One thing I noticed right from the first wedding I shot by myself is that trying to prep everything the morning of leads to feeling utterly out of control for the rest of the day. I have no idea why, but any time I leave clearing cards and charging batteries until late the night before or morning of, the rest of the day feels chaotic. So these days, I do all of my wedding prep on the morning BEFORE the day of a wedding, usually Fridays. It allows me to take my time without feeling harried, and if I discover there’s a need for me to go out and buy something, I have plenty of time to do it. I try really hard to take the day before a wedding off from anything other than publishing my blog and wedding prep, so that means no editing, no shooting, and no stressful business stuff. It gives me a chance to recharge my proverbial battery so that I’m at 110% for the next day’s wedding!

All that being said, here’s my pre-wedding ritual/prep:

1) Prep all of my “paperwork.” Print off my pre-wedding info sheet and schedule, organize family formals so they flow continuously.

2) Check over my camera bag. Are all of my lenses present? Flashes? Camera bodies? Batteries? I also take a lens cloth to the glass, both front and back, of all my lenses. I have a dust blower thingy that I use on the sensor of my camera just in case there’s any dust floating around inside my camera body.

3) Charge batteries. This starts first thing in the morning since one batch of 8 AA batteries can take up to 4 hours to charge. After charging, I load up my flashes and camera bodies with fresh batteries so I can just grab and go the following day.

4) Clear cards. I reformat all of my cards after, and ONLY after, I’ve ensure the images that were on them are backed up in three locations- two external hard drives and a PASS gallery.

5) Charge my laptop, make sure all necessary cords are in the bag.

6) Make sure my “extra fluff” bag has everything in it I need. My fluff bag is all the stuff you’d never think you need on a wedding day until you realize you don’t have it- fashion tape, bobby pins, Advil, hair ties, Luna bars, bottles of water, and my TOMS (I change into those after the reception gets starts to save my feet!).

7) Gather everything. EVERYTHING. And put it into one central location in our living room. This includes my checked photo bag, paperwork, laptop, light stand, umbrella, extra fluff, Kelly Moore bag, and the check for my assistant.

8) Hang out with Matt for the rest of the evening!

I find comfort in having a system for things when it comes to weddings- having the system, knowing I’ve gone through, allows me to relax the evening before a big day. When I don’t relax, it’s harder for me to get to bed that night, and the last thing I want to do is show up at one of my sweet couple’s weddings a disjointed, exhausted mess.

What about you guys? Do you have any sort of pre-wedding ritual that helps you feel your best?