Getting Ready
Planning for Great Wedding Photos starts with choosing the right getting ready location. We’ve seen it all from the extra room at the church building to the bright, wide open presidential suites in luxurious hotels. Whatever comes our way when it comes to our California weddings, we can make anything look great! But there’s more that you can be doing in advance to help us give you the magazine-worthy getting ready photos you have been dreaming of! And all it takes is a couple of things to look for when choosing your getting ready space for your wedding day.
Here are our 3 best tips and tricks for finding the perfect location for your getting ready space for your wedding day:
1. GREAT WEDDING PHOTOS = LOTS OF NATURAL LIGHT
The number one thing you can do when planning for great wedding photos in your getting ready photos is to choose a space with as much natural light as possible. The best getting ready spaces for weddings and bridal parties are spaces with at least one large window if not several windows. The first thing we’ll do when we arrive is assess the light because the light is what we’re chasing! And as people-centered photographers, we know that the best light makes our couples look and feel their best.
Spencer and Susanna’s Intimate Chapel on the Hill wedding is the perfect example of this. We adore working Chapel on the Hill weddings and would recommend them over and over again, especially because their bridal cottage is freshly renovated with lots of natural light coming through large windows! Not to mention they have check marks on our other must haves for getting ready spaces:
2. GREAT WEDDING PHOTOS = LIGHT OR WHITE WALLS
While we are all for artistic decor and creative design, we believe the best photos of our couples have non distracting backgrounds, nice and bright reflecting all that gorgeous natural light pouring in from the large windows to make you look and feel your best. While it may seem plain, to wedding photographers, it’s the perfect background for focusing on YOU and the joy of your special day. When planning for great wedding photos for your getting ready photos, anything with light or white walls are perfect for those editorial, magazine-worthy getting ready photos. We’ve even moved furniture around in hotel rooms and church meeting rooms to find the least distracting background with the best light!
Shelley & Austin’s Allied Arts Guild Wedding started off in the historic Stanford Park Hotel in the presidential suite. This large hotel room had enough space for upwards of 20 people getting ready—and Shelley knew ahead of time that she was going to get the best photos here with their large windows and white walls. We moved some furniture around to find the perfect spot, and even the decor was light and bright for our favorite champagne toast photos with the bride tribe!
3. GREAT WEDDING PHOTOS = COORDINATING OUTFITS
This is your time to get creative! Like we mentioned above, one of our favorite things to do during your getting ready time, after everyone’s hair and makeup is all finished, is to have all the girls pile onto a bed or a couch with a glass of champagne and capture that signature shot with your bridal babes. These photos look best when you and your girls are dressed in coordinating getting ready outfits for bridesmaids. And we’ve seen several different ways of doing this!
Stefanie & Jeremy’s Fernwood Cellars vineyard wedding really shows off just how much coordinating outfits elevates the luxuriousness of your images. Not to mention, the bridal suite gets extra praise for checking off all our wish list items for the perfect getting ready space. Lots of natural light and light, non-distracting walls. Add in your perfectly coordinated babes, and it’s the dream getting ready location!
Planning for great wedding photos is great, but not required! No matter where you’re getting married, you can expect us to capture beautiful getting ready photos even in not ideal lighting situations. But since we’re always chasing the best light to help YOU look and feel your best, you can add so much value simply by intentionally choosing the perfect getting ready location for your wedding day. Do we sound like the perfect fit for you? Let’s chat about being your wedding photographers!
BAY AREA WEDDINGS
We photograph weddings all over the Bay Area. As Bay Area wedding photographers, we have photographed gorgeous California weddings in Gilroy like Stephanie & Andrew’s Black Tie Wedding and as far north as Sacramento. We’re looking forward to a San Diego wedding, Santa Cruz wedding, San Francisco wedding, and Castro Valley wedding this year, too! Still looking for the perfect wedding photographer for your Bay Area wedding? We would love to chat with you!
CALIFORNIA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
Based in the Bay Area, we are Michael and Angela, a sweetheart team of joyful and fun wedding photographers for easy-going, fun couples looking for the perfect California wedding photographers. Did you know: we include a complimentary California engagement session for all of our wedding couples! How cool, right? And we love to travel! If you’re planning a destination engagement session, we’d love to connect with you!
