The Verdict

I'm talking about the spray tan, of course.

The truth is--the jury is still out. However, as of now, I'm leaning more toward not having it done for the wedding.

Let me just start off by saying that this really is a good spray tan. I've received many compliments on it and when I tell people it's a spray tan they can't believe it. They've either had really bad spray tans before, or they think it looks really natural, etc.

But the night of the tan, and the morning after, I totally looked like an oompa loompa. Once showered, things definitely looked better, but it was still a little too dark for me. All of my friends and bridesmaids on the wine tour said it looked great (although one did point out that my ankles were a little orange), but every time I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, it felt like I wasn't myself.

Day three and day four (yesterday and today) were much, much better. After a couple more showers, things definitely faded into a more normal (for me) looking shade. But even so, I'm scared to do this for the wedding day.

For starters, my left hand is noticeably darker than my right hand. This probably had something to do with something I did after the tan on Friday. It was impossible to go the rest of the day without washing my hands at all, and although I was careful, I'm sure I messed it up somehow.

Secondly, it's weird to see your armpits tan. It just is. And when I'm raising my arms above my head for dancing and such, I don't really want it to scream "FAKE TAN!" to my guests and in our pictures.

Third... today (day four) I went to my aerobics class with a white shirt on to see what would happen when I got really hot and sweaty (nice visual, huh?). The good news was that there wasn't any rub-off on any of the areas I was most concerned about with my dress--nothing under the arms, on the chest, etc. The bad news was that there WAS some rub-off on my neck/collar. Rub-off on the neck/collar is not something I'm worried about for the wedding day given that my dress is strapless. However, it got me to thinking... if I can experience rub-off on my neck on day four, I could experience rub-off under my arms as well.

At this point, I'm thinking I'm going to go back to my trusty dusty tinted tanning lotion (I use Banana Boat). I used it every other day during the week leading up to the shower and I felt like I had a nice color. Nothing noticeably TAN, per se, but not pasty white. I used it regularly last summer and didn't have any problems with rub-off except for a little bit on my towel after showering. I definitely won't use it on the actual wedding day... maybe not even the day before. I'll get myself some nice color leading up to it, use it on Thursday night... and then shower it off on Friday morning. More than enough time for any residual tanning lotion to make its way off my body before I'm in a white dress on Saturday.

So I think that's the plan. I'm still pretty torn on the whole thing, because I really do like the look of day three and day four with the spray tan. But let's face it, I'm not a risk taker. More than anything, I just want to look like myself on my wedding day. And if I'm being honest, my normal self is NOT tan. I don't want to look back on my pictures and wonder what the hell I was thinking with that spray tan. I want my photographer to be able to get close-ups of our rings on our hands without my worrying about whether my one hand looks darker/lighter than the other.

*sigh* The things we do for wedding day beauty. Seriously.