Your hair and makeup trial or preview is one of the many meetings that you will be doing to make sure that you know exactly how your wedding day is going to go. One thing that makes me as a planner sad to hear is when a couple doesn’t feel like they looked their best on a day that will stand out to them in their memory forever. Typically, trials are done about a month or two before your wedding so that you are as close to the wedding date as possible to know that you won’t drastically change your mind on the look you want to have. I will always highly recommend a preview or a trial for both your hair and makeup just to make sure that you know exactly what you yourself will look like on your wedding day to help you feel confident and comfortable, but it’s hard to know exactly how to prepare for a trial like this. Here are some of the things that you can do to help prepare yourself for your trial and have an amazing experience.

Look up Inspo

It’s definitely important to have a general vision of how you would like to look on your wedding day. Make sure to find some photos of ideas that you like the look of, and try and figure out exactly what parts of the hair and makeup that you do and don’t like. If you can, I would recommend looking at your own hair stylist and makeup artist’s work because you know that they are looks that they are able to pull inspiration from!

Schedule as Early as Possible

When I say early, I mean as early in the day as possible! One of the benefits of having your preview earlier in the day is that you can wear the look for the whole day and see how it holds up. Of course you can’t always do this if you can’t take off of work, but I would recommend seeing it for as many hours as possible in case things fall or don’t look right by the end of the night.

Determine the Number of Looks

Many nearlyweds opt for the one look from the beginning of their wedding day that they wear until the end, but know that that isn’t your only option! I have had a few couples that have their makeup artist come back to the wedding for touchups, or have their hair stylists change the look from having your hair down to an evening updo. Make sure you let your hair/makeup artists know as soon as possible before the trial if you’re interested in multiple looks, because they will likely need to allot more time for them.

Buy and Bring Accessories

If you’re doing your trial or preview about a month in advance, you hopefully should have all of your accessories already purchased or at least planned for. It’s always nice to bring with you any accessories you plan on wearing for your wedding day to know exactly how the look is going to come together. Things like jewelry, your veil, and lipstick are all good things to pack with you when you go to the preview.

Talk about Prep

Your hair stylists and makeup artists likely will have their own recommended regimen to best prep your hair and your face for the products to work at the best capacity possible. If they don’t have it in their contract or invoices, I would recommend reaching out to them personally about 3 weeks before your trial to ask how you can best prepare your face and hair with any practices or products to make sure you get the most of your money’s worth.

Know the Plan

Your trial or preview is meant to show you generally how you are going to look for the wedding day. It’s best to tell your artists what you do and don’t like about the look and see what their plan is moving forward. They may make those changes at the actual trial, or they may take notes so that for the wedding day they will have that change already made. If you’re concerned about not seeing the final product with those changes, ask your artists about their process for the preview.

Ask about the End Result

Some makeup artists and hair stylists want you to leave the salon with the look you anticipate wearing for your wedding day, but some will do so many different things with your hair and makeup that it might be blown out with products. I highly recommend asking your artists and stylists if you will be “photo ready” at the end of the trial. Some people like to try and wear these looks out for their engagement shoots, bachelorx parties, or the wedding shower, so it’s definitely important to know how presentable you will look after the trial is over.

Your trial should definitely be a fun time if you plan accordingly and have amazing artists and stylists! There are definitely folks that get to their trial and realize the artist is unable to pull their look together, but as long as you’re using reputable, good vendors and planning for the trial ahead of time, you should be able to walk away from your trial with a really good idea of how you will look for the wedding day. Let me know if you need some help finding a hair stylist or a makeup artist here and I would love to help you out in your planning journey!