Bridal Details Checklist

After arriving and greeting everyone, we begin the wedding day by photographing the bridal details. In comparison to the rest of the wedding, these details are incredibly significant! Taking time to give attention to them is important; it’s like the warm-up for the day!

While we search for a spot to hang your dress, we also check out the lightning in different areas of the venue. We also use your special bridal details and elements as unique pieces to start building the overall picture of your wedding day gallery.

What are “bridal details” anyways? Why are these so important?

We consider “bridal details” to be any element that the bride will wear, carry, or hold near-and-dear to her on the wedding day. Details vary for each bride but usually include things like the wedding gown, veil/hairpiece, jewelry, garter, shoes, rings, a belt or sash, and the bouquet. If you're a more traditional bride, your bridal details may also include your something borrowed and/or something blue. Essentially, bridal details are any and everything that makes you feel, well, like a bride!

Additionally, bridal details will oftentimes include items like invitations and programs, custom ring boxes or trays, perfume, customized hangers, and more. Other tasteful touches include extra florals and lace pieces or silk ribbons. Side note: You can ask your florist to leave a few or we can use any loose greenery. These additional items can be incorporated to create the feeling of your wedding day in your gallery. We love when brides include extra elements to use in their detailed photos! Bridal details give us more pieces to photograph and build up the final gallery that tells the whole story of your wedding day.

Oftentimes our brides love for us to capture a special flat lay of their bridal details. It’s helpful if the details are relatively small. Larger items draw attention away from your smaller, precious details. Choose items that will complement, not distract, from your primary bridal details. If you’re not sure which items to choose, we've got you! We will select items you’ve gathered and use what will work best for styling detail shots.

PREPARING TO CAPTURE BRIDAL DETAILS

It’s helpful if you gather your bridal details together before the wedding day. Apart from larger pieces, such as the dress and veil, we suggest keeping details elements in a “bridal box” or a tote. It takes time to style and photograph the bridal details; if you have to search for the items when the photographer arrives, this takes away time from photographing them. We also want to take a moment to show some love to the Groom! Grooms can have special details on the wedding day too! Examples of groom details might include things like cuff links, accessories like a watch, boutonniere, a tie or bowtie, beard combs (for our proud, bearded men), etc. We’ve loved when grooms wear something unique, such as quirky and fun socks!

If both parties are getting ready at the same location, we can photograph both the bridal and groom details. If the groom is not getting ready at the same location, don’t forget to have the groom put together a groom-box and bring it to the location site. Otherwise, we can set aside time to photograph last-minute touches (straightening a tie, buttoning sleeves, fixing a beard, etc.) before the ceremony.

A LIST OF PRIMARY BRIDAL DETAILS

Dress & Veil

Depending on the getting-ready location, we will oftentimes begin by photographing the dress and veil first (or close to it). It usually takes us longer to find a great spot to hang the dress than it to photograph it, but we want to make sure to do your gorgeous gown justice!

Shoes

We love when brides have special shoes to include as part of their flat lay, as well as wardrobe shots. If your wedding shoes have any special sentiment, make sure to keep them close by for detailed photos.

Jewelry & Accessories

We don’t want to forget all of the beautiful, thoughtful details that make you feel like the blushing bride you are! Tip: Remove any tags from jewelry before the wedding day.

Invitation & Program We love styling a flat lay using several of the smaller details, including invitations or a copy of the day-of program. Many couples use their invitations to set the tone for their wedding day which makes them perfect pieces to include for these detailed photos.

Floral pieces While we always make sure to capture detailed shots of the bridal bouquet, it’s nice to have extra florals to incorporate. These can be extra stems from the bouquet, the groom’s boutonnière, or a flower crown. As we said before, you can also ask your florist for any loose petals and/or extra pieces of greenery!

The rings We love to photograph the engagement ring and wedding bands together. Tip: Keep all three rings (bride's wedding band + groom's wedding band + bride's engagement ring) in the bridal suite or getting-ready room with your other details. Your Maid-of-Honor can be in charge of getting your wedding band to the Best Man before the ceremony begins.

Any specials details

Including a few small, extra elements, such as a special brooch, personalized handkerchief, lace, silk ribbons, ring boxes, antique trays, and/or family heirloom is a great way to add a personal touch to your detail photos.

Click below to download a copy of a simple Bridal Details Checklist to help you organize the basic details you may wish to include for your wedding day!