Here comes the bride

It's the one day in your life when everything, just everything has to be perfect. From your hair to your make up to your clothes to your shoes. And its no easy task ensuring that you look that way. A lot of careful planning and coordinating goes into creating the perfect look for the perfect day.

Scary? Yeah. But not if you follow these simple practical tips to get your make-up in order for the big day.

• Do go in for a prior consultation with your beautician at least a week before the wedding. Take along your wedding outfit and samples of the jewellery you would be wearing. Another good idea is to take along references of looks you like from magazines and ads of the kind of look you like, so that the beautician is not working blind towards creating your look.

• The most basic must do's are to coordinate colours. If your outfit is a blazing pink, you cannot dare to wear red lipstick and nail polish.

• Do get a great beautician and hairstylist. No point in settling for a budget beautician when the look of an entire lifetime is at stake.

When you plan your make-up think about the camera. You don't want to look too chalky or pasty or even sallow. Here from the experts, is all that goes into making a bride look like a bride.

"Every bride is unique, therefore we try and give a unique look to each bride that is distinctively her," says Doris Godambe, hairstyle expert, who works as a team with her husband Bharat Godambe. Much sought after by brides for their ability to make a bride look like a movie actress, the duo have done the make up and hairstyling for most of the recent brides in Mumbai.

"A good clear skin is a great base to work on," says Bharat. The first thing to do is the base. A well applied base, can even out your complexion, cover spots and pigmentation and conceal dark circles. Use a yellow based concealer for heavy duty coverage. Do use your base as a method of contouring your face, with the help of darker and lighter shadowing. You can create the illusion of a perfect oval face, you can make your nose look perfect and your chin a little less dominating if you use base and contouring well.

For a bride, make-up should always err towards creating the illusion of perfection. Says Clint Fernandes, make up expert, "The look right now is glitter and sheen. A great dramatic look would be one with high gloss and sheen over eyelids and lips." But for those who like their look a little more traditional, the matte finish make-up is a great option.

DO insist on water resistant and long lasting make-up, you don't want it to melt in the hot light of the cameras. And waterproof mascara is a must have, after all, you wont look great racoon eyed after the bidai. For a bride, the traditional heavily kohl lined eyes is a great look to have. With clever make-up application you can make your eyes the perfect almond or doe eyed shape.

DO emphasise the socket of the eye with subtle play of dark shadow on the socket and highlight just under the brow bone. If you could, do go in for false lashes and then brush a coat of mascara through them to make them look a little natural. Contour your cheeks with a natural shade of blush with a subtle highlighter to add that bridal glow.

Your lips are an important part of the look, as important as the eyes. Line your lips with a lipliner a shade darker than the lipstick you've chosen and then fill in the lipstick with a brush. Blot it gently with a tissue and powder with pressed powder and repeat the liner and lipstick routine. This will help your lipstick last longer.

Another point to remember is to make sure your neck, your back and waist (basically any part of the body that shows through your ghagra choli ensemble) are all the same skin tone. Therefore do use body make up to even out skin tone and cover blemishes.

Go ahead, be a beautiful bride.