Getting Ready Tips for Grooms

6 tips for the gentlemen getting ready on your wedding day

Getting Ready Tips for Grooms

1. Keep it Light

Both conversationally, and literally in the room. The groom's getting ready environment is always vastly different than the bride's. It usually takes only one third of the amount of time, and everyone is relaxed, laughing at old stories. I say keep it this way, but do so in a room that is brightly lit, preferable with large windows!

2. Bring the Beats

Nothing eases nerves better than your current favorite music, or better yet, throwbacks from less stressful times. Keep the energy up with some music!

3. Designate an Alcohol-Free Area

People love to bond and cut-loose over drinks. While they are great to have, they’re not great in photos. Designate a table or area for your drinks, and keep them there. You don’t want a stray Budweiser advertisement to show up in your getting ready photos.

4. Wait for the Photographers

When I show up to the groom's getting ready room, it's usually a little later in the morning. Wait for the photographer to arrive to change into your wedding attire. Often the first thing I do when I arrive is photograph a few of your details, like your shoes, tie, tie clasp, boutonniere, cuff links, watch). The bonus of waiting for your photographers and not getting ready too early is that you don’t have to spend as much time in your suit!

5. Boutonnières

Usually no one knows how to put them on in the getting ready room, unless the planner is nearby. Think of them early and find someone who knows how to pin them on before it's time to leave for your first look. You can get it pinned to your suit jacket, then hang or lay your suit jacket in a low-traffic area until you’re ready to keep it on.

6. Know Thy Tie

And all the gentlemen said together, know thy tie. You shouldn’t be tying your first double Windsor or bowtie the day of your wedding. They’re tricky knots! A well tied skinny tie brings together your whole look and makes for the most respected photos of a gentleman’s preparation. While we don’t have a specific post on double Windsor knots, I wear one at every wedding, and you should too!

What a half-windsor looks like compared to a full windsor tie knot

Finally, don't forget to choose a getting ready space that will be both comfortable and photogenic—read our best tips for choosing your getting ready room HERE.

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Becky Dean
I'm a Co-founder and Lead Photographer at Studio Ostendo.

At Studio Ostendo, we maintain that images shape culture—we make the complex clear, the old new, the formless real, and the aesthetic prevalent. Through strategic thinking, sophisticated form-making, and critical engagement, our transverse approach of both physical and digital methods enables us to create successful visual and brand identities, books and editorials, environmental and wayfinding graphics, and communication programs.

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Becky Dean, Boise Wedding Photographer at Pen and Lens Photography
Becky Dean
Co-Founder, Studio Ostendo

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