IT may be the biggest day of your life and all that, but frankly, the lengths people go to delude themselves is mind-boggling.

No-one's flaw free, after all, and even if compliments are a bit lean at the best of times, your wedding day is the one time you're guaranteed to have guests gushing over you, meringue dress and Tango tan or not.

Who cares if they mean it?

But hey-ho, in a world of airbrushing and Botox, many women apparently feel more nervous about how they look on their wedding pictures than committing themselves to a man - of all things - forever.

Even Hollywood beauty Catherine Zeta-Jones was sensitive about the subject, complaining that she looked "large" in pictures published in Hello! magazine without her permission.

How did she cope?

But thank the Lord. Digital cameras are here and opportunist photographers are offering anxious brides the possibility of changing - and improving - the way they look on their big day.

Thanks to technology, teeth can be whitened, stomachs can be flattened, pasty-looking legs can be tanned and even grey, wedding day skies can be changed to an idyllic blue.

According to a recent survey, most brides would jump at the chance to tinker with their wedding snaps.

The poll, for electrical chain Dixons, showed that nine out of 10 brides would improve their snaps digitally if they could.

Some 60 per cent would have their snaps "stretched" Kate Winslet-style to make them look slimmer, while half would use a computer to give them a healthier glow.

Wedding photographer David Clark, a member of the Master Photographers Association, has not looked back since switching to digital.

"The move to digital is a more fundamental change than when we went from black-and-white to colour, and has allowed many different things to happen," he said.

"I had a wedding on Friday where the groom had a couple of spots on his face. They will be gone in every picture.

"I also took two pictures of the bride and groom. The bride was brilliant in one but the groom wasn't, so we swapped his head from the other photograph. All of a sudden everything looks right."

After a wedding, Clark spends many hours in front of a computer making alterations to the pictures.

He uses modern software to remove facial blemishes, soften bags under the eyes and harmonise the skin tones of the people in the pictures.

Clients are allowed to preview the picture in "warts and all" form, before they decide if they want to accept the changes.

It is not only professionals who have the capacity to alter pictures. Anyone can buy photo-editing software that will allow them to tamper with images in their own home.

Package prices range from around £60 to £180, depending on whether you merely want to get rid of red eye, or knock a couple of inches off your waistline.

"Harmonise" skin tone. Swap heads. What is the world coming to?

With so much potential to dabble with our looks, surely we are merely fuelling the vanity of an image-obsessed generation?

Chartered psychologist, Ros Taylor has concerns about the instant, but artificial, gratification of seeing one's appearance transformed.

"By constantly modifying the way we see ourselves, we are running the risk of losing our grip on reality."

Clark does admit there is a line to be drawn between harmless touching-up and the total transformation of an image.

"I know a photographer who proudly boasts that he can take a photo of a prune and turn it back into a plum," he said.

"But we'll photograph a prune and make it look like a young prune. There is a dividing line which if you cross you change the picture from something it is into something it isn't.

"It has to be done with sensitivity and you have to learn the tools in order to use them. If you remove every line of a person's face you remove their character."

However, with digital software now lifting the veil on photo trickery, Clark believes that the effect of such photos on young women could be more inspiring that demoralisation.

"You hear about young girls developing eating disorders from trying to emulate models. Nowadays, with digital pictures, they can look every bit like the models in the magazines," he said.