Looking Good on Your Wedding Day!

You can improve how radiant you look on the big day with your diet, cleansing routine and general lifestyle. There are also plenty of things you can do on the day itself to maintain that centre-of-attention look.

A six-month countdown is recommended to make sure you look as radiant and healthy as possible on your wedding day, but brides who only have a few weeks to prepare can still see some stunning results.

Eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly are an essential part of the preparation.

Exercise will give your circulation a major boost and flush away the toxins that cause blemishes in the skin. Aim for 30 minutes of gentle exercise per day.

Eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, drinking around eight glasses of water a day, reducing your alcohol consumption and cutting out smoking will help prevent your skin from looking dowdy and dull. Try to make sure you get a good night's sleep of about eight hours in the weeks or days before the wedding.

However, there's more to looking good on the day than just being healthy.

"It's important to cleanse, tone and moisturise every day to get rid of any impurities," says Joanne Leah, a beauty therapist of six years who's also a member of the British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology.

Facials are also recommended as long as you start having them regularly a few months before the wedding. Trying one a few days beforehand is a mistake, as it could lead to a blotchy face.

Getting your hair in shape is also important.

According to the experts you should wash your hair whenever you feel you have to, usually every few days, and make sure it has a deep condition about once a month. This is where the product is combed through and left on for at least ten minutes.

Massaging your scalp with shampoo while washing will stimulate the blood flow and encourage the growth of healthy hair. And when dry, brushing will again stimulate the scalp and also get rid of any dead hair.

Advice from Vidal Sassoon says you should work out well in advance the way you want your hair to look. If you want to have it cut, make sure it's done about a week before the big day. This will make sure your style keeps its shape, but also has time to settle.

Your feet and hands shouldn't be forgotten either. Beauticians suggest a manicure and pedicure at a beauty salon every few weeks before the wedding, which normally includes a foot massage to stimulate the skin.

"At home, you should moisturise your hands daily and soak your feet in warm water for about ten minutes, twice a week," says beauty therapist Rebecca Hale.

"This basically leaves your feet feeling very refreshed, particularly if you use some essential oils, such as peppermint.

"When it comes to nails, it's important to file them two or three times a week and maybe push the cuticles back while you're in the bath."

When it comes to choosing your make-up for the wedding, caution is advised. The temptation might be to let a beautician pile on a lot of expensive make-up which may be totally inappropriate, especially for today's more natural look.

It's also important to know your skin colour. This might seem obvious, but you should check whether your skin is yellow or pink toned. Make sure your foundation matches your skin tone exactly, and check it in daylight.

If you are going to be applying your own make-up, beauty guru and professional make-up artist John Gustafson, from BBC's Looking Good Programme, has some sound advice: "Strong, intense shades for lips will be set off by neutral tones on eyes and cheeks.

"Play down eye colours to emphasise your lips. Choose a base eye shade that matches your skin tone and apply all over the eyelid."

He warns against using eyeliner on the top eyelid - it will look dated. And John suggests adding texture to eyes by applying a metallic lustre to the eyelid over a base shade.

Lips are also important on the day itself because of all that smiling, eating and kissing you are likely to be doing.

In order to make your lipstick last longer, apply a layer of foundation and powder to your lips before you put your lipstick on. This will give the lipstick something to grip to.

If you are having a separate evening function, it may be worth reapplying make-up, but don't apply more foundation over old foundation. It will look like rice pudding.

Remove foundation from areas of your face that have seen the most wear and tear. Reapply lipstick and lip gloss.

Finally, don't go to bed in your warpaint. If you don't clean if off at night you'll end up with stained pillow cases and a bad case of spots, which could well be a blemish on your honeymoon as well.