You’ll want to get ready somewhere you can feel comfortable and celebratory—but you’ll also want to keep in mind the overall look of your day when you choose your location. Every individual location of your wedding day comes together to make your gallery feel totally cohesive—and your “getting ready” location is where we begin to tell the story of your day. If you’re having a soft and neutral toned outdoor beach wedding—getting ready in a high contrast modern hotel room may not be the best fit for the overall look of your photos.
Also, in addition to style—consider the amount of space and available light. A lovely hotel room meant for 2 guests can feel very small and dark once you add in 8 bridesmaids, a hair and makeup team—especially if it has just one sliding glass door of window light. Mix in 2 photographers and your video team, and you’ve got a recipe for a very tight dimly lit space for everyone to function & enjoy their time together … not to mention it will drastically affect the look of your photos (and video).
Consider your “getting ready” location
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We love creating beautiful flatlays for you of everything that represents your day.
You’ll want to set aside your invitation suite and any specialty paper products—and don’t forget to include any stamps, wax seals, calligraphy items, too. Don’t forget a beautiful hanger and your dress, veil, shoes, all wedding rings, and any other details that are unique to what you’ll both be wearing.
We love all the pretty details—and love taking the time to make magic with our signature flatlays. One of the best ways to add natural beauty and interest to those photos is with some "floral extras" from your floral designer. If they’re able to bring some additional sprigs (the smaller, more delicate blooms work best) along with your bouquets, they add a really nice extra touch of your wedding day style to the detail photos.
prepare your details
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From many of your very first conversations, you’ll find most of your wedding vendors want to discuss the sunset on your wedding day. We are natural light photographers—so the sun dictates when and how long we shoot outdoors for portraits. The natural glowy look we love is all based around the sun.
We work backwards and forwards from the time the sun sets to determine how to lay out the timeline of your photography—you’ll want to be sure to take into consideration the time of sunset before setting the time of your ceremony. (As a general rule of thumb, we recommend timing it so that your ceremony ends at least 45 minutes to an hour and a half before the actual sunset to get that golden hour glow in your photos after the ceremony.) We’ll work with you and your planning team to create a detailed timeline for your day that maximizes the best light for your portraits and details—all while maintaining a relaxed and genuine feel so you have the very best day.
plan for sunset
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This is one of those questions we could talk about for a good long while, and still see all the different sides—in fact, we did on the “This vs. That Wedding Decisions” podcast.
If you’re still deciding whether or not you want to have a first look for the special moment just between the two of you, or if you want to stay more traditional and get that first look when you’re walking down the aisle, we invite you to listen to this episode and check out this blog post where we talk about the benefits of both approaches.
First look or see you at the aisle?
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