When Should I Be Ready?

Brides often ask me, “When should I be ready before the ceremony?”
I thought it might be a good idea to answer here. Of course I can only answer this question for my own clients as other wedding photographers possibly do things differently.

For me, I like to leave the prep location at least 20 minutes before you leave to travel to the ceremony. This gives me enough time to make sure I’m set up at the ceremony location and ready for your arrival. It’s easiest if we count back from the ceremony time and work it out from there.

Let’s say the wedding ceremony starts at the classic Spring and Autumn time of 3pm. If it takes 15 minutes to travel there then I would leave the prep location to head to the church/venue/garden at 2:25pm. You would then leave for the wedding closer to 2:45pm.

I like to capture bridal portraits before the wedding and this usually takes around 60 minutes (max). So I would recommend being fully dressed by 1:25pm. If you then count back however long you think it would take to put your gown on, then that’s the time you’d need to tell your MUA and Hair Stylist to be finished by.

So if you think getting dressed would take 25 minutes, then ask your stylist/s to ensure your makeup and hair is done by 1pm.

Obviously these times would change depending on the distance between the prep and ceremony locations as well as how long you think getting dressed would take. If it helps any I would always suggest that it’s best to over estimate times. You’d be really surprised how fast time flies and how things that are normally quick and easy seem to take longer than expected. Getting ready on a wedding day is nothing like getting ready at any other time in your life.

Here is an image I captured with Michelle who was ready early enough that we could go and capture some pre-ceremony portraits. I’d like to thank Tasleema Nigh and Nicola Reardon for doing such an amazing job on the day and ensuring the girls looked absolutely amazing with heaps of time to spare!

Makeup: Tasleema Nigh
Hair: Hair By Nicola
VENUE: Weddings at Tiffany’s
CELEBRANT: Pastor Jim Cameron
FLOWERS: Tiffany’s Flowers
MUSIC: 16 Strings String Quartet
VIDEOGRAPHER: Lemon Tree Film House
ACCOMMODATION: Lemon Grove
CAR: Wedding Cars of Maleny
CAKE: Coast Wedding Creations