Lastly, if you are unhappy with your smile, it is never too late to consider aligning your teeth. Treatments such as Invisalign and AcceleDent Aura show results in as little as a few months and can be removed for your wedding day.
Face
If you skipped directly to this section, we wouldn’t fault you. Healthy, clear skin tends to be the number one concern of ides and for a good reason. Your friends and family, your groom, and the camera (which likely means the Internet and social media as well) are all looking right at you for an entire day. You need no more reason than that to explain why your skin care routine needs to be initiated well before your wedding day.
If you’ve never treated yourself to a facial before, there’s no better time or reason than being newly engaged to get started. Your aesthetician will give you a skin analysis and be able to tailor your facial to your trouble spots. They are also a good one-stop shop for all of your questions and ponderings when it comes to a daily skincare routine. They can give you recommendations on which ingredients you should be looking for in your skin products, which ones you need to be avoiding, and what your routine should even look like.
If you feel like your beautiful skin is hiding behind any unwanted hair, visit your local waxing center for a quick and painless removal. Starting a wax routine well before your wedding day will ease any concerns you may have of how your skin may react to waxing.
A trip to the dermatologist is also a good idea as you ramp up for your new self. But, widening your objective from a standard “I want to have good skin” will steer the way for a lifelong, possibly life-lengthening experience. Have your doctor take a good look at your skin, paying attention to any abnormalities, moles, freckles, or anything else that catches their eye. Plan a list of questions to ing to your appointment so that you aren’t caught off guard or nervous about what may happen. Ask for advice on sunscreen, water and liquid intake, how your diet can positively impact your skin, what allergens may be skirting by unnoticed in your life, and how you can improve your overall skin health for the years to come.
TIP: If you’ve never treated yourself to a facial before, there’s no better time or reason than being newly engaged to get started.
Body
Are you in a good exercise routine? Whether the answer is yes or no, your action item will still be the same. Regular exercise will not only help give you the body you are hoping to have in your wedding dress, but will also help decrease your stress levels and increase your ability to focus and work efficiently on a day to day basis. Think of your exercise goals for the long term, not just building up to your wedding day. A good routine is one that you can stick to, works with your lifestyle, is fun, and is impactful. However, workout ruts happen and so think ahead to what you will do if and when you hit that speed bump. Is there a new class you would like to try? Or maybe the weather is changing and there’s an indoor or outdoor sport that will work for the time being while you are in need of a change.
You should also take an honest look at your body in terms of posture and aches and pains. If this is an area of your health that could use an improvement, enlist the help of a chiropractor. Not only will a spinal adjustment help improve your posture, but a properly aligned spine will keep your entire body healthy. Plus, your aligned spine will work much better at the gym while you are lifting those weights to get those wedding dress-ready arms!
Hands, Feet, and Nails
With that beautiful engagement ring on your finger and a honeymoon to a possible destination where the sand will be sinking in between your toes, it’s absolutely necessary to discuss your hands, feet, and nail health as you rev up for the big events. In fact, some actually claim that your nails are the best clue to your overall health. How’s that for a reason to give them some TLC?
Make sure you are moisturizing your nails and cuticles daily. The right moisturizer will help with any cracking or otherwise excessive dryness you are experiencing. If you are a nail biter or picker, make a strong effort to kick that habit. A visit to the nail salon will help you safely take care of any ingrown nails or infections you have.
As the big day gets closer, you’ll likely be nervous about eaking a fingernail. The easiest way to maintain your nails is to keep them filed at a length that suits your lifestyle. If this means they are shorter than you’d prefer, you can easily have this fixed when you go to the salon right before the festivities begin.
As with everything in life, careful planning and development of healthy habits makes all of the difference in the world. Fortunately, the healthy lifestyle you develop as you are gearing up for your wedding day is one that you will likely find pleasant and beneficial enough to carry you throughout your life as a Mrs. Cheers to a healthy, happy, beautiful new you!
