Hair and makeup for wedding guests in Lisbon

Wedding guest hair and makeup is a different booking from the bride's. The person asking is usually not the couple. It is a guest who has flown in for the weekend, a mother of the bride or groom, or a bridesmaid who is paying for her own hair rather than joining the bride's booking. It happens at a hotel in town, not at the venue, and it runs on the departure time rather than the ceremony time.

One senior artist comes to your room in Lisbon, Cascais or Sintra with a full kit and does hair, makeup, or both. English throughout. No payment is taken to book, and we reply within 24 hours.

Guests. You have flown in for a Saturday, you are in a hotel you do not know in a city you do not know, and you would rather not spend the morning of the wedding finding a salon that speaks English and can fit you in. This removes the problem entirely.

Mothers of the bride and groom. Usually hair rather than hair and makeup, usually something set rather than loose, and usually earlier than everyone expects, because the mother is often needed for photographs before the guests arrive.

Bridesmaids booking themselves. Not every wedding puts the bridesmaids on the bride's booking. Where they are paying separately, or where the bridal party is spread across two or three hotels, it is often simpler to arrange your own appointment and meet at the venue ready.

Small groups. Two, three or four people in the same hotel who all need to be ready by the same hour. That is one appointment with an order to it, not four separate bookings.

In your room, before you leave. Hotel, rented apartment, short let or villa, anywhere in Lisbon, Cascais or Sintra. The artist brings the full kit, her own hot tools and her own mirror light. You need a plug, a chair with a back rather than an armchair, and a metre of space beside a window or a lamp.

A room lit for the evening is not lit for foundation at ten in the morning, which is why the mirror light comes with her rather than being something you have to find. Nothing is fixed to the walls and the room is left as it was found. See how on-location beauty works in Lisbon for the full version, and hair and makeup at your Lisbon hotel if you are not going to a wedding at all.

The number that matters is not the ceremony hour. It is the hour you leave the hotel. For a wedding at a quinta outside the city, or on the Sintra hill, that is often an hour and a half or more before the ceremony, and more again on a summer Saturday when the roads towards Sintra are full from mid-morning.

Work back from the departure. If the ceremony is at five in Sintra, you are probably leaving at half past three. If you want hair and makeup, that is a start somewhere around half past one for one person. If there are three of you, it is considerably earlier, and the order matters.

Send us both times when you enquire, the ceremony and the departure, and we will send back a schedule rather than an arrival time.

One senior artist works through a group in sequence. That is the honest description: not a team working in parallel, but one person moving from chair to chair with a plan. It is why the order and the finish times are agreed in advance rather than improvised.

Real durations, so you can do the arithmetic yourself:

• A blow-dry or a set style: about 45 minutes.
• An updo: about an hour, longer for something structured or for very long hair.
• Makeup: about 45 minutes.
• Hair and makeup for one person: about 90 minutes to two hours.

So four guests who each want hair only is around three hours plus setting up, and it works. Four guests who each want hair and makeup is closer to six hours, and it does not work before an afternoon ceremony. In that case some of the group takes makeup only, or the party starts very early, or it is split across two days with the trial-style appointments the evening before.

We would rather tell you that at the enquiry than discover it on the morning. Send the group size and the finish time and we will say plainly what fits.

Most guests book one, not both. Hair is the more common of the two, because a wedding guest can usually do her own makeup and cannot easily do her own updo. If you book both, hair goes first and makeup second, so hot tools and hairspray never touch a finished face.

If you are unsure, book hair. It is the part that photographs from behind for six hours and the part you cannot fix in a hotel bathroom. See hairdresser in Lisbon and makeup artist in Lisbon for what each one involves.

Sintra is the one that catches people out. The distance is short and the road up the hill is slow, particularly between mid-morning and late afternoon in summer. If your ceremony is at a venue up there, add a serious buffer to whatever the map says and let the appointment start earlier rather than gambling on the traffic.

Cascais is easier. The A5 is quick outside rush hour and the coast road is slower but pleasant. From central Lisbon, allow around 40 minutes by car. Venues south of the river, in Arrábida or around Azeitão, involve a bridge, and both bridges queue at the wrong hours.

See wedding hair and makeup in Sintra, bridal hair in Cascais and the individual venue pages, which give the travel time and the start time for each place.