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A Checklist of Bridal Details

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It’s all in the details! The big finally here, you start getting ready when you realize “I forgot my gold hair clip!” Trust me, this happens more than you know. As a bride, you have a million things running through your head and the last thing you are going to remember is to grab ALL of the wedding bands so that the photographer can get a shot of them during the getting ready part of the day. Living in southern California, we are a fast and quick type of people. If there isn’t something to remind us, we leave without it. This post is for brides and photographers alike to share and refer to when preparing for the wedding day.

This is a checklist for the BRIDAL PREP TIME, not for whole wedding day. I normally photograph the bride and the bridesmaids getting ready for about an hour and a half before the first look!  This hour and half will allow me to shoot ALL of the bridal details and still capture all the ladies getting ready together. After the details are shot and we’re 30 minutes away from the first look, I will photograph the bride getting into her dress!!

This bridal prep time is an amazing time for me to get warmed up and to get to know the ladies a little better. It’s important for ME to get warmed up, and we don’t want to start the day by rushing. With that said, an hour and a 1/2 minimum is what I suggest for bridal prep time! Refer to Building Your Photography Timeline for more information on time allocation for the entire day. Remember in order to keep your albums and galleries looking high end, it’s all in the details!

After I arrive, I begin to get settled and these are the items I start looking for! I understand that not EVERY bride is going to have ALL of these details…. these are just the most common items I love to shoot:

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DRESS, VEIL AND PERSONALIZED HANGER If you don’t have a personalized hanger, make sure you have a decent one for your beautiful gown. Your wedding dress needs more than a metal or plastic hanger in order to convey its majesty. Having a classy wooden hanger makes all the difference in the world. If you forget this, most hotels and venues have extra “nice” hangers, just ask the front desk. However, you’re not planning on getting one, tell me ahead of time, I can bring one for you. Moreover, if you’re wearing a veil in your wedding, pack it with your dress. That way they can be married before before you are!

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– SHOES Some brides wear heels the whole day (hats off to them!) And some only wear them for a few portraits and then they switch into something more comfortable. Either way, bring me the ones you would like to see in your images and albums and I’ll be sure to capture beautiful shots of them.

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– RINGS Don’t forget all 3 of them. Frequently, the best man or ring bearer has the bride’s band at the start of the wedding day. I love to get the ring shots with all of the other detail shots and so I try to have my brides keep all of the jewelry with her until the bridal party is together after the first look! THEN the ring shots are taken and the bands can both go back to whoever will be holding them.

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– EARRINGS, NECKLACE AND OTHER JEWELRY Other jewelry pieces may include hairpieces, bracelets, other rings, etc. I will take photos of all of the jewelry pieces so wait to until you are in your dress to put them on, it will allow for more photo opportunities of these beautiful pieces.

It’s all in these little details that we get the best images, because it shows your personalities!

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– KEEPSAKES these items can be anything from handkerchiefs to pins, a pretty bottle of perfume, vow books, a special hair clip or something blue, you get the idea.

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-INVITATIONS these are great for those special detail shots, dont forget the other stationary that goes along with them! If you need an idea for a great invitation design, Etsy has some of the best invitation designers that keep wedding photography in mind! If you either of you have hand written a letter, bring that along as well, I love the sentimental details!

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– BOUQUETS & BOUTS if you’re doing a FIRST LOOK…which I recommend to all of my couples, then you will need to have your bouquet delivered to wherever you’re getting ready so that it can be ready when you leave for the portraits!

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– BRIDE’s CLUTCH You will most likely not have this clutch on you for very long during the day but we still need to photograph it to remember how pretty it was when you did carry it around!

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– GIFTS These can be gifts that you have given to your bridesmaids, or a gift given to you from a family member or even bride and groom gifts that were exchanged.

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I hope that this list will help you be as prepared for your pre-ceremony as you can be! Feel free to save this post to your bookmarks, screenshot it or save it to your notes. Here is a recap of the details:

-DRESS

-VEIL

-HANGER

-SHOES

-RINGS

-EARRINGS

-NECKLACES

-HAIRPIECES

-BRACELETS

-KEEPSAKES

-PERFUME

-INVITATIONS

-BOUQUETS & BOUTS

-PURSE OR CLUTCH

-GIFTS

Thank you for reading this post! Until next time.

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