A pre-bridal timeline for a winter wedding

Start with the calendar

A Delhi winter wedding is rarely one day. Depending on the family, there may be a roka, a mehendi, a haldi and a sangeet. Then a cocktail evening, the ceremony itself and a reception, spread over days or weeks. Each one is a day with a camera in it.

Before booking anything, write every date down, including the ones still being fixed. Add work deadlines and any travel. Bring that list to the first appointment, and we’ll plan the skin, hair and salon appointments backwards from it.

No appointment can promise how you’ll look on the day, and we won’t pretend otherwise. What planning does is make room, so nothing important gets squeezed into the week of the sangeet.

As soon as the date is set

This is when the clinic comes first. Laser hair reduction is done as a course of sessions, spaced out over time, so it needs the longest run-up. Book the consultation early and bring the dates. The number of sessions and the gaps between them are set there, with the calendar in view.

The same goes for a medical facial or anything else a doctor would plan. Start with a consultation well before the date. We don’t put clinical timings on a website, because they depend on the skin in front of the doctor. Clinical treatments are carried out by a qualified doctor.

Grooms plan on the same calendar. A groom considering beard laser hair reduction should book a consultation at the same early point.

Two or three months before

Try a salon facial now, well away from any function. If the skin takes to it, that’s the facial to repeat later. If it doesn’t, there’s time to try another.

This is also the moment to talk to the stylist about the hair for each function. An updo for the ceremony and open hair for the sangeet may want different lengths, so agree the length you’re growing towards before anyone cuts. A hair spa at the backwash chair now and again in these months is pleasant time away from the planning.

Winter brings colder air and room heaters, and skin that felt settled in September can feel different by December. That’s one more reason to try things early.

The last month

The salon appointments move closer together now. Book a trim a week or two before the first big function, so the cut has settled by the time the photographs start. Go with the stylist if they suggest a different gap.

Keep the facial before each big function to one you’ve already had. For a salon facial you know, a few days before tends to work well. For anything clinical, the last date is set at the consultation, and it may be further out.

Around the mehendi

Book the manicure and pedicure a day or two before the mehendi. Once the henna is on, hands and feet shouldn’t be soaked or scrubbed for a while. Nobody wants to sit through a pedicure with wet mehendi anyway.

Choose the nail colour with the outfits in front of you, or photos of them. Several functions in a row can mean several changes of colour, so ask the nail technician what’s practical between them.

Between functions

The days between functions are loud. An evening in the Ayurveda room is time when nobody can ask about the seating plan. A potli massage means warm cloth pouches pressed along the back, shoulders and legs, in a dim room.

Keep oil away from any day the hair is being styled for a function. Oiled hair and a blow-dry don’t mix.

On a cold December evening, the steam room is a warm place to sit for a while. Anyone who is pregnant, unwell or unsure whether steam suits them should check with their own doctor before reserving.

The final week

Try nothing new this week. Keep to the products and appointments you already know.

Leave some empty evenings in the diary as well. A plan that fills every hour of the last week is hard to keep, and harder to enjoy.

When you’re ready, bring the dates to a first visit. The pre-bridal programme sets out how we plan skin, hair, nails and massage around them.