The single most-asked question we get from event clients: when should we schedule the drip? The day of? The day before? The morning of the morning of?
The answer depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Below is the timing framework we walk clients through.
3-4 Hours Before Your Wedding
The sweet spot for wedding-day drips is the morning of, 3-4 hours before the ceremony starts. The drip itself takes 45-60 minutes, so plan 90 minutes total for setup, IV, and breakdown.
24-36 Hours Before Race Day
For races, we schedule the drip a day out rather than the morning of, giving your body time to fully absorb and stabilize the hydration and electrolytes before the start line.
Trial Run for First-Timers
If you have never had an IV, do a trial run a few weeks before your event. Most people tolerate it perfectly well, and the roughly 5% who do not would rather find out on a random Tuesday than the morning of your wedding.
For a wedding day
For brides, grooms, and wedding parties, the sweet spot is the morning of the wedding, 3-4 hours before the ceremony starts. Earlier than that and you have lost some of the benefit by the time photos start. Later than that and you are rushing or not done by the time you need to be in hair and makeup.
The drip itself takes 45-60 minutes. Plan for setup, intake, and breakdown, so block 90 minutes start to finish.
For wedding parties of 4+ people, plan a longer window. We typically bring 1-2 nurses and stagger IVs so the room is calm and nobody is sitting around with a needle in their arm for an hour.
For a race or athletic event
For races (marathon, half, triathlon, century rides), schedule the drip 24-36 hours before race day. Not the morning of. You want to load hydration and electrolytes the day before so your body has time to fully absorb and stabilize.
Morning-of drips work for race recovery, not race prep. Post-race IVs are usually scheduled for the afternoon or evening after the event.
For a long travel day
For a big international flight, gala, or back-to-back travel stretch, schedule the day before departure. Hydration loading 12-24 hours ahead means your baseline is higher when you start the dehydrating event (a 10-hour flight is significantly dehydrating).
For arrival recovery, schedule when you land, IV is a fast reset for jet lag that includes hydration plus B-complex for circadian recovery.
What should you take in the drip?
For pre-event prep, our most-requested formulas are:
- Myers Cocktail, the all-around energy and immunity reset
- Pre-Event, hydration plus B-complex, magnesium, and electrolytes
- The Glow, for events where you want skin clarity (weddings, gala, photos)
- Energy, for events where you need sustained energy and focus
For race-day prep, we typically run a Hydration Plus formula focused on electrolyte balance rather than vitamins.
What should you avoid before an event drip?
Some clients try to compensate for poor preparation by adding an IV at the last minute. We will tell you upfront: IV is a complement, not a fix.
- Do not drink heavily the night before a pre-event IV. The IV will help, but you will start the event behind where you would have been with reasonable sleep and zero or moderate alcohol.
- Do not skip dinner the night before. An empty stomach makes some IV components (B-complex, vitamin C in particular) feel intense.
- Do not assume the IV replaces sleep. No drip in the world fixes 4 hours of sleep before a major event. Get the sleep. Use the IV as a bonus.
- Do not load up on caffeine before the appointment. Already-elevated heart rate plus a vitamin push can make you feel jittery. We have done IVs on three-espresso clients, it works, but it is not the ideal state to start in.
What should you eat before the drip?
Something light. A piece of toast, a banana, a yogurt. Not a heavy meal, but not nothing. Vitamin C in particular can feel intense on an empty stomach. You also want a bit of glucose in your system so the saline does not feel cold on your lips (that is a real thing).
What should you wear for your appointment?
Something that exposes the inside of your forearm or the back of your hand, those are the two most common IV sites. Robes are perfect. Loose sleeves work. Tight long sleeves get awkward when we are trying to find a vein and you are mid-event-prep.
The honest answer for first-timers
If you have never had an IV before and the first one is the morning of your wedding, you are taking a risk. Most people tolerate IV perfectly well. A small percentage have an unexpected reaction, usually mild, but the kind of thing you do not want to be discovering at 9 a.m. on your wedding day.
If you can, do a trial run a few weeks before the event. Get a Myers Cocktail or a standard hydration drip and see how your body responds. Most clients feel fantastic. The 5% who do not, would rather know on a random Tuesday than the morning of the most photographed day of their lives.