Welcome back to the Ultimate Wedding Dress Guide Series.

Today’s big topic is preparing for your wedding day. We are going to discuss how to get ready for the trip to the venue, what information you need to know, leading up to the day, and how to make the big day run as smoothly as possible!

Let’s start with a couple very important questions;

What time does your reservation of the venue begin and end?

When will you and other various critical people be arriving to that venue, such as photographers, make up artist, hairdressers, family members?

And one of the most important questions of all; who is in charge of getting the dress to the venue!?

One of the most important details leading up to the big day is making sure that you have all the critical information you want to have on hand, all in one place. By this we mean mainly names and telephone numbers of important people that will make this day come together. When things begin to move, they will ramp up quickly, we have seen from experience! The wedding day seems to go by in a flash, but as it’s happening, you want to have access to the information you need quickly.

Our worksheet below can help you with this by creating an outline of contact information and a timeline for the day. In addition, we’ve also included a final packing list to help send you on your way off to the venue.

free worksheet

Now let’s get into the nitty-gritty of what happens once you’ve arrived on site, and all of the wheels are in motion!

Once you’ve gotten yourself packed up and have arrived, it’s time to get a lowdown on your dress. Did you bring it with you or have you assigned somebody to be the special courier for that day? Either way, let’s find a nice safe home for the dress in the area of the venue that you will be getting ready. You want to look for someplace safe, secure, and also secret so that no one can sneak a peek until you are ready! Many venues will have a designated space for the dress, but if they don’t, you want to make sure that you’ve scoped the area out before moving in to the room where it will be temporarily stored.

With the dress safely tucked out of sight, let’s continue on to getting ready!

You want to establish with your hairdresser and make up artist, if using either, or both, when hair and makeup will be completed so that you can choose a time to put on your dress. We recommend an hour or two before the ceremony is set to begin but if you have plans for first look photos or any other type of photos before the actual ceremony you want to establish that with the photographer so that you’ve got a time and meeting place set in stone.

While you’re getting your hair and make up ready, this is the perfect time to have one of your trusted party members help steam the dress and get it prepared for you to put it on. Make sure that whoever is helping you has looked over the different buttons, zippers, ribbons, etc. used to get you situated in the dress so that once you were actually putting it on with hair and make up complete the process goes smooth and stays simple.

One more suggestion before putting on the dress: review your bustle!

Before you have put the dress on is the perfect time for you to go over the construction of your bustle with your bridesmaids, or whomever is going to be helping fasten the bustle up in between the ceremony and reception.

All of you will be able to stand together and carefully look over the different fasteners and diagram, so that you can make sure you all know exactly what’s going on when the time comes later in the day. Once you are wearing the dress, it will be hard for you to help as you will be looking over your shoulder trying to guide everyone which can become very difficult very quickly!

OK, let’s do a quick recap, here’s what you’ve done so far:

Packed up and gone to the venue
Tucked your dress safely away, and it’s secure hiding spot
Gotten your hair and makeup done
Reviewed your bustle with the people who will be helping fasten it up

With all this preparation from months, to weeks, and now only hours left to go, there isn’t much left to do but get ready to party!! After all this time of careful planning it’s finally time to slip into that perfect wedding dress and head to the alter!

Now, join us in the video below for final on-site preparation adivce for your big day!