Getting ready for your wedding day is such a fun part of your special day! There are so many precious memories that happen along with making yourself look amazing for your hubby-to-be! It’s a time to hang out with your sisters, your mom, or your best friends while prepping for your best day ever – marrying the man of your dreams!! The last think you will think of is choosing the perfect getting ready location for your wedding.

The moments before you leave to your ceremony can be super meaningful! Like when you mom comes over to button your dress and she whispers how beautiful you are. Or your dad comes in and sees you for the first time and his eyes well up with tears because he is so proud of his little girl. Or you and your girls almost roll on the floor with laughter because of funny moments that you have shared together. I am here to capture all those moments and more but before then, I want to give you some behind the scene tips to help make those memories look picture perfect!

Here are 4 tips for choosing the perfect getting ready location for your wedding that looks the BEST in photos.

1. Consider getting an Airbnb instead of a hotel room
2. Keep the room clean of clutter
3. Get ready in a room with big windows which allow lots of natural light to come in
4. Thing about your wedding theme and book a space that matches your wedding style

1. Consider getting an Airbnb instead of a hotel room

Hotels can be squishy and crowded, dark and have out of date decor, and can be messy and cluttered on the morning of your wedding. I have photographed many getting ready portions of a wedding day in hotel rooms and they are usually all of the above if you get just a regular room.

I would suggest either upgrading to a suite at the hotel, or renting a cute little Airbnb house or condo instead. With an Airbnb you can search to exactly what you want and find a place with neutral colored walls, enough space for you and your besties to get ready in and nice big windows that let in lots of natural light.

Airbnbs also allow for more space to get ready but also to help cut the clutter and out of date decor! You don’t want to be scrambling around last minute trying to get everyone to do a 5 minute clean of the hotel room so the mess isn’t in the background of ALL the photos or so you can check out on time all while trying to have those beautiful moments mentioned above. You want stress free on your wedding day!

Also consider the distance between the getting ready location and the ceremony location. The closer to the ceremony location the quicker you can marry your best friend but also will save time on the transportation time of your day.

How wall color affects your skin color and over all feel of the photos

Hotels and even your home wall colors will affect your skin tones in photos. Wall colors (and even carpets) can reflect that color onto your face in photos. If you have a green (or any bright colored) wall, you are going to get a green tone on your face. If you have a nice neutral wall like white, your skin tone will be much more flattering and a lot less work to correct when editing.

In the images below these photos were shot maybe 15 minutes from each other but lighting and cutting the clutter played a huge factor. You can see in the left photo there is a yellow light from the over head lights, and distracting elements behind them, but I had to face them that way because they would be facing the big windows to get the most natural light on their face. In the image on the right, you will see that we cut out the distractions and I brought them into a space with a bight white wall, huge windows all around and no over head lights. These white wall, more natural light images are my fav! Fun fact, the left image was taken in a food court and the right image was taken in the entry way of the food court. 🙂

2. Keep the Room Clean of Clutter

The cleaner the room, the cleaner the images. Let your bridesmaid know to clean up the room that you will be getting ready in. (This room is the one with the most natural light and the most neutral colored walls.) We don’t want bags, clothes, water bottles, etc in the back of your photos. They are super distracting in the final image and it takes focus away from you and the moment.

Quick tip: Have all the details ready for your photographer to photograph so you don’t forget anything. For the bride, these items include: the dress, veil or hair piece, shoes, bouquets, any other jewellery, rings (all three), perfume bottle and invitation suite. For the groom, these items include: the groom’s outfit, cuff links, tie or bow tie, pocket square, belt, suspenders, rings (all three), watch, shoes, boutonnieres, and cologne. All these items help to tell the story of the day.

You will see on the two images below how must of a distraction all the extra “stuff” in the background with the groom and groomsmen is verses a a clean background with the bride and her mom.

3. Get ready in a room with big windows

Natural light is a photographers best friend! This is how I achieve the quality and style of my images. When you are getting ready, or when I am taking photos of your detail photos, I will be in a room with the biggest windows. I will also be turning off ALL the lights. The natural light usually has a blue color cast and light bulbs usually have a yellow color cast which makes editing a nightmare to get proper and equal coloring in your images. Side note, I also recommend getting your make up on in a room with lots of natural light as well.

I am going to put a couple examples of how wall color and backgrounds can affect the feel of your photos – light and airy verses darker and moody. And the biggest thing to remember that all of these were shot with a big window close by, it’s just the wall color and background that makes the difference.

4. Thing about your wedding theme and book a space that matches your style

When you book a space for you and your girls to get ready in on your wedding day, consider booking a location that matches your overall wedding theme or style. If you are having a rustic wedding and get ready in the most modern hotel room, the two parts of your day are going to look completely different and the photo story won’t mesh well. If your wedding is modern, rent a modern hotel or Airbnb space or if your wedding is more rustic, find a space that matches your theme. When every location has a similar style, it will do a great job of telling your compete wedding story in a cohesive way.

All these tips go for the guys getting ready space as well.

I hope that these four tips will help you plan your getting ready time on your wedding day. This time is a chance to breath, relax, get pampered and hang out with your friends before the business of the rest of the day happens. So before the busy day, prepare by booking a space that has neutral colored walls, big windows, lots of space for all your people and clean the clutter! Having these tips will help your photographer get the best possible images that will help to tell your wedding love story!

Looking for what to put on your wedding invite, check out this blog post! If you are wondering what details you should bring to the pre ceremony photos, check out the list for brides and grooms here!

Share this post with anyone you know who is getting married this year!