Almost nobody books morning coverage on their first enquiry, and almost everybody is glad of it afterwards. It is the part of the day people cannot picture in advance, because they have never seen it from the outside.
It is the only part of the day with no schedule
Everything after the ceremony is timed to the minute by somebody. The morning is the only stretch where people are simply in a room together, doing something, for two hours. That is exactly why it produces the photographs that get framed.
Your mother fastening the back of your dress. Your friend reading your letter out loud badly. Your father standing in the doorway not knowing what to do with his hands. None of it is scheduled and none of it happens twice.
The morning is where the day’s emotion is loudest and its audience is smallest.
What I need from the room
One thing only: put the getting-ready in the room with the biggest window and keep the curtains open. Hotel rooms are usually the wrong choice and a friend’s living room is usually the right one.
And clear one surface. Dresses, shoes and letters photograph beautifully; a surface covered in makeup wipes and phone chargers does not.
How long
Two hours before you leave for the ceremony is plenty. Three is generous. I arrive quietly, I do not ask anyone to do anything twice, and by the second hour most people have forgotten I am there — which is the whole objective.
