Bridal Glow Timeline: When to Schedule Your Spray Tan for the Perfect Wedding Glow
Every bride wants to look radiant on her wedding day — glowing skin, beautiful photos, and confidence walking down the aisle. A custom spray tan is one of the easiest ways to achieve that flawless, sun-kissed look without sun damage.
But timing matters.
To help brides plan ahead, we created a simple Bridal Glow Timeline so your tan looks perfect for every wedding event, from engagement photos to the honeymoon.
3–6 Months Before the Wedding
Start thinking about your bridal beauty plan
This is the perfect time to begin planning your overall bridal beauty timeline.
If you’re planning engagement photos, bridal showers, or a bachelorette party, a spray tan can help you look polished and camera-ready.
Many brides schedule their first trial tan during this stage to see how the color develops with their skin tone and wedding makeup.
Pro tip: Bring inspiration photos and tell your spray tan artist about your dress color and makeup look so the shade can be customized.
4–6 Weeks Before the Wedding
Schedule your bridal trial tan
If you’ve never had a spray tan before, or if you want to be sure your color is perfect, we recommend scheduling a trial tan about a month before your wedding.
This allows us to customize the shade to complement your natural skin tone, dress color, and makeup look.
During your trial appointment, we’ll ask how many days before your wedding you plan to get your final tan. After the trial, we recommend taking a photo of yourself wearing white or holding a white towel on the same number of days later. This gives you a clear preview of how your color will look on the wedding day.
If you'd like the tone slightly lighter or darker, we can easily adjust it for the final appointment.
1 Week Before the Wedding
Keep Skin Simple and Hydrated
Healthy, hydrated skin helps your spray tan develop evenly and last longer.
In the week leading up to your appointment:
Moisturize daily
Avoid trying new skincare treatments or products
Avoid Dove deodorant, which can interfere with the tan developing evenly
Keeping your routine simple helps create the perfect canvas for your tan. We recommend:
Did you know that shea butter not only has amazing healing properties for your skin and your sunless tan, but that it naturally protects you against ultraviolet rays?!
Seriously cool, huh?
This unbelievable blend made of the highest quality organic shea butter, argan oil, natural plant extracts and vitamins will have your skin GLOWING from head to toe! It's consistency is like pudding...not greasy at all...your body will drink it up!
The bonus of every day protection makes this body butter a must-have in your skin routine.
FRAGRANCE: Unscented
VEGAN | NO PARABENS | NO PETRO-BY-PRODUCTS | NO MINERAL OIL |NO PHTHALATES | NO PROPOYLENE GLYCOL | NO NASTIES!
The Day Before Your Spray Tan
Prep Your Skin
Proper preparation makes a big difference in how your tan looks.
The day before your appointment:
Exfoliate your skin thoroughly
Shave if needed
Avoid heavy lotions or oils afterward
Arriving with clean, well-prepped skin allows the solution to apply smoothly and develop evenly. We recommend:
Our 3-Way Exfoliating Mitt has 3 unique sides for 3 different exfoliating levels.
Ensures the cleanest smoothest skin so your NEW tan is streak free and perfect
Silicone hairs give light/med exfoliation and promote circulation/blood flow
Turn inside out and use the honeycomb silicone for med/hard exfoliation and deeper circulation of skin/blood flow
3 layer buffing side promotes the most exfoliation where loosened skin will be trapped by the layers
Antibacterial and Washable
Hanging Loop for drying
TO USE:
Use mitt 24 hours before sunless tanning session.
We recommend pairing with SPRAY STUDIO BLANK CANVAS to skin per direction or soak in BLANK CANVAS Tan Removing Bath Soak for 10-15 mins to loosen dead skin and tan.
Use mitt to exfoliate skin in a circular motion. Layers of skin, old tan and impurities will roll off the body onto your mitt. Rinse skin. Finish by washing skin and moisturizing very well. Glove is washable, bleach-able and reusable.
Not getting a spray tan? We recommend exfoiating once a week for younger fresher looking skin.
1–4 Days Before Your Wedding
Get Your Spray Tan
The ideal time to get your bridal spray tan is about two days before your wedding, but beautiful results are still possible anywhere from one to four days before the ceremony.
Your spray tan will fully develop within about 24 hours. Tanning two days before the wedding simply provides a little extra flexibility in case anything needs adjusting after the development period.
If something unexpected happens during development, like sweating, water exposure, or skincare interference, we still have time to make a quick fix so everything looks perfect for the big day.
After Your Spray Tan
After your appointment, you’ll rinse according to the instructions we provide.
We typically recommend rinsing twice before your wedding day to ensure the cosmetic bronzer is fully removed and your natural glow is revealed.
For brides who prefer to skip the cosmetic bronzer altogether, we also offer a bronzer-free spray tan option that develops without the temporary guide color.
The Wedding Day
Glow with confidence
Your tan will look natural, even, and camera-ready on your wedding day. Most spray tans last 5–10 days, which means your glow will continue through your honeymoon and post-wedding celebrations.
To help extend your tan:
Moisturize daily
Use spray-tan-friendly body wash and moisturizers
Avoid harsh exfoliation
With the right preparation and timing, your spray tan will enhance your natural beauty and give you that effortless bridal glow every bride loves. We recommend:
Ever felt dry right after your shower? It is probably because of the sulfates in your wash!!! Using A Lil Lather SULFATE FREE Moisturizing Body Wash, a luxurious blend of aloe vera, sea moss, hyaluronic acid, and baobab oil, will leave you feeling just the opposite. It replenishes your skin instead of stripping it of it's natural oils! Follow with your choice of Spray Studio Body Moisturizers...you'll thank us later for your unbelievably soft skin!
FRAGRANCE: Unscented
8oz. and TSA Travel Size Available
Planning Your Bridal Glow
Every bride’s skin tone, dress color, and beauty vision are different, which is why we customize every tan.
We love working with bridal partners including:
• Hair stylists
• Makeup artists
• Wedding planners
• Photographers
• Bridal boutiques
If you’re planning your wedding or working with a bride, we’d love to help create the perfect glow for her big day.