Top Tips for the Morning of Your Wedding
When it comes to getting ready on your wedding day, everyone wants to be prepared and you have spent months planning, so you want to make sure you’ve got a plan to start the day successfully. Here are my Top Tips for the Morning of Your Wedding that you will want to take note of!
1. Have a Timeline Ready
When planning the morning of your wedding day, you will want a timeline ready so that you can share it with your friends and family. Being sure that you’ve allocated enough time for each hour of the morning is crucial. Reach out to your wedding hair and makeup team and ask how much time they need per person. Assign each member of your wedding party to a time slot.
Tip: Schedule each wedding party member 5 minutes before they have to be in their seat, so they are ready for the hair and makeup artist!
Once you’ve created the timeline, be sure to send it to your planner. If you don’t have a planner, send it to your photographer as they will need to know where you are and at what time. When it comes to figuring out what time you should start getting ready, start with establishing when your ceremony will start and work backwards. In my experience, I would suggest estimating 60-90 minutes for the bride and approx. 45-60 minutes per bridesmaid and parent(s). Be sure to reach out to your team and ask them exactly how much time they will need. They are experts in their field and will be happy to let you know!
Okay, hair and make-up are done…now what?!
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Tip: Leave Wiggle Room
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Allocate some time to put on your dress…and trust me, it takes longer than 5-10 minutes to do! Schedule some time to enjoy the moment with your chosen family or friend at this moment. If you are wanting to have any time to yourself relax before the ceremony, or make a TikTok or Reel, be sure to allocate time for this. You’d be surprised how much time you need for this. Leave yourself 30-60 minutes of wiggle room before the ceremony. Plan ahead, and schedule yourself to arrive at the ceremony 15 minutes early.
Tip: Don’t schedule yourself to leave at the ceremony time. Give yourself 15-30 minutes to get to your location. This will depend if you are getting ready onsite or offsite.
2. Hang Your Dress the Night Before
Be sure to hang your dresses (veil included!) the night before, I recommend that you even steam them the night before. This usually takes much longer than you’d think, so plan ahead so that you don’t have any headaches the morning of.
Tip: Allocate this job to someone in your wedding party or a close friend who will be with you during the morning portion of the day.
3. Don’t Overschedule Your Morning
It can be hard not to, but my tip is to keep the morning portion of your day as uneventful and relaxed as possible. One of my top tips when it comes to planning the morning of your wedding is to keep things simple. When you wake up, you aren’t going to want to be stressed before the day starts. Keep things easy and allocate tasks to others around you. Trust me…there are always family members who want to help, embrace it!
4. Have Enough Food For your Wedding Party and Yourself!
I cannot stress this enough, but plan ahead and be sure that you plan enough food for you and your group of friends to get ready. Plan ahead, order a tray from a subway or chopped leaf. Make a Costco run beforehand and bring all the snacks.
Don’t have time? Too much to do? Give this task to one of your friends to be in charge of. Your friends will likely not have as much on their plate the morning of, so have one of them be in charge of arranging the food and making sure everyone eats. Be sure to find time for yourself to eat too, you will likely forget and all of a sudden, you won’t have eaten for 8+ hours.
5. Have a Playlist Ready!
Another great tip for the morning of your wedding day is to have a great playlist can be a big part of setting the tone for your wedding day. Music plays a bit factor in the energy and build-up for the day. Have someone create a great playlist for the morning and don’t forget a speaker!! Have a small speaker like this one, JBL Speaker or a more affordable and great-sounding speaker the JBL Clip. I use this speaker every time I go to a shoot.
This can also be a task that you give to one of our friends to be in charge of. Having upbeat and fun music like this one, Getting Ready with the Bridesmaids. Start with this and make your own to create the energy on your wedding day.
6. Pack Your Emergency Kit
This sometimes gets left under the radar but can come in handy on your wedding day. Putting together a kit of the essentials will help in any emergency. This can usually include bandaids, blister tape, q-tips, bobby pins, and more. Check out my Wedding Day Emergency Kit List for tips to pack the best emergency kit. Plan ahead and get this kit made long before the wedding day arrives.
URL – https://www.theknot.com/content/the-brides-emergency-kit
Here’s a list to get you started!
– Bandaids
– Hairspray
– Deodorant
– Ibuprophen
– Mints
– Mini Sewing Kit
– Tissues
– Safety Pins
– Extra Phone Charger
7. Lay Out Your Details For Your Photographer
One of the tips I recommend you do the morning of your wedding is to lay out your detail items. I always let my clients know to have this ready for my arrival. You will get the most out of your timeline and scheduled getting ready time if this is ready for my arrival. No fuss when I arrive, I simply take the box and start shooting the details before getting started. By having these items ready to go, I can capture the details long before you need to put them on. Do yourself a favour and just grab a shoebox and put the details in there!
Here are a few items that you can put in this box (just to name a few):
Groom:
– Cufflinks
– Bowtie or tie
– Watch
– Shoes
– Ring
– Cologne
Bride:
– Jewelry
– Shoes
– Garter
– Rings
– Invites
– Veil
Just to name a few!
8. Charger Your Phone!
Knowing that your phone will be charged and ready will put you more at ease. Now, this doesn’t mean that you should have it charged so you can spend the day on it but have it charged and leave it with one of your friends to capture behind the scenes all day. Pack a charger for the evening portion when you get back to your room that night.
9. Stay Hydrated!
I cannot say this enough, but hydrate! This is one thing you won’t regret doing. Do you want glowing skin for your photos? Be sure to drink enough water leading up to the wedding day and avoid alcohol 24hrs in advance. I know this may not be possible as you may be celebrating with friends and family and that’s totally okay. Pack a big water bottle with you for the morning and get a good start to the day with your water intake.
Enjoy the day and enjoy drinking, but be sure to have a few glasses of water in between!
10. Find Time to Relax and Reflect
Easier said than done…allocate some time to relax and reflect with your spouse. The day will fly by so quickly, enjoy the small moments together. Take 5 minutes together after the ceremony to enjoy a glass of bubbly together, or find time in your timeline to sneak away for a few moments together. You will thank yourselves later for this one.
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These are my Top Tips for the Morning of Your Wedding!
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Want more tips for the morning of your wedding like this?
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Did you know I provide even more resources when planning your wedding day?
Check out the Resource Blog for more info!!
