Getting ready location

Wow, only an hour at the venue? That's not much time. I like your idea of a hotel suite where everyone can get ready together. It adds to the excitement of the day, and if there are any fashion emergencies, there are plenty of other people on hand to help out!

Yes, maybe get ready at the hotel, then go to the venue early, so you can get some pictures in the bridal suite. But I think if you have your photographer during the getting ready portion, you should definitely get some photos there as well.

Is the bridal suite an extra expense? If it is, then i'd say don't use it. 1 hour is not enough time. However, if it is no extra cost, then get ready elsewhere and spend the hour before the wedding in the bridal suite relaxing with your bridesmaids before you walk down the aisle. You can still take pictures during that hour. But I wouldn't try to half way get ready in one location..then finish getting ready in another. Unless the only thing left to do is put on your dress.

I think getting HAMU 100% done in the hotel, then driving to the venue to put on your dresses for getting ready pictures is a great idea!

We are going to be putting our dresses and tuxes on at the church an hour and a half before we walk down the aisle. Everybody will be getting their hair and makeup done by who they choose, so I'm giving them all morning to get that done. Plus, we only have our photographer for 6 hours so she wont be there for any of the prep anyway.

Are you able to buy extra time in the bridal suite? My venue includes 2 hours but we are paying extra to have it the whole day. It’s quite pricey (much more than I would’ve spent on a hotel suite for us all to get ready in) but it’s worth it to me to be able to stay in one location for the whole day.

I have a somewhat similar situation. We have two suites at the venue, however, it's not somewhere I would want to have my bridesmaids sit for 4 hours getting ready. We will probably do hair and makeup at my mom's house or a hotel room, then go to the venue to change into our dresses and do a few touch ups.

I am getting ready at my moms house, there is a section of green that we are taking pictures at and he's getting ready at his parents.

That’s exactly the issue I have as well! Luckily one of my future sister in laws (she is also a bridesmaid) very graciously offered up her house as a place for all the girls to get ready! If that weren’t the case I would’ve just booked a hotel room for all of us to get ready at.

We are getting ready at the bridal cottage at my venue - it costs extra.

In your case, I'd do as others have said, get hair and makeup done at one place (either someone's house or a hotel suite), and then get dressed at the venue.

Thankfully my venue opens the bridal suite at 10am and my wedding won’t be until 3 or 3:30. There’s even a shower (venue was formerly a house) and so I plan on rolling out of bed and heading over!

I think the the best option for you would be what my friend did last year. We all got ready at a hotel nearby and then went over to the bridal suite to get dressed. We staged some pictures like we were doing the finishing touches on our makeup/hair, and we took some pics in our getting ready robes

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Hi Danielle! The hour for the bridal suite is not an extra expense. I agree, one hour is not enough time at all! Thank you. I think I'll definitely plan to use that area to relax with the bridesmaids. I agree, splitting up the location sounds stressful to me lol!

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I actually hadn't thought of buying extra time in the bridal suite! I should ask. As you've mentioned though, I'm a little afraid of how much that might be. I may just stay in one location for the whole day to make things easier!

My venue has a bridal suite. Since I am having a friday wedding we can't get into the venue until 1pm. There are 7 bridesmaids and myself needing hair and make up done. I have booked a large suite at a hotel for everyone to come and get ready and get hair and makeup done. we have to be out of the hotel by 1pm which is fine so the rest and myself will get ready at the venue.

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This was the thought I had in mind, to get ready at the hotel and go over to the bridal suite to get dressed. To make it easier for everyone, I may just have us all get ready completely in one place, then drive over to the venue and relax/take photos the hour before the ceremony starts!

Thank you so much everyone! This is soooo helpful.

We have a bridal suite at our location but we are not using it. We plan to use a hotel suite as well! I love the idea because I get to get ready in the comfort of my room, without worrying about lugging stuff around or losing anything and I can keep it all in the room so when FH leave the reception I know I don't have to worry about anything because it'll all be in my room already!

I booked a large hotel suite that has a full kitchen and living room for two nights. It was pretty pricy (750) but the thought of making sure my house was spotless in the middle of wedding crunch time sounded like a panic attack waiting to happen (we have two dogs- it stays clean for a couple hours tops). Plus the hotel is close to both of our venues, and we will be staying in it the night of our wedding, as to avoid dealing with everyone packing up the room and checking out on the way to the church. Ive been in two weddings that did it that way and it was SOOOOO stressful.

If you don’t want to pay the price for a hotel suite consider an Airbnb home near by. We are getting married in the city and an Airbnb in the city is much much cheaper than booking a hotel suite. Please with an Airbnb you have more space.

We are getting married at a local state park, so no on site area for getting ready. We decided on two side by side hotel rooms that the girls will stay in the night prior to the wedding, and we will have the guys meet there to get ready as well. This is how my family has done getting ready photos in the past and it has worked out really well so that everyone is in the same location for photos, but the guys and girls are still separated. We considered an Airbnb, but there weren’t any large enough for what I wanted, for the price that I was willing to pay, and we got a deal on the hotel!

Getting ready at my venue, they have a really nice bridal suite too. we get ours all day thankfully