If you’re reading this, you’re probably in the midst of wedding planning! Some people might say the most stressful/crazy part of the wedding day is getting ready and you’re rushed, anxious, freaking out. BUT here’s a secret: it really doesn’t have to be. My couples have some of the most serene, relaxing, and peaceful getting ready moments and I’m going to share why. Anxiety and excitement will always be present, however if you prepare well and prioritize calming energy and activities, you’ll feel 100% ready to go down the aisle. These tips are my top tips and the wedding day prep you never knew you needed. As always, my priority is your experience and feeling absolutely amazing on your wedding day!
Getting Ready Tips
I truly feel that getting ready in the morning sets the tone for the entire wedding day. Prioritize your happiness and sense of calm by tailoring the day to you! What does your ideal morning look like? Maybe starting with a walk or a massage, dip in the pool, or morning surf. Doing the things you love in the morning of your wedding just creates such an inner glow that’s better than any cosmetic product or facial.
1.) Sleep Is Your Best Friend
I know, I know you are probably bouncing off the walls excited, nervous and anxious. However having a good nights sleep is the first step in making sure you feel refreshed and rejuvenated on your special day. Play calming music, read a book and drink some tea and make sure that you are relaxing.
2.) Consider Who You Get Ready With
So many of my clients feel anxiety about not having their person near them while getting ready. They’re already planning an untraditional day, and not getting ready together just doesn’t feel right to them. So, they opt to get ready together! It can be such a beautiful, quiet moment of preparation for the day where their nerves are calmed and they’re ready to take it on together.
If getting ready together doesn’t identify with you, maybe consider doing a little activity just you two in the morning. Having a coffee, going on a walk, praying, or a morning swim at a nearby spot are all great ways to center yourself and refocus on the meaning of the day.
These are some photos from my own wedding, getting ready with my husband. We took a morning swim (me in the pool with my friends, him at the beach nearby), wrote out our vows separately with a cup of coffee, spent most of the getting ready time together, and then put the finishing touches on our outfits together. It turned into some of my favorite moments of the wedding day, and really eased my anxieties. I look back on this time as so incredibly sacred to the day.
If you don’t plan on getting ready together, that brings me to…
3.) Surround Yourself With An Amazing Support Team
The people you choose to surround yourself on your wedding day are incredibly important. Nothing is worse than a bad attitude, or someone with frantic energy to ruin the vibe of the morning. I recommend being incredibly picky about who you allow to get ready with you in order to protect your peace. Your inner circle should be calm, supportive, good energy, and relaxed.
You should also be choosing vendors who support you and bring a positive energy as well! They should be just as supportive to you as your friends & family. This is why making sure you intentionally choose your vendors that relax you and lift you up will save you a ton when it comes to planning.
4.) Set The Vibes
This is arguably one of my most important tips! Make a playlist of feel-good songs that really make you happy or set the tone for the day. This is going to put you into the best headspace and ground you for the day ahead!
5.) Make Sure You Steam Your Dress & Cut Off Tags
You don’t know how many times we have gotten to the day of the wedding and realized that your wedding dress is wrinkled and still has the tags! Make sure to steam your dress and cut off the tags before arriving at your getting-ready location on your wedding day. That also includes those dress hanging loops by the shoulders! As a reminder too, this can apply to anybody in your wedding party who is wearing a dress!
6.) Don’t Forget To Eat
We all know how terrible we feel if our stomach is empty, so make sure you fuel up and eat something before all of the wedding day festivities. Your wedding day can be packed with activities and things to do, so losing track of time can happen easily. Especially if you plan on drinking throughout the day, you want to make sure that you are fueling up your body with plenty of nutrition.
7.) Add Buffer Time to Hair & Makeup
Make sure you plan ahead of time and put in some buffer time for getting your hair & makeup done. As mentioned before, your wedding timeline is there for a reason! Although we try to prevent as many things from going wrong as possible, sometimes it’s inevitable. The last thing you want is to feel rushed on your wedding day, so account for a ton buffer time to make sure that you can take your time and be on time!
Prep Your Wedding Details
Anything that’s special or intentionally selected by you to have/wear/include on your wedding day is important to me to photograph. I recommend staying true to yourself and not looking too much into what other people deem important from Pinterest. Thoughtfully curated details are way more meaningful than a bunch of pretty stuff you bought just to take a photo of! Looking through your photos will be that much more special when you spot Grandma’s pearls or your Dad’s cufflinks.
What to Include In Your Detail Photos
So what exactly can you included in detail photos? Well I got you. These are just suggestions, and I always recommend including anything that speaks to you!! Some example wedding details could include:
– Your invitation suite (two copies including unsealed envelopes & any details such as ribbon, wax seals and stamps)
– All rings / jewelry
– Family heirlooms or something borrowed/blue
– Bouquet & floral arrangements (pro tip: if you love flowers, ask your florist for some loose blooms for styling)
– Shoes
– Ring boxes
– Gifts from parents/friends
– Perfume/cologne
– Vow books
If you’re wearing a suit/tux and not a dress, here are some other/additional details you might want to have:
– Dress shoes
– Tie
– Boutonnieres
– Cuff links
– Watches/rings
– Dress socks
– Cologne
– Belt
– Flask
If you do plan on wanting to have detail photos taken on your wedding day, the best advice that I can give you is to prepare your details in advance. The reason is that rather than having someone run around to find all the wedding details, your photographer can easily grab them from a designated spot. I would recommend finding a box or a place where you can have everything consolidated and easy to find. I also would recommend designating someone else to be able to locate the details box/bag when we arrive.
Keep A Tidy Space
With all of the hustle and bustle of your wedding day, it’s easy to get lost and you may find yourself just tossing things throughout your getting ready space. However, if you’ve hired your wedding photographer to photograph your getting ready process, that also includes the space in which you’re getting ready. I assume you haven’t envisioned photos with clutter, clothes all over the floor and makeup spilled everywhere. That’s just another thing to add to the overstimulation and anxiety on a wedding day. We want a clean, clear, spa-like atmosphere.
What you want to do is make sure that you have a designated area where your wedding party (and you) knows where to put their belongings. Items like bags, jewelry, shoes, accessories or any other types of items should be kept within this designated space. That way when your wedding photographer comes around, nobody’s items are getting lost AND you have a beautiful and clean getting ready space for photos. Check out this blog here with an absolutely BEAUTIFUL getting ready space.
Stick To The Timeline
Your wedding day timeline is created for so many reasons… the most important one being your ease and happiness. When working with your wedding photographer, you want to make sure that you keep an eye on and stick to the timeline that has been created. Whether you work with a wedding planner or based off your wedding photographers timeline, staying on time is key to a non stressful wedding day.
A timeline is created to make sure that you have time for everything you want planned/photographed. Even when you’re running the slightest bit late, this can set back a good chunk of what your timeline has planned. That’s why we always recommend adding in lots of buffer time to ensure that even with changes, we are flexible and have plenty of time!
Choose Getting Ready Locations With Great Light
While of course wedding photographers try our best to make the most of any location, the best thing to do is make sure you have excellent lighting in your getting ready space. Great light is the most important thing when it comes to having great photos. Focus on finding getting ready locations that have a ton of natural light (aka a ton of windows). I can’t tell you how frustrating it can be for you to end up getting ready in a space with little to no natural light. If you end up choosing a getting ready location where the lighting isn’t the best, another alternative is taking some photos of you getting ready outside. I mean, you can’t get more prime natural lighting than the great outdoors, right?
The lighting on your wedding day, not just your getting ready space, is incredibly important especially when it comes to the quality of the images. So if your venue doesn’t have an option for this, a good alternative can be a nearby Airbnb or design hotel.
Bring An Emergency Kit
The last thing we want on your wedding day is to be unprepared for an emergency. While we don’t wish for that to happen, the best thing to do is be prepared for anything! Having an emergency kit will be a lifesaver if you really need it. Things you may want to include in your emergency kit are:
- Jewlery Cleaner
- Sewing Kit
- Bobby Pins
- Safety Pins
- Makeup for touch ups
- Band-aids
- Q-tips
- Stain remover pen
- Hand/body lotion
- Lint roller
- Scissors
- Hair ties
- Mints
- Lip Balm
- Portable phone charger
- Tissues
- Super glue
- Medicine
- Deodorant
- Hairspray
- Floss
The most important thing to remember is that you would rather be over-prepared than underprepared.
Some More Getting Ready Tips
While above are some of my top getting ready tips, there are still a few more tricks up my sleeve to making sure you’re getting ready process runs smoothly.
1.) Practice Everything Before The Big Day
This means knowing exactly how to tie your tie/bowtie BEFORE the day of your wedding. Not only you, but make sure anybody in your wedding party who’s wearing a tie does this too! The amount of times people I’ve seen people the morning of the wedding having to look up tutorials on how to tie a tie, hahaha. Make sure you and the rest of your wedding party is prepped and ready to go!
2.) Don’t Leave Decisions Last Minute
Last minute decision making can be some of the most nerve-wracking things you can do on your wedding day. If you’ve been deciding between wearing a belt or suspenders, make sure you have that figured out before the day of. Important decisions on what to wear, whether or not to wear cufflinks, how much facial hair you want to have, should all be decided before your wedding day.
3.) Leave Your Pockets Empty
On the day of your wedding, you want to travel light. Try keeping your phone, wallet and your keys in a secure place instead of your pockets. When taking your wedding photos, having those items will be apparent and can completely distract from the amazing suit you will be wearing! You also don’t want to continuously be removing things from your pockets every time we take a photo. So just leave those things aside and make sure you keep your pockets clear!
4.) Don’t Forget To Pack An Undershirt
This is an item that is often forgotten but is so important ESPECIALLY underneath a white dress shirt. I would recommend packing a white tank top rather than a white t-shirt. That way you don’t run the risk of having the t-shirt sleeves showing through your button up sleeves.
5.) Bring Spare Button-Ups
Warm weather tends to bring out the one thing a lot of us hate… SWEATING. Rather than sweating through your only shirt and having to wear that for the rest of the day, bring back up shirts instead! Especially if your wedding is in the summer or in a warmer climate, bring a spare button-shirt to change will freshen you up for the rest of the day.
The Wedding Day Prep You Never Knew You Needed
Yay – you got through this lengthy blog post! Your wedding day is going to be one of the most memorable days of your lives. Feeling prepped, relaxed, and ready is key to a low-stress day. Hopefully with these tips on the wedding day prep you never knew you needed, it can help you sleep a little bit better at night.
Now I know that you’re probably sick of reading after seeing all of these tips on the wedding day prep you never knew you needed. Trust me, I get it. However, if you loved reading this blog all about the wedding day prep you never even knew you needed, then you’re going to love my other blogs too!
