So there you are, making final decisions about your wedding. The outfits, invitations, rings, guest list, venue and menu are nearly sorted out and you get to turn your hard-won attention toward fantasizing about the honeymoon, where you and your spouse (sounds good, doesn’t it?) get to de-stress and dive into marital bliss (sometimes literally, depending on your honeymoon destination). Our plan for you: Look and feel delectable from head to toe, so you enter your new life feeling your happy, confident, loving best whether your wanderlust leads you to slinking into a swimsuit, skinny jeans, or your simply sumptuous birthday suit between the rose-petal-strewn sheets.
THREE MONTHS (OR EVEN A YEAR) BEFORE THE HONEYMOON
Get your team in place! You don’t have to prep for your honeymoon alone. The journey can even be fun. Start reaching out to family and friends for support, and make time to set your diet, skincare and fitness goals. Even if you’re more the au naturel type, it’s good to envision how you’d like to look and feel on your honeymoon, so there are no bad surprises.
Yes, you can lose weight, optimize your health or get fit before your honeymoon without losing your mind. Steer clear of wackadoo diets and suspicious weight-loss pills! There are many in-person and online wedding fitness bootcamps to join, on sites like theknot.com and toneitup.com; look for relevant hashtags on social media to help guide you to specific information.
Schedule appointments with your doctor, a nutritionist and personal trainer to set safe goals and put a plan in place. No trainer or can’t make time for the gym? Tap into the world of apps that can help with diet, fitness, beauty decisions, anxiety and meditation to alleviate stress. Also look for budget-wedding sites so you can save on the wedding and splurge on the honeymoon.
Try these apps for inspiration and instruction:
This is the time to find or connect with your dermatologist if you’re interested in aesthetic treatments or other new skincare regimens. Peels, for example, may be a one-off or involve multiple treatments performed over several weeks. CoolSculpting takes one to three months for the results to start showing, and some hair-removal techniques may require more than one visit. Don’t experiment with these procedures for the first time last-minute before your honeymoon, just in case you have some sort of allergic reaction or other displeasing results.
Visit a hairstylist and confirm if you need regular, deep-conditioning treatments, and consult about your haircut. Any highlighting, hair color or extensions need to be decided well before the honeymoon. Perhaps do a trial run. How will the new color interact with pool chlorine, for example?
Because good skin is also an inside job, an esthetician or nutritionist may suggest cutting out or reducing sugar, caffeine, flour, dairy or gluten, for example, to boost energy, get glowing skin or de-bloat. You may start a new regimen of vitamins and supplements. Making new habits early on can help you mitigate stress as you get closer to the wedding.
Your trip will have a beginning and end, but your smile will live forever in photos. Make a dentist appointment to confirm your teeth are in good health and schedule teeth-whitening or start a whitening routine.
ONE MONTH BEFORE THE HONEYMOON
Botox and fillers can be refreshed seven days to a month before the wedding. Botox can take a few days to settle in but lasts for two to three months, depending on your activity level.
Now’s the time to do a test run of any professional tanning services or products. Targeted tanning can also help “sculpt” abs etc., but be mindful of products that could stain your clothes.
Check in on your fitness goals: Can you relax, or are there areas you’d like to amp up? Talk to your trainer or find exercises to target areas that may need additional toning.
Think through your makeup purchases. Are you a crier? Will you be doing a lot of swimming on your honeymoon? Perhaps experiment with waterproof mascara. Do makeup trials for your wedding and honeymoon beauty looks—imagine the horror of discovering you’re allergic to an ingredient in a new skincare product when it’s too late to do anything about it.
ONE WEEK OR LESS BEFORE THE HONEYMOON
Now’s your moment to get super serious about how your skin looks—limit excess salt, carbohydrates and alcohol to reduce puffiness in your face and body.
Next, make a checklist for last-minute treatments:
While it’s good to keep moving every day, when you’re one or two days out from leaving on your trip, don’t overdo the exercise. You don’t want to be so sore that you miss out on all the honeymoon fun. Set a timer on your phone to hydrate often, and most important, enjoy the wedding and visualize the trip of a lifetime. You’re prepared.
And if you fell short of your goals and you don’t feel picture-perfect, remember that your spouse fell in love with you as-is. Your bond is deeper than skin and will last longer than any one event or trip.
Join our twistup membership and receive a $100 gift card today!