Getting-ready photos: do you need them, and who takes them?

Short answer: you do not need them, but couples who have them call them a favourite part of the gallery more often than they expected, and couples who skipped them are the ones asking online whether that was a mistake. The catch is cost: getting-ready coverage means one to two extra photographer hours. So decide on purpose. Book the photographer for the morning, or make sure someone else in the room is holding a camera. Both work. Leaving it to chance is the only option that does not.

What getting-ready photos actually capture

The ceremony looks similar in every gallery: two people, an aisle, an officiant. The morning is where a wedding looks like your wedding.

• The details before they are worn. The dress on the hanger, the shoes in the box, the rings on a windowsill, the suit on the bed. Once the day starts you never see them on their own again.
• The nerves. A hand shaking at a button, a bridesmaid biting her lip, the groom re-reading his vows. The only photos of the day where nobody is performing yet.
• The parents. A mother doing up the back of a dress. A father seeing his daughter ready for the first time. Couples often say this is the photo they would save from a fire.
• The last moment before it starts. Reading a letter from your partner, the final look in the mirror, the walk to the car, the deep breath before a first look.

None of this can be repeated. There is no "let's do that again" for the moment a father sees his daughter in her dress.

The groom's side is the one everyone forgets

Ask on any wedding forum whether groom getting-ready photos are needed and you get two answers: "we did not bother and I regret it" and "the photographer spent ten minutes with us and left". Same problem: the morning is planned around the bride, and the groom gets whatever time is left.

• Split the photographer's time deliberately. Forty-five minutes on each side beats two hours on one and fifteen on the other.
• Get ready close together. Two rooms in one hotel, and the photographer walks between them. Two houses thirty minutes apart, and one side loses.
• Give the groom's side something to do. Cufflinks, the letter, the boutonnières, a toast. Actions photograph well; three friends on a sofa do not.
• Appoint one groomsman as the camera for the hour before the photographer arrives and the moments after they leave. The groom's wedding day checklist has a slot for this.

If your photographer starts later: how to still get them

Plenty of couples book coverage from the ceremony onwards to keep the budget sane. That does not have to mean zero getting-ready photos, because the morning is precisely when bridesmaids and groomsmen are already taking them: the champagne pop, the robe photo, the "look at him in his suit" video. Those photos exist. They just end up in fifteen camera rolls and three group chats.

A QR-code wedding photo album solves that, on one condition: it has to be open before the wedding day. Pixavo albums can be. Send the link or the printable card to the bridal party the week before, and every getting-ready photo lands in the same album as the rest of the day, uploaded from the browser without an app or account. At more than half of the weddings on Pixavo, sharing already starts before the wedding day (see wedding photos by the numbers); this is how the album gets used.

Be honest about what you get. Phone photos in a hotel room with mixed light are not photographer photos: a little noisy, white balance off, a thumb in one of them. But they are the only photos of that morning you would otherwise not have. Want the professional version? Book the professional. Otherwise open the album early and tell two people to use it.

Timeline: the getting-ready hour, minute by minute

Assuming the camera arrives 90 minutes before you leave:

The groom's side fits in 45 minutes: details, getting dressed, portraits and a toast.

Shot list for whoever holds the camera

Print this and hand it to whoever is covering the morning.

1. The dress hanging in the best light in the room
2. Shoes, rings and jewellery together on one plain surface
3. The suit, tie and cufflinks laid out before they go on
4. Hands doing up buttons, a zip or a tie (get close)
5. The person reading the letter, and one shot of the letter itself
6. A parent's face the moment they first see you ready
7. Everyone in robes or matching shirts, one group shot
8. A quiet portrait by the window, no posing
9. The groom's side doing something: cufflinks, a toast, shoe polish
10. The last moment before you walk out the door

Add a ten-second video too: the sound of a getting-ready room is a memory nobody photographs.

FAQ

Next step

Decide this week whether the photographer covers the morning. Either way, set up the album now so your bridal party's photos have somewhere to land. Pixavo is ready in five minutes, one-time from €59; see how it works and pricing.