Hair and makeup for your wedding at Bairro Alto Hotel

Bairro Alto Hotel occupies the corner of Praça Luís de Camões, which is the hinge between Chiado below and Bairro Alto above. It is about as central as a Lisbon hotel gets: the square is walkable from Baixa, from Cais do Sodré and from Príncipe Real, and taxis reach it easily except when the surrounding streets are closed for an event.

For a wedding that matters in two ways. First, the artist arrives on foot or by a short taxi ride, so the morning has almost no travel risk in it. Second, guests staying nearby are within walking distance, which makes a group booking practical in a way that a scattered party never is.

The hotel's fifth-floor terrace and restaurant, BAHR, looks out over the Tagus and the rooftops. It is one of the better-known rooftops in the city, and it is the reason a lot of couples choose the hotel for photographs or for a drinks reception rather than for a full ceremony.

That view comes with wind. A terrace five floors up over Chiado in the late afternoon is breezier than the square below, particularly in spring and autumn. If any part of your day is up there, the hair should be pinned for it, and it is worth deciding that at the trial rather than in the moment with a photographer waiting.

The light up there is strong and clean, which photographs beautifully and shows everything. Base and finish are chosen with that in mind.

The getting-ready session happens in your room, not on the terrace. What it needs is a plug, an upright chair and a metre of space next to a window or a lamp. The artist brings her own kit, hot tools and a mirror light, so a room lit for the evening rather than for foundation is not a problem.

Hair goes first and makeup second, so nothing finished is disturbed by hot tools. For one person, hair and makeup together is roughly two hours. Each additional person adds about 45 minutes per service. A bride and three attendants is a morning that starts early rather than one that needs a second artist.

Many couples who stay in Chiado are married somewhere else, at a quinta outside Lisbon or on the Sintra hill. In that case the schedule runs backwards from the hour the cars leave, which on a summer Saturday can be well over an hour before the ceremony.

Send both times when you enquire, the ceremony and the departure. The second is the one the timeline is actually built on, and the one people most often forget to work out until late.