In fitness and in health: the best pre-wedding wellness boosts in London

For brides and grooms, the road to the altar begins long before the day itself. Prep includes throwing yourself at the gym and the panicked, clichéd, pre-wedding crash diet. However, this spring there is a new mood in the capital: a slightly more holistic, longer-term wedding wellness movement is on the ascendancy.

This month, In Fitness and In Health popped up for two days in Covent Garden, offering “wedding protein shakes”, supplements of multivitamins and electrolytes served in champagne flutes, and psychology sessions on overcoming nerves before making a speech. It’s a cross between therapy and IRL Pinterest, and proved so popular that Heathspan is planning to run more pop-ups. Meanwhile, members’ club Grace Belgravia recently introduced a new Bridal Membership for engaged women looking for a luxury wellness programme.

The package is in response to demand, says marketing manager Rachel Kennedy. “We started seeing a pattern in women signing up around the time they were getting married,” so the three-month programme promises a more “solid offering that encompasses everything you might need or want in that period in your life”. Brides have access to personal training sessions, HIIT classes, complexion analyses, detoxifying leg treatments, acupuncture, vitamin infusions and healthy home food deliveries. Training is bespoke — PTs assess each individual and use DNA Fit testing to work out what’s best for each client.

The clientele is Grace Belgravia’s usual high-flying, City executive or creative, “women who want to look and feel great but are time-poor”. Full bridal membership costs £2,500. CEO Kate Percival emphasises that wedding well-being is a 360-degree approach — this isn’t a crash diet.

Jacqui Scruby, from Healthy Luxe Bride, agrees. Her 8 Weeks to Glow bridal programme was designed to counter the “unsustainable” trend for crash dieting before a wedding. “You can’t starve yourself of nutrients and expect to glow,” she says. “There is this obsession with the wedding day, which is completely understandable, but we want to change that mindset.” Scruby hopes her package will make brides think more about their engagement being a catalyst for embracing a healthy lifestyle up to — and beyond — their big day. There’s an eight-week bespoke nutrition plan, with juices provided by The Healthy Juice Company, and the food programme is complemented by indoor cycling classes at Digme Fitness and skin treatments with luxe therapist Becky Crisp.

The trend also manifests in the new hen do — the hashtag #zenhen is gaining currency on Instagram, attached to posts showing brides and hens doing yoga and making sushi instead of go-karting and drinking with tasteless straws.

Meanwhile, juice company Plenish offers two bridal packages, Energy + Glow and Weight Loss + Glow, available in four-, eight- and 12-week programmes, which can be tailored around your dress fittings. It’s a different approach to a full-throttle, three-day cleanse.

What about men? There are a few tentative offerings for grooms, Healthspan’s pop-up wasn’t just for women, and bootcamp Train Dirty has a wedding fitness package involving hardcore weightlifting designed for brides and grooms. “Most of our clients are couples signing up together,” says co-founder Richard Richards. “It’s nice because they’re both going through it at the same time.”

Glow all the way to the chapel.