The bridal beauty timeline: what to book and when

Twelve to six months before

This is when you choose your artist and secure your date, and the only genuinely urgent item on the list. Saturdays in wedding season go early, and there is no way to create more of them.

We do not take a deposit, so securing a date costs you nothing. It does mean we hold it on trust, and we would ask you to tell us as early as you can if your plans change, so someone else can have it.

• Choose your makeup artist and hairstylist, and hold the date
• Start any skin treatment course now, because results build over months rather than weeks
• If you plan a significant hair colour change, start it now so there is time to correct or adjust
• Pencil in the trial for roughly six to eight weeks before the wedding, not earlier

Six to three months before

This is the window where skin work actually pays off. Courses of facials, peels or pigmentation treatments need several sessions spaced weeks apart, and skin often looks worse before it looks better. That is normal, and it is exactly why this cannot be left late.

Anything involving the clinic starts with a consultation and a medical history, and we will tell you honestly whether what you want is achievable in the time remaining. If it is not, we would rather say so now than sell you a course that cannot finish.

• Continue or begin a course of facials or skin treatments
• Settle your hair colour, allowing time for a correction if the first result is not right
• Decide on the overall direction, and start collecting photographs of what you like and dislike
• If you are having lash or brow work, try it now rather than for the first time later

Eight to six weeks before: the trial

Book the trial close enough to the wedding that your hair length, colour and skin are roughly what they will be on the day, but far enough out that there is room to change the plan.

Come to the trial in the right conditions and it will tell you far more. Wear a top in a similar colour to your outfit, bring your jewellery and veil or headpiece if you have them, and choose a day when you can keep the makeup on for several hours and watch how it behaves.

If you are having a saree draped, try that at the trial too. Draping takes real time on the morning, and the drape changes how the whole look sits.

Four weeks before

• Have your last significant facial or peel, so any reaction has weeks to settle
• Finalise your hair colour, including the timing of any root touch-up
• Confirm the morning schedule, including how many people are getting ready and where
• Tell us about the venue and the lighting, since an outdoor daytime poruwa and an evening hotel reception need different finishes

Two weeks before

From here, stop trying new things. This is the single most useful rule on this page.

No new skincare products, no first-time facials, no new brands of anything that touches your face. A reaction that would be a minor nuisance in an ordinary month becomes a real problem two weeks out, and skin takes longer to calm than people expect.

• Book any hair colour refresh for now, not the final week
• Have threading, waxing or brow shaping now if your skin reacts to them, so redness has time to settle
• Drink water properly and sleep, which sounds trivial and is not
• Confirm your timings with us in writing so nothing rests on memory

The final week

• Nails, if you are having them done, roughly two to three days before
• No facials, no peels, no experiments, and nothing new on your skin
• Keep your usual skincare exactly as it is
• Eat and sleep as normally as the week allows, because both show on skin and under the eyes
• Lay everything out the night before: outfit, jewellery, veil, shoes, and anything we need to see

The morning itself

Wash your hair the night before rather than the morning, unless we have told you otherwise for your hair type. Day-old hair holds a style far better than freshly washed hair.

Come with clean, bare skin and no makeup. Wear something that unbuttons or unzips at the front, so getting into your outfit does not undo the work.

Allow more time than feels necessary. Bridal hair and makeup takes hours, saree draping adds to it, and photographers usually want you ready before you think. Being early is calm, and being late is not something anyone can undo.

A note on the homecoming

In Sri Lanka the homecoming is a second full look, often only a day or two later, and it deserves its own plan rather than being treated as an afterthought.

Decide early whether you want the same look softened or something genuinely different, and tell us at the trial. It changes what we prepare, how long we need on the second day, and sometimes what we do to your hair on the first.