Popular treatments for brides before the big day

Story by Lauren Dowdle

Photo Contributed

All eyes are on the bride during her big day. She makes sure everything is perfect, from her hair and makeup to the dress. It’s a day she and her new husband will remember their entire lives.

But helping her feel especially stunning and glowing can start months before the wedding day with different beauty treatments — from teeth whitening to facials. These services aren’t last-minute fixes, so it’s important brides figure out what they want done months in advance.

Yellow teeth and a white dress don’t pair well together, which is why so many brides get teeth whitening before their weddings. Calera’s John Allen Baggett DMD Family and Cosmetic Dentistry offers two types of whitening systems for the bride-to-be.

The first option includes whitening that’s done in the office and takes about an hour and a half, and it also comes with custom take-home trays for the patient to use once a month to maintain the white shade of their teeth.

“Patients are very pleased with the results of the system,” says Dr. John Allen Baggett of the service that costs $425.

Another option they offer is a custom tray with whitening gel that is all done at home by the patient, and that one costs $100.

Beyond giving brides a whiter smile, Baggett also offers Juvederm, a dermal filler used to enhance facial areas like lips, deep wrinkles and smile lines. This treatment costs $625 per tube and lasts about six to nine months.

He recommends brides come at least three months before their wedding for both teeth whitening and Juvederm.

“This time frame gives the whitening time to even out and the Juvederm maximum results,” Baggett says. “Sometimes with Juvederm, there can be slight bruising and swelling that can last several days.”

To get the perfect wedding-day glow, many brides also turn to a variety of skin and injectable treatments.

Pure Dermatology & Aesthetics in Hoover offers a range of skin and beauty treatments including facials, chemical peels, laser hair reduction, intense pulsed light treatments for sun spots, radio-frequency treatments to improve skin texture, lash and brow tinting, waxing, CoolSculpting and injectables like Botox.

The treatments start at $20 (brow tinting) and go up from there, says Dr. Elizabeth Martin, president of Pure Dermatology & Aesthetics. Brides can begin with a free consultation to talk about their needs and concerns, and the team creates a personalized plan for her, Martin says.

While the selection of services is individualized, there are a few specific ones at Pure Dermatology that are especially popular with brides.

“Many brides enjoy a series of facials and chemical peels prior to the big day so the skin has a special glow,” Martin says. She adds brides and their mothers also like botulinum toxin injections to soften frown lines, forehead lines or crow’s feet.
Some services, like facials and light chemical peels, have no downtime, Martin says, but others do require a few days of recovery. They encourage the brides to start a good skin care regimen at home as early as possible to complement the results they receive from treatments.

Martin says brides should schedule a consultation as soon as they get engaged to ensure there’s plenty of time for whatever treatments they want. Beyond considering the wedding date, she says it’s also important to plan your treatments around showers and other pre-wedding events.

If a bride has never had botulinum toxin or fillers and is interested, she recommends a trial run prior to the wedding.

“Botulinum toxin injections last about three months, so if a bride is considering these, try to schedule a trial of this at least four to five months prior to the wedding,” Martin says. “That way, if we are happy with the results, another treatment can be scheduled just prior to the wedding. If it’s not what was expected, then it is gone before the wedding.”

Injectable fillers can cause some swelling and bruising following the injection, and deeper chemical peels can require several days of recovery. Other treatments like CoolSculpting take about three months to show the best results, Martin adds.

She also stresses the importance of using a board-certified dermatologist for skin care needs to ensure they are qualified to perform all of the treatments.

“Our ultimate goal with every procedure is for our patients to look refreshed, rejuvenated and to look her or his best,” Martin says. “We love it when our patients are complimented for looking so beautiful — but when their friends can’t figure out what procedure(s) they had done. We want our patients to be the best version of themselves, not to look unnatural or to appear as if it is obvious that they had work done.”

For a mixture of beauty treatments and pampering, Spa Greystone off of 280 offers bridal packages that can be custom built to match specific needs.

To reduce the appearance of cellulite and improve the overall skin appearance, they offer five endermologie treatments for $225 or 10 for $400. Five laser treatments that even skin tones are $500, or brides can remove unwanted hair from their bikini line ($500), full bikini ($700) and legs ($2,500).

Or if a relaxing experience fits the bill, Spa Greystone also provides Swedish massages, facials, manicures, pedicures, event hairstyles and makeup applications as part of bridal packages. They offer a variety of other beauty treatments, as well, but the bridal packages are the most popular for the big day.

All of these treatments are meant to uncover each bride’s natural beauty and help her feel her best as she gets ready to walk down the aisle.