Your wedding morning can be one of the best parts of the whole day — full of emotion and anticipation, getting ready with your favourite people for your ceremony and the party to come.
Or it can be the other thing — rushed, chaotic and crowded, where you run out the door late and stressed and never really catch up with yourself all day. If there's something we can do to avoid that, let's do it!
Give yourself time
Hair and makeup take time. Giving out gifts takes time. People calling in takes time — even your vendors arriving with the flowers, or your videographer turning up, takes a wee bit of time just to say hello.
If you'd like photos of you in your dress, a first look, or some family photos before leaving home, plan so that everyone is ready in plenty of time. Then you'll have time for some photographs in your dress, and you won't be leaving in a rush feeling stressed. You're always better having time to relax and an extra wee glass of bubbly before you leave.
One thing worth knowing: hair and makeup often plan backwards from your ceremony time, not from when your photographer leaves in the morning. Those are two different deadlines — so it helps to work my leaving time into your morning plan too. I like to get some photographs of you ready to go, but I never want to be rushing you, or hanging about making you feel under pressure. So let's give that its own space.
A note on photos during hair and makeup
Your hair and makeup artists will likely want to photograph their work for their social media — and that's totally normal. But here's the thing: this is your day, and you're in control. You're paying them to do your hair and makeup, not to run a photoshoot. If you'd prefer they focus on getting you ready without stopping for photos and videos, you can absolutely say that. You don't need permission or a reason — "I'd like no photos please" is enough.
Some brides love it; others find it adds stress having even more people in the room, or that it takes time away from all the other things you've got to do. Whatever feels right for you is the right call. If you do decide photos are okay, just set a limit upfront (like "a few photos in the chair is fine, but not for the first look or portraits, and only if we're ahead of schedule"). That way everyone knows the boundary and can plan around it.
Looking like yourself
I'm a forty-something fella behind the camera, so I'm wary of telling anyone what they should or shouldn't do on their own wedding day. All I can do is share what I've seen work, what I've watched go wrong, and the things I couldn't do anything about at the time. So take this as me getting in early — follow it or don't, but at least you've been pre-warned. And consider it permission to not be pushed and pulled by other people telling you what to do.
The brides who look most like themselves on the day are nearly always the happiest with their photographs. When you reach the top of the aisle, you want your husband to recognise you — so if something isn't really your style, you have my full permission to skip it.
A gentle word on trying new things: your wedding day isn't the ideal time to test something for the very first time — especially eyelashes. For some girls not used to them, they can cause discomfort and loads of blinking — droopy or closed lids in photos. So if you'd like to wear them, have a practice run beforehand so they feel like second nature on the day: wear them all day, get outside, and take lots of photos.
Fake tan can sometimes look patchy or orange-toned in certain lighting, especially in close-ups. I always recommend either going natural, or — if you do tan — giving yourself a few days for it to settle evenly before the wedding. A lighter, well-blended tan is far better, especially when you're together with your husband in photos, which is most of them! The same thinking applies to makeup and grooming generally: natural is best, and you want your face to match the rest of you. Your makeup artist will probably suggest a low-cut or button-up top, making it easy to blend face, neck and chest, so nothing has to come over your finished hair and face.
None of this is about doing more — it's about feeling like the best version of yourself. If big lashes, heavy tan, fake nails or extensions aren't you, leave them. You'll look back and be glad you looked like you.
A calm room, and portraits before I leave
Creating a tidy detail space
When I arrive, I'll photograph your dress, shoes, bouquet and rings in natural light. Keep one room or corner relatively tidy with a good window — it'll do triple duty as a detail-shot location, a first-look backdrop and a portrait space. If you're in a hotel with multiple rooms, consolidate hair and makeup into one room and reserve the other as your "tidy room." It doesn't need to be pristine, just clear and well-lit.
Ideally we'll get some portraits of you in your dress before I head off to the ceremony (or to photograph the lads). By this point the energy is building and you're getting closer to walking down that aisle — so we want to keep the stress low. Fewer people in the room is better for this; a crowd just ramps the pressure up. It can be just you on your own, or a first look — whatever suits you.
Eat something
Genuinely — make sure you eat. It'll be much later before you next get the chance.
What about the groom's morning?
If the groom is getting ready at the same venue, I can come to the girls, then over to the guys, then back to the girls, and catch the lads again at the ceremony — suited, booted and ready for you to arrive.
If the guys are somewhere else, a second photographer is the way to cover them properly. But I always ask first: what's the morning actually going to look like? Sometimes the lads aren't doing much and won't really want a photographer there, and that's absolutely fine.
The times it's really worth it are when there's something at home that tells part of his story — pets, motorbikes, tractors, or the place he grew up — or when leaving home means a lot, with his mum and dad and a houseful of family around. That's a lovely part of the story to keep.
The short version
Give yourself time, look like yourself, eat something, and don't cram too much in. Get the morning right and the rest of the day tends to follow — relaxed, unhurried, and yours.