What do you think of "getting ready parties" before the ceremony?

They're so fun! You should definitely do one! Plus it's great bonding time!

I think this sounds fun! I’d ask your hair and makeup team what they think about time frame. They’ll know how long each person will take and how many artists you’ll need for the amount of people you’ll have.

I think it's a great idea! It depends how many artists you hire. I'd plan on 45 minutes per service per bridesmaid or mom or sister, etc. and 1 hour per service for you as the bride. I have 9 bridesmaids and 3 moms and 1 flower girl (two girls opted out of getting makeup done and flower girl is doing just hair) and we are getting ready from 10AM-4PM with 4 artists. I love getting ready with the bride (the two times I've been a bridesmaid) so I would for sure do it!

I think this is pretty standard now days. It’s only polite to provide breakfast since everyone will need to be there so early. I would ask your HMUA for a timeline.

My HMUA quoted me for about 1 hr-45 minutes for me per service and 45-30 minutes for my bridesmaids per service. This puts your at about 5 hours for hair and makeup (concurrently) for you and your 5 bridesmaids.

It sounds like a great idea for all of your girls to be there and hang out before the ceremony. I would try to coordinate a schedule for everyone so they know who goes first and so there isn't a lag in between.

Also it would be nice to invite your aunts for breakfast/getting ready but it might be really crowded and not enough bathroom mirror space for them all to get ready themselves.

I plan to invite my MOHs to stay with me the night before the wedding so we'll have breakfast together if they do and start celebrating and pampering ourselves. I plan to order lunch to be sent to the guys while they are getting ready and brought to us while we are getting ready for our evening ceremony. I think it will add to the fun and excitement to gather those closest to get ready and celebrate together before the ceremony.

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This is our plan too.

My hair stylist wont travel so we are all booking at the same time with different stylist I believe so we could have leisure time to set up if need be that morning (it depends on if we can get in the night before or not) and have breakfast before the crazy of the day.

I’ve never heard it referred to as a getting ready party. We had 14 people getting hair and makeup done so we all just hung out and I provided breakfast, lunch, and drinks. We also had a college football game on because we are all huge fans.

I definitely plan to do all this with my bridesmaids!! We are going to do a later ceremony, so I plan on doing a big brunch with bridesmaids, my mother, and my FHs mother and sisters. Then we're going to go get hair/makeup done while drinking mimosas and snacking on some dry foods. I want the morning to be all about the girls and having fun!!

Thanks for the responses everyone! I told my sister about this and she thought it was a horrible idea. She thinks that this should be a "calm" experience before the ceremony and it would stress me out more. I figured it would be fun, especially because I don't know if there will be another time we can all do this

Sounds like a blast!

View Quoted Comment Exactly this. It's expected for the bride to feed the wedding party while they get ready.

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You're the only one who can decide if this would be good for you or not. I think it sounds like a lot of fun, and I hope I can do something similar with my bridesmaids. Calm? No, hopefully the calm will come when everyone's ready, and I'm walking alone, to meet FH for our first look. But when I'm getting ready, I want smiles, laughter, and lots of chatter from my girls.

I think that's a lovely idea. For me my bridesmaids and I went to brunch altogether and then got ready.