Happy Tuesday friend!

Have you ever walked into the getting ready room and cringed a little bit because it looked like a tornado had gone through it? Let’s be real, most of the times getting ready rooms are! Which is totally ok and normal! I mean you should see my room when I’m getting dressed and ready for something important!

Today I want to talk to you about one thing you can do that will DRASTICALLY change the way your getting ready pictures look forever!

It’s a little concept called Clear. The. Clutter!

There have been so many times where we have walked into a room, grabbed a few shots right away just to get the feel of how the room was and all the girls getting ready, but once we get close to the final touches and the dress, we start to clear space.

Find a corner of the room by a window and then start clearing it. We want to make sure the photographs are solely focused on the people that are in them, so we want to remove anything and everything that could distract away from that.

That means I’ve moved pictures off walls, pulled back rugs, moved armoires… you name it, we’ve moved it! If it’s not bolted to the wall, which we’ve even tried removing those haha, we will remove it to create a clean space for the bride! If the things on the walls or around them aren’t distracting at all and add to the character of the space or the image, then leave those things, but anything else goes!

There have been times at churches that there really isn’t a good corner to clear, or there might not be a window in the room. We ALWAYS want a window for natural light! So I’ve let the brides get mostly ready and then found a room with good window light, and best yet, a white wall and brought them in there for the final touches and to put the dress on. If you explain the reasons for wanting to move and assure them that they are going to love the pictures more in the other room or if you get the space cleared, they will gain trust in you that you know what you’re talking about… and then when they see the pictures they will thank you for it!!

If you don’t have anyone to help you clear space in the room and it’s a hefty task, then grab a few bridesmaids and nicely ask them to help you clear off some of the space explaining to them what you’re doing! They’ll be happy to feel like they had a part in helping you!

I wanted to show an example below of when drastic measures were taken. This is probably going to be one of my favorite memories because it had never happened before. We walked in to the getting ready space and as we were hugging everyone and saying hi, my eyes were searching. I was looking around for anywhere that we could take the pictures of the dress and especially pictures of the bride getting her dress on. I snapped a few pics to get the feel of the room how it was but then continued to look.

The walls were wood paneled and it was a pretty dark and cloudy day (so hardly any light to work with unless we had huge windows). The only space with enough light was right by the kitchen table and hardly any space to use. As I had the dress searching for a place to put it, I overheard one of the bridesmaids saying that the owners to the rental that the bridal party had for the weekend lived next door. Well before you know it we had gotten permission to go over there to search and see if there was a better scenario there. We went downstairs and actually found some white shutters!! Yay!! So instead of having to bring anybody over to the house, we actually just carried the white shutters over to the getting ready space and propped them up right in front of the kitchen table where there was the best light! The result made it so no one would have known the clutter behind and the pictures solely focused on the bride! We really are willing to go to all lengths to get a clean space!

So moral of the story, clear space to focus on your bride. The pictures will look more editorial and clean and your bride will love you for it!

Feel free to ask questions below!