One aspect of a wedding day, even an intimate one, that requires more attention than you may realize is the thought and effort into finding the perfect place to get dressed and ready. Your getting ready space will be where you gather and dress before beginning with the rest of the day’s events. When deciding on your wedding venue, it should be something you consider.

Why Choosing a Good Getting Ready Space is Important

Choosing your getting ready space is an important decision and helps to set the tone of the entire day. It’s an intimate space to prepare for your wedding and it’s a space away from any guests you may not want to see before your ceremony.

It’s also a space that allows you the chance to get to see and talk to your closest friends and family such as your mom or grandma. You can get dressed and have your hair and makeup done all while sharing some meaningful moments with them.

Choosing the right getting ready space should be based on 3 things:

Lighting
Decor
Size

With these elements in mind, you can seek out and find the perfect bridal suite for getting ready.

Consider The Lighting

Specifically speaking, you should want a room with a lot of natural lighting. When applying makeup, having natural light in the room will make the process easier and help to ensure better makeup application without much skin tone mismatch.

Natural lighting also helps to make a room feel bigger and more relaxing. Having the sunshine beaming in can only be a sign of good things to come, so open the curtains and let it in. Your wedding morning will run much more smoothly with a calming and well-lit getting ready space.

For wedding and elopement photography, getting ready shots are a pretty common occurrence and include everything from mom helping the bride into her gown, to still photos of your details. When working with your photographer, we are going to educate you on how the lighting will play a big role in how your photos turn out. With crisp natural lighting, your photos will look natural and avoid not too harsh or too dark.

Tip: Look for rooms with large windows or multiple smaller ones!

Bride wearing white robe being fanned by makeup artist in bright room.

Room Decor Is Important

There are a lot of places to get ready, but not all are created equally. Some rooms may have excessive decor that is either distracting or unfitting of your wedding’s overall vibe.

Choosing a getting ready space with minimal decor is ideal because it not only gives you fewer distractions but it also helps to get cleaner photos. Your photographer will have a much easier time getting great photos if there isn’t a bunch of mismatch patterns, statues or decor everywhere.

If your getting ready space is rather plain and you wish to dress it up, you can certainly choose to do that by adding in fresh flowers or other simple decor pieces. However, you may realize that being minimal with your chosen decor is plenty.

Tip: Seek out a room with white ceilings, neutral colored walls and floors.

Mother in blue dress helping bride put on her earrings.

Be Sure To Consider The Room Size

A good photographer can edit photos as needed to help clear up some of the distracting decor and help to arrange people and objects in the best lighting even in the worst lit rooms but something that no one can correct is a lack of space.

You want the space to have ample room to roam around freely in. Think about it, if you’re going to have a bride, her friends, close family, a photographer, and all of the stuff that you need to get ready in a closed off room, this can make even regular sized rooms feel a little cramped and smaller rooms feel like the walls are closing in.

Having a larger room than you think you need is always better than having a smaller one. A large room will mean that there is plenty of space for everyone to move around and allow your photographer to get the most flattering angles.

Tip: If the room feels small with just the two of you and the venue guide, it’s going to be cramped on the day of your wedding.