The space that you, your family, and your friends get ready the morning of your wedding is going to be a pretty important start to your day. This space can really set the tone for how you all feel that morning if it is really cluttered and unorganized. The best way to ensure that you have a smooth beginning to your wedding day is to make sure you start on the right foot. Some of these things are things you can do the night before to ensure you don’t have to worry about a thing on your wedding morning, too.

Set aside spaces for your wedding vendors to set up

You can start planning ahead by making spaces for your wedding vendors to set up and put their stuff. In the morning, you’ll possibly have up to 2 hair stylists, 2 makeup artists, your photographer, videographer, and potentially your coordinator with a stop in from your florist. Make sure to have stools near outlets and natural lighting for your hair and makeup teams, and then some extra open space for your photo/video gear and for your bouquets/boutonnieres/corsages to be set down where no one will mess with it. You’ll also want to have space for your photo/video team to set up flat lays or details shots as well.

2. Steam your “getting ready” outfits

The best thing you can do is to steam all of the getting ready outfits (robes, PJs, or other items that don’t have to go over your head to mess up hair/makeup) the night before the wedding. This task takes a lot of time and you also don’t want steam near your hair and makeup. If possible, also set aside a place/time to steam the bridesmaid dresses and the wedding dress if this wasn’t done already.

3. Prepare places for breakfast/lunch

Your family and friends that are with you in the morning (and you!) need to stay well-fed for the day. Make sure to set up some options such as breakfast in the hotel lobby, buying pre-packaged food, or ordering food to be delivered and have a plan where this will be set. Ideally, your food options won’t interfere with a fresh face of makeup!

4. Find a place to hang your outfits

This usually makes for a nice photo, and this also helps keep them from getting wrinkled after steaming them. You can provide hangers for both the getting ready outfits and the wedding party attire, or just use the getting ready outfit hangers once they arrive and put your attire out all together.

5. Create a “job” list for anyone willing to help

This is only if you have already talked with your wedding party about this when you talked about your expectations (you can read this blog post about what to tell your wedding party to expect), but you can designate certain people to have certain tasks. Ideally, you will talk to them about this before the wedding day, but you can give little jobs like someone to keep an eye on bouquets, someone to make sure the guys are ready, and someone to take “behind the scenes” photos and videos on your phone.

6. Remove clutter from places you will be taking your photos

There probably won’t be too many places left that are clear, but try and designate 1 or 2 locations in the space that will be cleared of phones, trash, bags, and other items for when you are taking photos. Many people will have a space where the bride is getting ready and a space on a bed for all of the wedding party to sit in the getting ready outfits. This will make for the best photos!

7. Prepare any gifts for your wedding party

If you’re planning on giving gifts to your wedding party members on the wedding day, it’s best to have this laid out somewhere all together for them to pick up and open during the down time they may have in the morning. You don’t want these pushed to the side and forgotten about on the wedding day!

8. Set aside one box of details

Make sure to have all of your detail items in one place to make these photos as easy as possible for the morning. Let your photographer/videographer know where this box is when they arrive to ensure you don’t have to locate each item for them! You can look at this blog post for some of the items that you should include for this.

Nearly all of these things can be prepped ahead of time and planned before your wedding day so you don’t have to worry about anything. Most of these items will just make your morning run a little smoother so you can just focus on being present for the day with your family and friends too! The goal is to have a really smooth morning to set the tone for the rest of the day. Hopefully you’ll be able to relax when you’ve finished so the next morning will feel like a breeze for you!

If you would like more help to plan your wedding, you can reach out to me at hello@firmlyrootedevents.com. I will get you started on my email list for monthly tips and my checklist so that you can stay on track while planning your wedding.