This one is for the gentlemen. Grooms and groomsmen tend to be overlooked on the wedding day in regards to getting ready tips. All the tips and inspiration seem to be about the ladies! While it generally does not take as long for the guys to get ready on a wedding day, it is still a crucial part of the day! Here are my tips for all my dudes to have an amazing wedding morning.
Shower Early
Shower as early as you can on your wedding day. If you are helping the day of and will be getting sweaty, start getting ready an extra 15 minutes early to account for the shower. If more than one of the dudes needs to take a shower, the groom gets first dibs! You want to make sure that you are ready for your photographer to start taking pictures of you and your groomsmen getting ready (not waiting on you to get out of the shower). Plus, this will give you more time to hang out in the AC. Which is welcomed any month you get married in Arizona!
Boutonnieres
Make sure that the boutonnieres are in your room before your photographer arrives. Have the boutonnieres ready will make sure that they are on during your groomsmen pictures. And bonus, your photographer can grab a few photographs of the boutonnieres while you are getting dressed.
Another mystery is how to put on a boutonniere. You pin it on your left side on the lapel of your suit or your suspenders. If you don’t have either, spread your fingers wide and put the space between your thumb and index finger on your chin. Where the tip of your pinkie finger lands is about where the boutonniere should go.
- Pinning Lapels & Suspenders: You will put the boutonniere on the outside of the lapel/suspender and pin on the inside where it will not been seen.
- Shirts: You will stick the pin through a quarter of an inch of fabric and back out, then straight down into the boutonniere.
- Two Pins: If you have two pins, one goes down and in. The other goes up and in. Make sure the ends of the pins are securely in the wrapped part of the boutonniere.
- One Pin: This is where it gets a little tricky. You will have to go into the shirt/lapel/suspender a quarter of an inch and back out into the boutonniere. Then back out of the boutonniere and into the lapel/suspender. If you have a shirt, you will want to try and get the tip back out and into the boutonniere again. (But don’t worry, if I am your photographer, I have extra pins!)
Neck Ties and Bowties
Fellas. I learned to tie a tie when I was 14. Not only on myself, but on other people too. If you don’t know how to tie a tie, your wedding day is not the day to learn. Youtube it. Practice it. Master it. Or at least have one person in your wedding party who can tie the ties for the rest of the groomsmen. (Or hire me as your photographer!)
However, bowties I have not yet mastered. They are quite a bit more difficult than your standard tie. So, again, if you do no know how to tie a boy tie: YouTube it, practice it, master it! And if all else fails, have a backup! Pre-tied bowties are a great thing to have just in case you cannot figure it out on the wedding day or if it falls off at any point. Better to be safe than sorry!
Down Time
The Groom and Groomsmen generally have a bit of downtime before the wedding ceremony. Make sure to have something to do to keep you entertained that is not just drinking! Feel free to have a pre-wedding shot, but make sure you have some snacks in your stomach too. Put on a great playlist, crack jokes at each other, and just relax.
There you have it! My top tips for the groom and groomsmen getting ready on your wedding day.
