hey there! emily here 🙂

I wanted to give our couples and their bridal party my top 3 favorite tips for choosing your preceremony location! when you are wanting an AMAZING venue and the getting ready location is well, a little less than amazing — you choose the venue over the getting ready location, rightfully so…. so we have a few thoughts to help those less than amazing locations look MAGICAL too! 🙂

1: hands down the easiest way to help make the preceremony location look amazing — keep it clean and tidy! we are all about having a great time with drinks and food.. but once those photographers/videographers get there helping them clean up and hide unwanted items can help the quality of your imagery be top-notch!!! another tip in the event you won’t want to clean up, just keep your drinks/food/bags/etc to one side of the room — even keeping the ‘mess’ localized helps a ton too! our team always makes an effort to straighten up, but not everyone does that — and they’ll have more of a ‘journalistic’ approach to your day, which means if you’re getting your dress on in front of empty water bottles, you’ll have photos with empty water bottles in your photos!!!!

2: lighting — choose the best preceremony location available with the BEST natural light. if this isn’t an option ( totally okay.. we have seen some dark locations — or rooms without windows!) – let the photographers/videographers know prior — that way they can come prepared with off camera lighting,  this isn’t always a necessity to pack for photographers — so having that heads up would truly help the overall experience! (side note; a lot of photographers (including us) always have lighting gear on hand regardless BUT knowing ahead of time allows your photographer to arrive a little earlier to set everything up)

and last but not least!!!

3: the SIZE matters — is your space large enough to hold your entire bridal party + family members +  the photographers + the videographers..  will it hold everyone comfortably?!?! this one is important — all too often we walk in to some pretty but very small locations.. where your family and wedding party actually have to take turns going in and out – or have to get ready in another space at the location — be sure to think about everyone being comfortable and having room to ‘unwind’ and relax… space truly matters!!

these are just SOME of my top tips to help when planning your preceremony location.. we hope it helps you celebrate beautifully the day you will remember and cherish forever!!

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