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"I love going to weddings&amp;amp;#8212;no matter when or where or who&amp;#x27;s tying the knot&amp;amp;#8212;but there are certain nuptial details that never fail to make me cringe: skirts with pickups, sheer panels on bodices, and the following wedding-day beauty cliches. Wedding-day beauty cliche #1: the superfake French manicure I think a lot of girls with so-so nails (I can relate!) panic about how to get their hands looking really pretty for not only the wedding but all those bouquet and ring photos that&amp;#x27;ll be kicking around for, oh, ever. And that&amp;#x27;s why they end up getting a gel French manicure for the first time and often end up with these super-fake looking nails that remind me of Lee Press-Ons (if you were teenaged in the 80s, you know what I speak of). How to avoid it: Just because you go gel doesn&amp;#x27;t mean you have to go long. Avoid the claw effect by keeping the tips just a tad past your fingertip; this&amp;#x27;ll still be enough to make your fingers look long and lovely. And while the French manicure seems a safe bet, a more modern choice is to have the whole nail painted in a soft pink or other neutral (or hey, you could even go for a bold red like Save the Date blogger Kim did!). If you love French tips, ask that the tips not be too white; paler looks more believable and way less cliche. Wedding-day beauty cliche #2: the too-dark tan Is it fear of wearing a stark white gown that leads so many brides to go way, way, way tan for their wedding day? I think so. In fact, despite my passionate anti-tanning-bed convictions, I even (briefly!) considered cheating and hitting the bulbs before my own wedding. But there&amp;#x27;s no way I would have gotten a deep tan--I think they look so silly in wedding photos, when the darkly bronzed bride stands out amidst a sea of pasty friends and relatives (not to mention her white gown). Just as bad are too-orange spray tans. How to avoid it: Well first of all, try to talk yourself out of the tanning bed. Even if you&amp;#x27;re seriously only going to do this for your wedding, you know it&amp;#x27;s really, really bad for you, right? I know you know, so I won&amp;#x27;t nag you further. The thing is, a great spray tan will look so much better anyway. If you make sure to do at least one trial run, exfoliate well the day before, and describe to the salon that you want to look natural in your wedding photos, you&amp;#x27;ll end up loving the results, I promise. Click here for details on how to get a good spray tan. Wedding-day beauty cliche #3: helmet updos with strategically placed tendrils There is nothing worse than an updo that looks so hard it would save the bride&amp;#x27;s life in the event of a freak motorcycle accident on her wedding morning. Oh wait, yes there is: a hard, oversprayed updo that has strategically placed ringlet tendrils meant to &amp;quot;soften&amp;quot; the look--one on each side of the face. How to avoid it: It&amp;#x27;s sometimes difficult to tell if an updo looks too stiff when you&amp;#x27;re sitting there staring at your reflection in the salon mirror for an hour and analyzing every curl and twist. So be sure to take photos at your hair trial and look at them a couple days later to be sure you still like the hair. Poll friends about whether there&amp;#x27;s anything you might tweak about the look. And avoid those perfectly placed two tendrils--if you want to soften the edges around your face, you can get a haircut that has some shorter layers in front so pieces come out in more natural spots, like above the ears. The wisps don&amp;#x27;t have to match up on both sides of your face; you can even do loose pieces on just one side, if you want. Have your hairstylist try a few tendril options and photograph each so you can decide which really flatters your face most. Now let&amp;#x27;s discuss: Do you ladies disagree with me about any of these three? And is there another wedding-day beauty cliche you&amp;#x27;d add to my list? Find lots of wedding-day beauty DOs here! What&amp;#x27;s With All the Spam in the Comments Section? Sick of all those annoying ads in the comments section lately? So are we! We police the site regularly and delete spam as soon as we can, but recently, the volume of spam has increased dramatically. We&amp;#x27;re working on a way to block them permanently, so please bear with us, and know that we&amp;#x27;re as eager as you are to get rid of these pests. Meanwhile, please continue to use the Report Abuse button to flag spam--it really does help!-- and continue to leave your brilliant feedback below. If you have any urgent questions about the spam, please contact us. More Ways to Get Glamour: Download Glamour on your iPhone or iPad! Like freebies? Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Sign up for our fashion and beauty newsletters to get easy style tips (it&amp;#x27;ll make your inbox 10x sexier, we promise). One more PS: Did you know you can now read glamour.com on your smart phone?! It&amp;amp;#8217;s the ultimate boredom buster. Photo: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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