Treatments Before Your Wedding: What to Have Done, and When

The best wedding-day result is one nobody can point to. You look like yourself on a very good day, in photographs that will be looked at for decades, and nothing about your face is new or still settling.

That comes down to timing far more than to any particular treatment. Below is the timeline we work to when someone comes to us with a date in the diary, and the few things we would steer anyone away from.

Six months or more before

This is the right time for a first consultation, even if you are not yet sure you want anything done. It gives us time to plan properly, and it gives you time to change your mind.

Treatments that improve the skin itself need the longest run-in, because they work through your own collagen rather than by adding anything. Profhilo is usually two sessions four weeks apart, with the full effect around three months after the course. Sunekos and polynucleotides are courses of around three sessions a few weeks apart, on the same three-month timeline. PRP, on its own or with microneedling, is also a course, and three to six months is the fair timeline for judging it.

Start any of these five or six months out and the result has time to develop fully before the day, with room for a maintenance session if you want one.

If you would like a softer jawline in photographs, jaw slimming with anti-wrinkle injections belongs here too. Relief from clenching comes in about two weeks, but the slimming itself shows at four to six weeks and builds after that, so it needs a head start.

Five months before: a trial run

If you have never had anti-wrinkle injections or filler, have your first treatment around now rather than close to the wedding. Everyone responds a little differently. A first treatment tells us how your muscles respond to a given dose, how your lips or under-eyes settle, and whether you bruise easily. That is information we want long before it matters.

Anti-wrinkle injections (Botox) start to work in three to seven days, settle fully at around two weeks and usually last three to five months. A trial now will have largely worn off by the wedding, which is the point: you see the result, and we refine the dose for the treatment that counts. Anti-wrinkle treatments are spaced at least three months apart, which is why the trial needs to come this early.

Filler is different, because it lasts. If you want subtle lip, cheek or under-eye filler for the wedding, having it now means you live with the settled result for a few months, and we can add a little at your two-week review if it needs it. Around the eyes, where the skin is thin and bruising is more likely, we would rather have plenty of time in hand. Some under-eye tiredness is a skin problem rather than a hollow, and then polynucleotides are the better answer, which is another reason to assess it early: they are a course.

Four to six weeks before

This is when the anti-wrinkle treatment for the wedding itself should happen. It has settled by two weeks, which leaves time for the review we do at two weeks and for anything added then to settle too.

If excessive sweating is a worry, under-arm treatment fits here as well. It eases sweating for up to six months.

If you are having filler for the first time and have left it late, this is the latest we would be comfortable with, and we would keep it conservative. For someone topping up a treatment they have had before and know well, a little later is fine. Lip swelling is mostly gone in two to three days and most of the healing has happened within a week, but we would still rather not be treating anyone in the final fortnight.

Your last skin booster, PRP or microneedling session should be done by now as well. Microneedling in particular leaves the skin pink for a couple of days, and you do not want to be judging your skin in the week of the wedding.

The final two weeks: nothing new

Nothing new, and nothing injected. Any injection can bruise, and a bruise can take a week or more to fade. Make-up covers a lot, but not everything.

The same goes for skincare. Do not start a new product or a new active ingredient in the last few weeks. If something is going to irritate your skin, you want to find out months before, not days. Keep to what your skin already tolerates, wear sunscreen every day, and let everything settle.

If a spot appears, leave it alone. Squeezing turns a spot your make-up artist can cover into a wound they cannot. If you get breakouts that flare regularly, raise it with your GP well ahead of time rather than in the final week.

What we would steer you away from

A first-ever lip filler in the month before the wedding. A large change of any kind: the aim is for you to look rested and well, not different. A treatment booked because it looked great on a friend. And having several new treatments in one appointment close to the date, because if something needs attention you want to know which treatment caused it.

We will also tell you if we think you do not need anything at all.

For grooms

Everything above applies. The usual concerns are frown lines that read as stern in photographs, tired-looking under-eyes and skin quality. The timeline is exactly the same, and a first treatment still belongs months ahead rather than weeks.

What we do not offer

We are a doctor-led injectables clinic. We do not offer chemical peels, laser resurfacing, HydraFacials or other facials. If pigmentation or uneven skin tone is your main concern, those treatments are worth looking at with a practitioner who specialises in them, and the same rule applies: start early and finish well before the day.

Pregnancy and planning a family

We do not treat anyone who is pregnant or breastfeeding. If you are hoping to start a family soon after the wedding, mention it at your consultation, because it changes what we would recommend and when.

Questions we are often asked

Can I have Botox two weeks before my wedding?

We would rather not. At two weeks the result has only just settled, and there is no time left for a review or for an adjustment to settle. Four to six weeks is the window we plan for, and ideally not as your first ever treatment.

Is it too late if the wedding is a month away?

Not for everything. If you have had anti-wrinkle injections before, know how you respond, and your last treatment was at least three months ago, a treatment now is fine. A first-time filler, a course of skin boosters or jaw slimming would not have time to do what you want, and we would tell you so.

Will anyone be able to tell?

They should not. The dose is chosen to soften lines while keeping your expression, and we treat conservatively at a first appointment, because it is straightforward to add at review and impossible to take away.

What if I bruise?

Bruising is the main reason we avoid the final two weeks. If you take any blood-thinning medication, tell us, and keep taking it as prescribed. It simply means bruising is a little more likely, and we plan the timing around it.

Planning around your date

Book a consultation with your wedding date in hand and we will work backwards from it: what is worth doing, what is not, and when each part needs to happen. The clinic is at 3 Holmesdale Road in Reigate, one minute from the station, and we see patients from Redhill, Dorking, Banstead, Leatherhead, Horley and across Surrey. There is no consultation fee and no obligation to book anything. Book a consultation.

About the author

Dr Haroon Ashraf is a GMC-registered doctor (GMC 7645907) and the founder of Mindful Aesthetics in Reigate, Surrey. He qualified in medicine at St George's, University of London, in 2019, works in aesthetics full time, and has been a senior clinical trainer at Derma Medical since 2021, where he has taught over 1,000 doctors, dentists and nurses. Every treatment at Mindful Aesthetics is carried out by him personally.