The morning of the wedding day, in my opinion, sets the tone for a happy blissful bride, or the stressed out tearful bride who couldn’t relax and missed all the joyful moments.

Luckily for my brides, there is help! When it comes to wedding morning, wedding planning, wedding anything, don’t try and be the planner and bride. They are two full time jobs and one cannot do both without losing the joy of one or both. My best advice would be to hire a planner or at the very least “month of coordinator” who you feel fits your personality and understands your style.  

Our job as wedding vendors is to make your special day flawless. Whether it’s communicating with all the moving parts behind the scenes so you can relax and enjoy the morning, or creating a timeline and checking off the to-do’s so you know exactly what is needed to have the perfect wedding day.

As for makeup and wedding morning here is what I’ve found works the best and also what hasn’t worked the best. With that being said, as a professional, we make every situation work. So don’t overthink it. These are just helpful tips I’ve picked up along the way:

1. Be prepared to start early. Don’t be afraid of the 8 am start time. This is typical in 90% of weddings. This means they have enough time to have a relaxing smooth enjoyable morning. Have all your party come at start time. They can have coffee, breakfast, chat, do your nails, help you with whatever you need, etc. Make sure the hotel or staff at the venue has coffee ready and breakfast ready to go at 8! 

2. Try to get a good night’s sleep. Have the rehearsal two days before the wedding. Remember it’s your wedding day! Don’t stay up until 2 am and gorge on alcohol and fast food. I promise you it’s not worth it. Save yourself the hangover and swollen bags under your eyes.  

3. Think of the space. There must be ample room and natural light. Ideally, you will need a large table for makeup, two small tables, two high chairs for makeup, two hair setups by electrical and two low chairs, mirrors, a seating area for your party separate from hair and makeup, a place for food and coffee set up. Two or more bathrooms are ideal. Think of where the dress will hang, where the bridesmaid dresses will hang, and where will the flowers go when they are delivered. If this is at someone’s home, cover heirloom or valuable furniture with drop clothes or towels. We are careful, but accidents do happen. 

4. Have a schedule or plan for hair and makeup. It doesn’t need to super detailed on individual, but you should have a start time and an end time and you should see about 30-45 minutes per person allowed for in that schedule. One hour per person is also typical for professional makeup.  

5. The bride NEVER goes last. The bride is usually in the middle of the getting-ready lineup. The last people getting ready should not be anyone who needs to help the bride get ready either. The mother of the bride and the maid of honor or sisters of the bride should be done and ready before the bride so they can assist with everything that starts happening toward the end of the morning. There will be vendors showing up, lots of questions, and stress will be starting to mount. You cannot be isolated to a chair in these moments and the makeup artist also cannot have you getting up frequently or looking at a phone frequently. 

6. Do not look at your phone or talk on the phone while getting your makeup done. This will prolong your makeup being finished. Of course, we understand that it will happen, but having someone on their phone constantly will prolong the process. 

7. Try to steam the dresses the day before and request a rolling rod or closet to hang them. Steaming in the room will cause the room to get humid, and may cause the makeup to sweat or you to sweat.  

8. Don’t have major things on your to-do list on the morning of the wedding. Even if you think you will have time, you will not. I’ve seen this one time and time again and it always causes stress.  

9. Have all your detail items together for your photographer so it’s ready when they arrive. This is the rings, invitations, veil, flowers, shoes, jewelry, accessories, etc. 

10. Assign bridesmaids to take your phone and answer calls or texts regarding questions for the wedding day. This would also be your planner if you have one.

11. Do not set your drinks on the makeup station. I’ve seen many spills on the makeup. Accidents do happen.  

12. Don’t hang your wedding dress on any doors with hinges. I’ve seen grease get on dresses from the door’s hinges.  

13. Have chairs be brought to the hotel room the night before if you can. We’ve had mornings where the hotel is very late in bringing the chairs to the room causing us to be behind.

14. Have your bridal party have some idea of what they would like for hair and makeup. Inspo pics are great and save time. Faces should be clean and no makeup residue from the night before. Lightly moisturized is ok, but nothing oily or greasy or slick on the face or eyelids.

15.  Be kind. Always. To your vendors, the waitstaff, hotel staff, your bridesmaids, moms, and future mother in law. People are a lot more willing to bend over backwards for someone who is kind and understanding, not rude and demanding.  

16.. Touch-up kit must-haves- if you are the bride you will get a powdered puff, sponges, extra foundation or concealer, lip sample if you don’t have your own lip, straw, and oil blotting sheets. You should consider having a wand of glue in your touch-up kit for any touch-ups needed on lashes, also some blush and setting powder or setting spray.

17. Put someone in charge of the music. Someone who will be in the room most of the time not in and out. 

18. When planning food, try bite-size instead of subs. Subs are hard to eat without smearing the makeup and requiring touch-ups.

19.  Lastly, try to enjoy the downtime of the morning and the calm.  this will be the last calm part of the day.  Keep people around you who are calm if that is what is best for you or assign a hype person who can put together a playlist that gets everyone excited!