Getting-Ready Photos Start With a Tidy Room
Getting-ready photographs are the ones couples most often tell us they did not expect to love. They are quiet, unposed and full of people being themselves before the formality begins. They are also, more than any other part of the day, decided by a room. A cluttered space with a small window and a television in the corner will fight every frame. A calm space with a large window and a clear wall will give you an hour of lovely pictures almost without trying.
Choose the room for its window
Look at wherever you are staying and find the room with the largest window, then check what the light does there in the morning. Soft, indirect daylight is what you want. Direct sun blasting through onto a bed is dramatic but difficult, and a room lit only by ceiling downlights will look yellow, flat and tired no matter what is done to it.
If the best window is in a bedroom that is too small for the whole group, that is fine. Hair and makeup can happen anywhere; the dressing and the portraits should happen by the good window. It is worth moving a chair across a house for.
Clear the clutter, honestly
This is the part that makes the biggest difference and takes the least effort. A getting-ready room in full flight collects an extraordinary amount of visual noise: suitcases, shopping bags, takeaway boxes, chargers, half-drunk coffee, hangers, discarded clothing, a hairdryer trailing across the floor.
Pick one corner or one bathroom as the dumping ground and be ruthless about it. Everything that is not being used right now goes there, out of sight. Then keep one clear area, ideally near the window, as the space where things actually happen.
- Strip the bed or make it properly. A half-made bed is very hard to hide.
- Move bins, remotes, chargers and bottled water out of the frame.
- Close wardrobe doors and draw back heavy curtains.
- Switch off warm ceiling lights if daylight is doing the work. Mixed colour temperatures are unkind to skin.
Hang the outfit somewhere worth photographing
The dress or suit will almost certainly be photographed hanging before it is worn, so give it somewhere to hang that is not a wardrobe door with a fire escape notice on it. A picture rail, a window frame, a beam, a pretty doorway or the branch of a tree outside all work well. What matters is light behind or beside it and a background that is not busy.
Swap the shop hanger for a wooden or padded one if you can. It is a small change that shows immediately. Steam or press everything the day before, because creases photograph far more clearly than they read to the eye.
Gather the details the night before
Detail photographs are usually made early, while everyone is still getting settled. Having the pieces in one place saves twenty minutes of hunting and means nothing gets forgotten.
- Rings, ideally all of them together, including the band you are giving.
- Invitation suite, save-the-date or an order of service.
- Perfume or cologne, cufflinks, a watch, a tie or bow tie.
- Shoes, earrings, hairpieces, veil or headwear.
- Anything borrowed or inherited, and anything with a story attached.
- A loose flower or two, if the florals arrive early enough.
Put them in a shallow box or a fabric bag and hand the whole lot over when we arrive. If something carries a family history, say so. It changes how it gets photographed.
Think about who is in the room
Getting-ready spaces fill up quickly, and a crowded room reads as chaos in photographs. It is worth deciding in advance who is actually in there while you dress: usually a parent, a couple of close friends, and the person helping with buttons. Everyone else can be in the next room with the music on.
The moment somebody helps you into the dress or fastens a cufflink is one worth protecting. Give it space and give the person doing it room to move.
A word on power
Load-shedding has a habit of arriving at the worst possible time. Check the schedule for your area and your date, and plan hair and makeup around it if there is a slot in the morning. A charged power bank, a battery hair tool and a well-lit window are all worth having lined up.
The upside is that a power cut in the morning is rarely a photographic problem at all, provided you are near daylight. It is only a problem for the appliances.
None of this needs to be perfect. A little mess is honest and some of it belongs in the story. But an hour of tidying the night before, and one good window chosen on purpose, will change your morning photographs more than anything else you could do.
