Planning a traditional wedding requires a few key things: a florist, the band or DJ, the cake, and the ability to keep track of finding, hiring, and paying for all of them. (Fun!) Now you can add visiting a dermatologist to that laundry list. But forget a nice, relaxing facial—these days more brides-to-be are springing for cosmetic injectables to smooth crinkles and plump lips before their wedding day.
"We have definitely seen an uptick in consultations with brides-to-be who want to get a skin-care game plan even a year before the big day,” says Kristel Polder, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist at Dallas Center for Dermatology and Aesthetics in Dallas. "Brides want to look good for all aspects surrounding a wedding—portraits, bachelorette party, wedding, and honeymoon."
Cosmetic injectables are a natural fit for this. "Fillers have a longevity that allows you to maintain these results through the process," Polder says. “Particularly with millennials, we've been asked for smaller dosing to test out fillers in their lips, cheeks, and under their eyes." Meanwhile, neuromodulators (or "wrinkle reducers" as they're more commonly called), such as Botox and Dysport, have become popular among brides for specific areas of the face.
Polder's clinical experience is reflective of the large-scale trend of prewedding injectables. RealSelf, a review site that tracks the popularity of cosmetic treatments, found that in the past year neuromodulators accounted for 15% of nonsurgical prewedding treatments, with injectable fillers close behind at 14.15%. This follows the overall rise in the use of injectables, which are no longer solely within the realm of antiaging. That is, actual aging is no longer a prerequisite for cosmetic injectables.
Instead, contoured cheekbones, preternaturally smooth foreheads, and plump lips have taken over Instagram feeds and celebrity faces alike, underscoring the new role of cosmetic injectables as a way to sculpt and augment in addition to lift and firm—no matter your age. (Unsurprisingly, the look has been been dubbed "Instagram face.") And they've been embraced accordingly. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the number of filler procedures among people who are between 30 and 39 years old has grown by nearly 30% since 2010. (And of those, the number of hyaluronic acid filler injections in particular, such as Juvéderm or Restylane, has almost doubled.) Meanwhile, neuromodulator procedures among patients between 30 and 39 has increased by nearly 35%, to 1.3 million.
“I did Restylane to help fill in some sinking by my undereyes and elevate my cheeks,” says Jaime Maser, a publicist in New York City who also got Botox. “As my derm at the time said: A fuller face is a youthful face.” At 34 years old, this was her first time getting cosmetic injectables. She scheduled her appointment two months before her wedding as a way to give her skin what she calls “a little boost.”
As she puts it, the decision made all the difference when the big day rolled around. “The result was me, but with a perfectly realistic Instagram filter,” she recalls. And that’s kind of the point. You can’t really talk about injectables without mentioning Instagram’s effect on their popularity. The platform—and its requisite filters—have so influenced cosmetic surgery trends that it recently banned augmented reality filters, which replicate the look of lip injections and other fillers.
Women don't forget that when they’re considering how they want to look when they walk down the aisle. After all, “doing it for the ’gram” is a very real thing. More than half of couples create an Instagram hashtag for nuptials, according to a 2018 report by WeddingWire, indicating just how big a role social media plays in the wedding planning process.
Elise Walden, 41, a corporate account manager in Atherton, California, who shared her experience on RealSelf, received lip filler injections about six weeks before her wedding. “I do minimal amounts just to add a little bit of volume,” she says. “It makes wearing lipstick so much more fun.” She also got Botox around her eyes, with her doctor adding incremental amounts slowly to ensure her face still had movement and looked natural for her wedding day.
It was worth the, well, work, she says. “I was so happy that it all looked the way that it did,” says Walden. “I got tons of compliments on my skin and my face from so many guests, the makeup artists, and photographers.” Another advantage for her was knowing that her skin would look good after the stress of planning a wedding. “Even when you’re insanely exhausted leading up to and during the wedding weekend, you’ll still look great and not tired,” she says.
Because she had been getting injectable treatments regularly, she didn’t have to consider her wedding expenses. But Cessie Cerrato, a New York public relations specialist in her thirties, factored the price of Botox into her wedding budget—because at an average cost of $397, depending on your provider and location, it can be expensive. “I did take it from my wedding budget,” she says. “But I knew Botox was something I eventually wanted to get and something I needed to factor into my overall beauty budget.”
She got her first injections in her forehead and around her eyes four months before her wedding. “I wanted to try it out and see how I looked, how I liked it, and made sure I had time for it to go away in case I didn't like how I looked,” she says. Cerrato loved the results and returned for more Botox a month before her wedding, since its effects can last anywhere from three to four months (or more) depending on how your body metabolizes it. “I really loved the results,” she says. “It looked very subtle and natural.”
If you’re interested in prewedding injectables, your best bet is to make an appointment once you get engaged. “Making an appointment as far in advance of your wedding date is imperative,” says Polder. She says a board-certified derm will be able to help you create a game plan should you want to address any concerns around sun damage, skin texture, pores, wrinkles, or discoloration. That way, you won’t have to worry about last-minute trips to the derm or aesthetics bar, for which any side effects can be a much bigger concern. “We have treated a variety of prewedding issues, from a lump of filler which needed to be dissolved to a ‘spooked’ eyebrow, making the bride look quizzical,“ says Polder. "Typically, most treatments would not be performed on the day of or the days leading up to the wedding." It's not uncommon for filler to cause bruising and swelling, while the effects of Botox can take up to a week to set in. If you do have only a few days to work with, then it would be wise to coordinate it with your makeup artist or photographer—just in case you need a heavy-duty concealer to hide a bruise (or, of course, go without).
In addition to giving yourself enough time, it's important to research the right provider. “Many patients learn the hard way that who you pick to perform your injectables is just as important as, if not more important than, the injectable being used,” Polder says. “In the right hands filler enhances the bride’s natural beauty. In the wrong hands the bride ends up frantically trying to dissolve or erase the bad work.” And while hyaluronic acid fillers can be reversed with an injection of hyaluronidase, an enzyme that breaks filler down, bruising can be fixed only with a laser...or time. Plus, healing times vary woman to woman, and there is always the risk your body could have an adverse reaction—to filler or to the enzyme use to dissolve it.
Still, the appeal of cosmetic injectables is understandable. For many, their wedding day is the most they'll ever be photographed. And if injectables will make you feel more comfortable and confident on- and off-camera, there's little to lose. Notes Walden: "There’s always a degree of nerves with anything to do with your face before your wedding—but the way I see it, if you give yourself enough wiggle room to fix it, then there's not much to worry about."
Deanna Pai is a writer in New York City. Follow her on Twitter @deannapai.
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