Venue: Athletic Club of Columbus
Photo credit: Kimberly Potterf
The “getting ready” process is a large part of your wedding day. Most ceremonies don’t start until 4:30pm so most of your wedding day won’t be spent at the actual reception. How you spend your day and where you get ready is equally important as your reception details.
The ladies: From working hundreds of wedding over the years, I stand firm in my opinion that the wedding party should try and get ready in one location if possible. It can be pretty stressful trying to coordinate rides to and from the salon and it leaves a lot of room for error (leaving items behind, traffic, weather, etc.). If you get ready at the venue or at someone’s house, it’s completely private and you can make it into your personal haven. Creating a music playlist while you get ready will set the vibe for your day and make for a fun, stress-free environment. I had one of my brides bring scented candles which, at first I thought was a bit odd but when I walked into her room, the smell of vanilla was so calming and soothing…..I loved it!
Assign a specific person to pick up food and drinks. Things like bagels, fruit, coffee, granola bars, and muffins work well. Brunch items you can set out that people can munch on throughout the day. Make sure to bring plenty of napkins and wipes and assign 1 or 2 people to clean up throughout the day so that the room doesn’t get trashed. That can happen quickly and easily! If you get ready at the venue, determine ahead of time if they will have things like cups, ice, sugar packets for coffee, stirrers, etc. Determine ahead of time what items need to stay in the room when you’re finished getting ready and what will be packed up. The less you can transport, the better!
Venue: Columbus Museum of Art
Photo Credit: 614 Wedding Photography
Playlists recommendations:
http://www.weddingshoppeinc.com/blog/index.php/2015/05/01/the-perfect-wedding-morning-playlist/
http://bridalmusings.com/2014/06/ultimate-pre-wedding-playlist/
The Guys: Have an activity planned out! For the women, it’s a long, extensive regimen of getting ready and we love it but for the guys, it typically takes about 5 minutes to put their pants on they’re good-to-go. I see time and again groomsmen hanging around with nothing to do, getting restless and antsy. The girls always have them arrive super early just in case and they just hang around with nothing to do…… so they start drinking. Heavily. That’s why I always recommend having a planned out activity during the day for the guys if possible to get their minds off things, keep the drinking to minimum, and give them something to do with the day.
As I recommended with the ladies, it is preferable if the guys get ready on-site if possible. In my experience, there is always at least one groomsmen that forgets his socks or tie if he needs to transport clothing and personal items to a different location. I think it ‘s always better if the groomsmen can get ready on their own and show up at the ceremony location ready to go. You can always get pictures of them putting on their bow ties and jackets there.
My biggest recommendation for the guys is to assign a specific person for the following tasks: pocket squares, bowties, and boutonnieres. I don’t think I’ve worked a wedding where someone actually thought of this ahead of time. Groomsmen always struggle with figuring out how to fold a pocket square and spend 45 minutes looking it up on YouTube. If you have a Wedding Planner, this is the perfect task for them. Often times, Photographers will assist with this but double check ahead of time. This can be one of those tasks that can hold up the timeline if no one knows how to do it. Make sure you determine ahead of time what kind of pocket square you want because there are lot of different folds.
Please feel free to share your tips and plans for getting ready the day of the wedding!
Venue: Columbus Museum of Art
Makeup: Columbus Bridal Makeup
Hair: Claire O'Toole
Dress: La Jeune Marie
Photo Credit: 614 Wedding Photography