Confessions of a rookie bride: the beauty challenge

Welcome back to our new Rookie Bride series. From now until she eventually gets hitched (which could, in fairness, be 2047) Miriam will be keeping you up to date on her bridal diary, every second Thursday. And please, before she falls into a black hole of tulle, gold markers and party favours, join the conversation and share your thoughts. Last time, she spoke about the reality of having to actually get married, has she got closer to planning...anything?

I can't sleep at night. At first, I thought it was January (I've been blaming everything on January) but now I realise it's stress. Wedding related stress, of course.

I try to get myself to sleep by imagining what my insomniac alter ego would be called and wondering what kind of club we would run but those sneaky wedding thoughts come creeping back in. Venue, colour scheme, dress etc etc wedding etc. None of the things I've sorted.

Yes, we are taking our sweet time putting everything into action (that leaky roof has taken over our lives) and I'm getting nervous that we're not moving forward. It's not easy when people keep on asking us for updates and we have nothing to report. The one thing I have started, however, is the thing that needs a long, long, long time to take effect. And that's beautifying myself.

It dawned on me recently that it's not enough to be wearing professionally applied makeup on the day. Since everyone will be looking at me all day long, I want to look as nice as I can from the inside, you know what I mean? I want that lovely bridal glow.

But I need a lot of work. I have an oily, scarred, red, uneven complexion made dull by not drinking enough water and drinking too much wine. And smoking the odd cigarette. And lack of sleep. Dammit!

Controlling breakouts (not to mention getting fit and toned) is the hard part so doing something that you can see immediate results with is a good starting point. My first port of call: tackling my brows.

In case you didn't already know, our beauty editor Aisling is an eyebrow guru. When she arrived in Beaut HQ last year I was, of course, aware of this fact and yet I insisted on coming into work with disgracefully unkempt brows. It was just something I wasn't bothered with. Then, I got engaged and my sister suggested I get a manicure for showing off my ring, which I did, and while I was at it I booked myself a hair appointment (it had been a year since my last cut) and I asked Aisling if she could sort out my brows for once and for all.

Aisling is always saying that your brows can transform your face and she's not wrong. I didn't realise how my brows were contributing to the general unpleasantness of my face until she got her hands on them and suddenly I looked younger and more symmetrical (which is the key to attractiveness, don't you know?).

I had never had an eyebrow session like it. Whereas I'd only ever plucked them myself before and got them threaded, Aisling plucked, threaded, waxed, dyed and trimmed my brows all in one go. The session lasted for longer than I expected (it would have to for a job like that) but I was happy to lie on the chair and chat to Aisling as she did her thing. It's quite cool to feel all of the different sensations of the various techniques Aisling uses and let me tell you, it was the least painful threading I've had (and I hate the feeling of threading).

Ready for an extreme close up?

It's funny how such a small change can alter your attitude. I met my friend the day after my brow-over and she couldn't pinpoint why she wanted to compliment me until I drew her attention to my peeps. Other friends noticed straight away. Along with the hair cut (and I'm getting it dyed next payday) I feel like I'm on the road to I'm-A-Proper-Bride-dom.

You should know that when Aisling is not performing her Beauty Editor duties here at Beaut HQ she runs Empower Studio in Ballsbridge, Dublin and take it from me, she's the Brow Queen.

Are you a bride to be who's starting to panic? Has anyone who has gone through the process found that starting the beauty process early is a good idea? When it came to health, fitness and beauty how did you prepare for your big day?