Preparing Your Wedding Day Suite For Your Photographer

Tips and helpful information on preparing your room for your photographer’s arrival on your wedding day.

Want to get your wedding day off to the best start possible? Be prepared and ready to start when your photographer arrives to your room. Not only will you be able to make the best use of your time with your photographer, but, you will also have limited stress to deal with as the day begins. Often times, your photographer will arrive about an hour before you are scheduled to be finished and leave your room. There is lots of amazing pictures to be made during this time. To help move things along, there are a few steps you can take the night before or that very morning.

Gather all details. Gather up and put in one area all items that you will need to bring or wear to your wedding. You might also have special keepsakes or gifts in your room that you don’t plan on bringing, but would love to have photographed. Gathering everything up into one place will help ensure that nothing gets forgotten. The photographer can easily start photographing all of your lovely details as quickly as possible. Examples of things you might want to set aside are: Perfume, rings, jewelry, garter, veil, shoes, invitation suite, dress, special hanger, gifts for bridal party, etc.

Keep trash to a minimum and clean up the room. Schedule housekeeping to come the night before, or early in the morning to clean up the room. Put suitcases away in closets. Remove all trash and clutter. I totally get it if this is hard for some. Even if you cannot clean the whole room, you can still make things easier by keeping all items away from windows and in one general area. Photographers will usually use the areas of the room with the best light. This is typically near the window(s). A large area near a window is the perfect place for the bride to put on her dress and shoes. Suitcases and random items that are left on the floor or in an area where you will be getting photographed, will have to be moved out of the way. Its much easier to do this in your lounge wear or pajamas.
Turn down the AC. Hotel rooms get hot, especially in Vegas. Add a few of your bridesmaids, hair and makeup artists, a photographer, and the room starts to get really hot. You don’t have to worry about doing this too early in the day. As people start to arrive to your room, start dialing down the temps.
Eat food and drink water. On the morning of your wedding day, so many things will be running through your head. Usually, food and drinks is not one of those things. Countless brides forgo eating breakfast or lunch because they just have so many other things to do. Some of you may even have fear that you won’t fit into your wedding dress if you eat. Please do yourself a huge favor and eat something, even if it is small. Once you start getting hair and makeup and then get into your dress, you are way less likely to eat something. The day starts to fly by and before you know it you haven’t eaten a thing. You feel like crap and have a drink and the drink hits you way faster because your stomach is empty and you set yourself up for misery. Having something in your stomach will help you make it through the day much more comfortably. The several hour long gap in time from when you put your dress on until your wedding dinner is served won’t seem as long. Drinking water is imperative. Not only will it keep you hydrated, you will look fresher in your photos, and you will be less likely to faint at the altar.
Do not get dressed before your photographer arrives. As a bride, photos of you getting into your dress are a treasured keepsake. Unless you made some sort of arrangement with your photographer and you have no time, it is safe to assume that your photographer will not want you to get dressed before they arrive. It is nice to have photos of the dress before you put it on as well to help tell your full wedding day story. If you are worried about dressing in front of others, do not fret. I always allow my brides to slip into their dress in the bathroom or in private if they so wish. Then they can come out holding up the dress, to get assistance with buttons, zippers, and ribbon. I never start photographing until the bride is covered up.
Don’t have room full of unnecessary people. If your room is full of people, its harder to relax and prepare for your wedding day. Mothers, immediate family, bridesmaids, and the like are all great support and wonderful to have around. If your room is on the small side, you may have to politely ask a few people to leave as you begin to dress and have need to use more of the room.
Have your bridesmaids and family who will be helping you get ready and dressed before your hair and makeup is finished. Whoever is helping you into your dress, shoes, and jewelry is going to show up in lots of your photos. They should be fully dressed and ready for the day as soon as you are ready to get into your dress. Figure out if your maid of honor, mother, sister, or anyone else is going to be helping you out. Having a few to help is great! Just make sure they know to be dressed and ready in time.
Relax and don’t worry about the photographer! Whenever I come into the room, I will usually ask where the details are and take a look around the room for best lighting and places to take photographs. If I need anything, I will ask for it. As the bride is getting hair and makeup done, I typically go back and forth between snapping photos of the bride and capturing the details. Once the bride is about ready to get into the dress I will suggest the best place to do this and let everyone know what is to happen next. Most of the photographs taken in the hotel room or bridal suite are photo-journalistic in nature. If a special moment is going to take place, I will instruct those involved on the best place to stand or sit and that is about it.
All of this applies to the groom as well. If you only have one photographer scheduled, their time in the room with the groom is much less than the bride. 20 minutes is what I usually recommend. The groom should be dressed in everything except shoes, tie, vest, and jacket. 20 minutes allows the photographer time to capture them getting on their final clothing items and grab a few photos of the details. If you have a second photographer scheduled, they will sometimes hang out in the room a little longer to get some candids as well.

Following all of these tips will help the day flow smoothly!

Do not hesitate to contact your photographer if you have any questions or concerns before they arrive on your wedding day. Everyone’s life is made much easier by being prepared and fully aware of what to expect.

Have a question?? Contact me here.

XO-Jamie