Getting ready in the morning for a 1.30pm ceremony - Those married and photographer advice welcome

For a 1pm ceremony I went to the hairdressers at 9am although had to sit under a heater for a while for my style! I then came home for make-up which my friend did. Others may do it quicker though.

Haha, I had 2 bridesmaids and one girl doing both hair and make up, she arrived at 7:15! We still weren't all ready when the car arrived, but that was about 12:15. Its amazing how time flies!

As you said that your marriage is in the evening. So, wear light color clothes and a very light make up suits you the best. Dress planning in event is very difficult.

Oh wow - we had less time than I thought! I'd be worried my hairstyle had dropped by 1.30 or wasn't looking as good as it did at 9am!

I normally start 2 hours before the ceremony to capture you and the rest of the party getting ready, I then leave you about 15 minutes before you leave so that I can get to the ceremony, park and have a word with the vicar.

Be warned that the church might tell you that photographs are allowed but the amount of times I and other photographers have been told that only to find when we get to the church they will tell us that no photos in the church, pre warn your photographer but then if they are a professional and doing it long enough they will know this.

Bruce

My hairdresser arrived approx 9am and we were done by 11ish. The 3 BMs had simple French twists and mine involved a fair amount of curling and a few clip in extensions. Didn't take long at all. One of my BMs did all our make up at the same time, working on whoever wasn't having their hair done at the time.

Hair and make-up began for me at 9am and carried on pretty much until it was time to leave! I got married at 1pm and had one bridesmaid and two flower girls all with half-up, half-down styles.

Make-up we had for me, bridesmaid, mum, sister, daughter and sister-in-law so that took quite a while.

Is your sister a bridesmaid? If so, you need to factor in time for her to do all the make-up, plus get her own done and her hair and get herself ready. So I would aim to have your hair lady there at 9am and maybe see if the groom, best man and some friends could help with the setting up?

We got married at 1pm. Hair and make up were done at home by a friend so didn't have to go anywhere, think we started at about 10am, there was only 3 of us, and we were still running late! Leave plenty of time.

Ive been thinking about this too, we are getting married at 12.30 and have myself and 5 bm's to do, mua said she will have to start around 5.30 to get everyone done. im going to go in the middle of everyone i think. not sure on hairdresser yet as not 100% decided what we are all having, although a couple bm's want to do their own hair.

We're getting married at 12.30pm. 3 bridesmaids and myself all having hair and make up done by a pro, who is arriving at 8 am - we're not far from the ceremony venue but she reackons she'll be done in a maxiumum of 3 hours anyway.

Are your BMs having their hair done as well? It depends on how elaborate you're planning to go with styles, but I would have thought 9am would easily be an early enough start if you rotate chores in setting up the venue as to who's getting their hair done. And be careful to keep heavier chores away from those having their hair done early so as not to mess up the dos!

I would highly advise you to start it as soon as possible you can. Usually make up artists leave the bride for the last to ensure that everything will be perfect on her just before she leaves the room. Hair first, then make up.

I always advice to my brides to allow an extra 30-40 mins gap between the finish of the make-up and leaving to the ceremony, as they almost always run 30mins late. This can stress you and leaves no gaps for photographs.

I usually get there 2 hours prior to the end of the preparations so the people can get used to me in the room quicker, this also allows me to grab some really cool moments.

If you take a look at this blog, you can see that the people are very relaxed and absolutely ignoring me during the preparations as they got time to get used to being photographed before anything key moment happened.

https://www.cgphotography.co.uk/lodge-country-inn-wedding-photography/

I hope it helps

I have myself, my mum & 6 bms all needing hair & makeup. Wedding is at 2pm. Im having 2 hairdressers & 2 make up artists starting at 8am.

We got married at 12.45, and my hairdresser is round the corner from where I live so I went to hers for 9am and was done for 10am. MUA arrived at 10.30 same time as tog and she was finished for about 11.15am. I had 4 bridesmaids & 2 flowergirls, my CBM being my sister who I lived with did her own hair & make-up, 1 BM lives above the hairdressers so only had to pop downstairs for hers! Then came round at about 10.30 aswell, and my sister did her make up. Other 2 BMs got ready at home (1 of them being the mother of my 2 flowergirls) then arrived at who knows what time! I couldn't afford to pay for BM's hair & make up so they all did their own thing & just made sure they were there in time for the cars & going to Church. I do wish I could've had them all getting ready with me but that's just how it was in the end, the cars turned up 3/4 hour early & made me panic! But we were all ready in time & arrived at the Church bang on time. It went by too quickly though!!! I'm so glad I got an understanding tog who did me me a deal & did the shots of me getting ready it's lovely to look back them, especially the one where I was convinced my dress wasn't going to fit because I had put yet more weight on despite being careful, but then the girls managed to zip it up & the tog captured the moment of joy & relief perfectly:

Sorry, couldn't resist a cheeky flash!

I think I started at 9:30 at the hairdressers down the road. Then back to my house for makeup. I had two BMs who also did the same but we all took turns for the hair and makeup.

I definitely didn't feel rushed, in fact, I made everyone bacon sarnies at mine before I put my dress on.

My wedding was also at 1:30pm and took about 20-30mins to drive to venue.

My ceremony is at 1pm, but I want to be on the road at 12 (venue is 40 mins away on a bad day, but I dont want to be late!) I have me, 1 BM and my mum having hair and make up and the hairdresser has recommended she arrive at 7am... so 5 hours for 3 of us. We must need a lot of work!!

I usually start with the details (rings, jewellery, dress, shoes... every little thing), so in my personal case I start taking pictures half an hour before the make-up artist starts. However, that depends on the photographer and the approach... In my case, I believe that it's better not to start directly taking pictures to everyone when I just arrive because they could feel uncomfortable with the guy with the huge camera that nobody knows... ? this way I can know your family a little bit while I'm taking the details pictures and therefore they feel more comfortable with my presence when I start with the 'getting ready'. Hope this helps!

I just wanted to say your photography is beautiful!! If we hadn't booked ours already we definitely would have been in touch! Thanks for the advice

Thank you very much indeed! I wish you a very very happy wedding day!

I'm definitely going to have to create an action plan for the morning of now! So much to think about!

You are doing the right thing by thinking ahead.

Work the time backwards by scheduling what time you want to arrive at the venue, how long the car journey will take.

Get your sister to have a trial run of the make up so she knows roughly how long she will take with each Bridesmaid.

Plan to have something to eat to keep you going within your time also.

I used to be a beauty therapist and the business would go to the bride's house in the morning and do the hair and make up. The bride would have been for a trial in advance so we knew how long it would take for us to deal with each member of the bridal party.

The biggest challenge usually was the lack of planning in advance causing unnecessary stress for the bride.

Give everybody a job and some responsibility.

a common stress that used to occur was the best man calling not knowing what side to put his flower on. This advise your florist will be able to give you!

Have a fantastic day, and make sure that includes the morning too, Stress free! : )

Is it possible to rope in family/friends/OH to set up the venue in the morning? I think you will be pushed to do it yourself or anyone in the bridal party and might stress you out more!

Can you speak to your venue and get access the night before for set up?