When people think of their wedding photos, the first images that come to mind are during the ceremony, the bride and groom portraits, and dancing during the reception. Offering an all day wedding photography package, Thomas and I believe that getting ready is an equally important part of your day. We want to be able to tell your whole story. Here are some tips for you to get the best getting ready photos on your wedding day!

Seven Tips to Help You Have Beautiful Getting Ready Photos on Your Wedding Day

1. Try to find a room with natural lighting (aka a large window) – this helps us as the photographers, the hair and makeup artist and the videographers capture your day as naturally as possible. A lot of hotel rooms make everyone’s skin tones look yellow.
2. One of the hardest things to do is to keep the room clean that you’re getting ready in. Try to keep all of the bags, shoes, makeup and dresses in one corner of the room, or rent out a different room (or maybe use your parent’s room if they’re at the same hotel) to put your dress on.
3. Have the important details in a separate bag or laid out when we arrive. Valuable time can be wasted as you try to gather all of the details – the rings, shoes, the invitation suite, flowers, presume, family heirlooms, something blue, etc. If this is ready to go when we arrive we can get to work right away. Also, this ensures we don’t accidentally forget something. (Read more about detail photos here.)
4. A huge bonus of two photographers (shout out to Thomas) is that we can capture the groom getting ready too. The same goes for his details. Make sure he’s got his watch, cufflinks, boutonniere, shoes, cologne, and tie clip (or any other fun details) ready to go.
5. Be specific when talking with us about what you’d like to capture in the morning. Do you not want any photos before your make up is on? Are you having a first look with your parents? Your bridesmaids? Let’s make sure we’re all on the same page before the wedding day.
6. Set expectations with your mom and bridesmaids before your wedding day regarding who will be helping you put on your dress. Whoever is helping you should be dressed in their wedding attire so everyone looks consistent and put together. Not much worse than having photos of you being zipped into your beautiful dress while one girl is in gym clothes and the other girl is in her pajamas.
7. Don’t forget to purchase a nice, strong (bonus points for pretty) hanger for your dress. The plastic ones break (believe me, it has happened – eeeeek).

See more from this “get the best photos” series here:

• Wedding Detail Photos
• Ceremony Photos
• First Look Photos