Basics

This may sound overly simple, but the first step is to be sure you are clean. Take a bath or a shower shortly before you start to get ready. Make sure your nails are clean. Make sure you don’t have any body hair showing in places where you don’t want hair to show. Make sure you smell fresh. Brush your teeth, floss, make sure your mouth smells good. If someone else is styling your hair, make sure it’s clean and either damp or dry for the stylist, unless a shampoo is included in the styling. Make sure your face is free of make up before you or a make up artist goes to work. Make sure whatever you were planning to wear doesn’t have any spots, tears, or worn areas. Try it on in advance to make sure you can get zippers zipped, snaps snapped, and plan for any wardrobe adjustments that might need to be made (more on that later). You would be amazed at the number of people I have met who missed out on one or more of these basic steps.