WEDDING PLANNING · EMERGENCY KIT
What to pack in your wedding day emergency kit.
Not a Pinterest list of 47 things nobody will touch. These are the little fixes, backup plans and genuinely useful products I have reached for after more than fifteen years of watching wedding mornings unfold.
The point: some of these belong in an actual bag and some are worth sorting weeks or months beforehand. None of it is about expecting disaster. It is about making sure something tiny stays a two-minute problem instead of stealing fifty minutes from your wedding.
A VERY SPECIFIC KIND OF WEDDING EXPERTISE
The tiny problems always seem to appear just as the dress is going on.
There is a very particular point in a wedding morning where everything speeds up. Hair and makeup are finishing, somebody is looking for earrings, shoes are going on and suddenly the bride is actually getting into the dress.
That is also, weirdly, when people notice everything they forgot. A button will not fasten. A lipstick mark appears. Somebody cannot find a hook for the back of the dress. A bride lifts her arms and, despite showering that morning and never normally worrying about body odour, suddenly says, “Why do I smell?!”
One of the stranger side effects of photographing weddings for more than fifteen years is that I have become oddly good at this stuff. I have scrubbed canapé out of wedding dresses, done up covered buttons with bobby pins, pinned clothing back together and found increasingly inventive ways to keep tiny problems from becoming the main event.
What follows is the stuff I actually think is worth sorting, packing or having quietly stashed somewhere nearby.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
The things I would actually bother doing.
01
Give the bride a backup plan.
A change of outfit, comfortable shoes, spare underwear and even a quick second-hairstyle option if hair worn down stops being fun.
02
Grooms: pack your own backups too.
A fresh shirt, spare socks and underwear, broken-in shoes and a simple clothing fallback will solve most of the problems I actually see.
03
Have a baby wipe + stain pen nearby.
Both have genuinely rescued wedding-day marks for me. Whatever you plan to use on the dress, patch-test the actual fabric first.
04
Sort the body-prep things beforehand.
If body odour, shaving, tan lines or fake tan would bother you once you are dressed, deal with them before the wedding morning rather than during it.
05
Pack the boring medical essentials.
Your regular medication plus the just-in-case basics you normally keep at home: pain relief, antihistamine, rehydration tablets and the things nobody wants to hunt for mid-wedding.
06
Put one person in charge.
The best emergency kit in the world is useless if it is locked in a hotel room when you are at the ceremony.
01 · BEFORE THE WEDDING
Body prep worth sorting before the wedding morning.
The last-minute body panics I see most are surprisingly ordinary: unexpected body odour, forgotten shaving and tan lines or fake tan that suddenly looks different once the dress is on. None of these matter unless they matter to you — but if they do, they are much easier to deal with before somebody is waiting to zip you into a dress.
“I never smell. What is happening? I showered this morning.”
I have genuinely had this conversation with a bride while we were getting her dressed. She lifted her arms, immediately realised she was not happy with the situation and ended up jumping back in the shower.
This one is personal for me too. After I had my daughter, I started struggling with body odour for the first time in my life and it never really went back to how it was before. I now use PanOxyl in the shower and The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% under my arms. The glycolic is also something I reach for in a pinch if I notice I am starting to smell; for me, it works brilliantly.
Please test anything like this well before the wedding and follow the product instructions. Skin reacts differently, and your wedding morning is not the time to discover that yours hates an acid or a new deodorant. Pack the deodorant or antiperspirant you already trust too.
One extra caution: PanOxyl contains benzoyl peroxide, so be careful around towels, clothing and — fairly obviously — the wedding dress.
“Oh God. I forgot to shave.”
Another surprisingly common one: the bride sits down to have her shoes put on, looks at her legs and suddenly remembers body hair exists.
If you genuinely do not care about body hair, ignore me. But if you know it would bother you once you were dressed, deal with it before the wedding morning.
I personally use a Philips Lumea IPL and love mine. If at-home IPL is something you want to do, I would start at least six months before your wedding. The first few sessions take ages, but you get so much faster the more you do it. I would also do your final session a few days before the wedding rather than the night before, while still following the schedule for your own device. Temporary redness can happen after IPL, though it usually settles within a few hours.
It also means that if you are heading straight off on honeymoon, there is a lot less shaving and body-hair faff to think about while you are away.
Tan lines, fake tan and suddenly deciding you are “too pale”.
I am not anti-fake tan, but not every tan photographs equally well. I notice it particularly in certain light situations or when only one or two people in a group have quite a fake tan and everyone else has their natural skin tone.
If the groom, for example, naturally has pink or red undertones and the bride is much more golden, there is only so much I can do with colour correction before making one of you look odd in an attempt to make the other look right.
So if you are planning a spray tan, have a chat with me beforehand and trial it first if you can. And if you are using IPL as part of your prep, factor tanning into the treatment guidance for your device too.
APPLE WATCH LINE OR SMALL TAN MARK?
Body makeup can be brilliant for a small area — just treat transfer onto the dress as part of the test, not an afterthought.
For small tan lines, I actually like this.
I really like St. Tropez Instant Glow Body Bronzer for small areas. I used it myself as a wedding guest to disguise tan lines and it worked brilliantly.
I would not recommend bronzing your entire body with it on your wedding morning; I think it can start looking a little orange when used heavily. But for an Apple Watch line, strap mark or small patch you want to even out, it can be really useful. I like applying it with one of those small dense tanning brushes.
Speak to your HMUA well beforehand. Tan lines and body makeup are common enough that they may already have a preferred way of dealing with your particular situation, but that does not mean they will automatically have the right product in their kit. You may need to supply it.
Even if you are only covering a tiny area, test how it transfers against the kind of fabric your dress is made from. It worked beautifully for me as a guest, but I was not wearing a white dress pressed against it all day.
02 · BRIDE BACKUPS
Dress, hair, shoes and the things worth having in reserve.
This is less about carrying a giant emergency bag and more about quietly giving Future You some options.
01
Sewing kit + proper safety pins
White or ivory thread, dark thread for suits, thread close to the bridesmaids’ dress colour, needles, several sizes of safety pin and small scissors. Zips fail and trousers split. It happens.
02
Crochet hook + bobby pins
If your dress has a million tiny covered buttons, buy a button or crochet hook. Bobby pins have also proved brilliant in a pinch for covered buttons — and they are exactly what you want nearby if somebody’s hair starts to droop later.
03
Boob covers + boob tape
If anyone is relying on tiny nipple covers, I would bring full boob covers and proper boob tape too. Bridesmaids in particular sometimes discover on the morning that the little cover they bought has somehow just made one tiny nipple look absolutely enormous under the dress.
04
Fashion tape + spare underwear
Fashion tape is tiny and useful. Spare underwear is less glamorous but can feel incredible if the morning is hot, stressful or simply much sweatier than expected.
05
Have a second-outfit option.
Not necessarily another wedding dress. Just something you would genuinely be happy to wear if a zip breaks, a bustle gives up or a drink goes down the dress.
06
Have a hair Plan B.
Hair worn down can look very different after hours of hugs, weather and dancing — or simply become a sweaty-neck nightmare. If you have a friend or bridesmaid who can do a quick style you would still love, bring the pins and products they would need.
Your backup outfit does not need to be another wedding dress.
It could be your hen-do dress, rehearsal dinner outfit, something for honeymoon, or a fun little reception dress you know you will wear again. If you are not crazy about another dress expense, buy it close enough to the wedding that you could return it afterwards if it stays untouched.
If you are a bride who likes to properly dance, just assume your bustle has a limited life expectancy. Someone steps on the train, comes in for a hug while you are getting low, or the dress simply takes a battering on the dance floor. Inevitably, those bustles get torn out.
And if you are in a strapless dress, the fabric is going to loosen as the day goes on. This is something I can almost promise you will keep having to pull back up while you are dancing.
I have also seen espresso martini spills, broken zips and other dress emergencies effectively take brides captive at their own wedding while everybody tries to fix the problem. A backup outfit means you can change, hand the dress to Mum or a bridesmaid and get straight back to your reception.
Bring comfortable backup shoes.
In probably 99% of photographs with a full-length wedding dress, nobody can see your shoes unless we are deliberately photographing them. So once the beautiful ones stop being comfortable, change them.
Think about height, though. If your dress has been altered for heels and you suddenly put on completely flat pumps, you gain several inches of fabric around your feet. A comfortable shoe with a decent platform is ideal. Chunky trainers can be brilliant too: comfortable enough to dance in, but with enough height that your dress still falls nicely.
03 · GROOM BACKUPS
Grooms: make your own backup plan.
You do not need a duplicate wedding outfit — just enough sensible backup that a sweaty shirt, blistered feet or a wardrobe mishap does not run your fun.
Order a spare buttonhole.
Ask your florist if they can make a second groom’s buttonhole and keep it somewhere cool until after the ceremony. I'd always vote spares for groomsmen over buttonholes and corsages for parents and extended family (especially as I've never seen a flower arrangement that has complimente a woman's dress). The buttonhole will almost certainly get pancaked between bodies while everyone hugs you afterwards, often before I have even photographed the two of you together.
Pack one simple clothing backup.
At minimum, bring a fresh dress shirt. Formalwear is warm, venues have heating and nerves alone can make somebody hot and bothered at any time of year.
I would add spare socks and underwear, a comfortable pair of shoes you already know you can walk in, and a spare pair of cufflinks you already own. If you have another decent suit, brilliant — stash it at the venue. If not, nice trousers and another button-down shirt are plenty.
I have seen trousers split, buttons disappear, cufflinks go missing and drinks get spilled. You probably will not use any of it. That is exactly what you want from a backup plan.
Break in the wedding shoes.
Brand-new dress shoes are often polished blister machines. Wear them properly before the wedding and still keep the comfortable pair nearby. Blister plasters in the emergency are also something you should consider packing!
04 · STAIN REMOVAL
Baby wipes. Seriously.
I have removed a surprising number of marks from wedding dresses over the years and one of my favourite tools is incredibly sophisticated: a baby wipe.
One benefit of forgoing the child-free wedding trend is that there is usually one available somewhere.
I once had a bride drop a meatball-type canapé down the front of her dress. It literally rolled down her as she looked at me in horror. Her brother had his child with him, so I asked him for a baby wipe and within a few minutes I’d scrubbed it out and nobody was the wiser.
I’ve used them on a fairly large lipstick smudge too. Like when a bride kissed her daughter with all the love of a mother just before leaving for the ceremony and her daughter promptly wiped said cheek down Mum’s dress.
They’re wet enough to lift a lot of those little wedding-day marks without completely soaking the fabric. I also love a Tide to Go pen.
Viral stain removers like Miss Mouth’s Messy Eater Stain Treater, Grandma’s Secret Spot Remover and portable stain wipes are things I’ve seen doing the rounds and may be worth adding to your kit. I haven’t personally used all of those on a wedding dress, so they do not get my tried-and-tested stamp.
With any of these products, I would really recommend testing somewhere unseen on your actual dress beforehand. Even a baby wipe that is gentle enough for a little bum could still react badly with a particular fabric or finish.
THE POINT OF THE STAIN KIT
Fix it quickly if you safely can. If you can’t, change clothes and let somebody else deal with the dress while you stay at your wedding.
05 · THE ACTUAL WEDDING DAY EMERGENCY KIT
The small stuff I would physically put in the bag.
Once the bigger backups are quietly stashed at the venue, this is the compact wedding day emergency kit I would actually want somebody to keep nearby. Adapt it to the real humans involved rather than packing things purely because a Pinterest checklist told you to.
Sewing + pin kit
Light, dark and bridesmaid-colour thread, needles, scissors and several sizes of safety pin.
Button hook + bobby pins
For covered dress buttons, with bobby pins doing double duty for emergency hair fixes.
Fashion tape + boob tape
Plus full boob covers if anyone is relying on stick-on coverage under their outfit.
Baby wipes + stain remover
Baby wipes and Tide to Go are personal favourites. If you bring a viral or specialist stain product too, patch-test it on an unseen bit of the actual fabric beforehand.
Anti-BO rescue
Your usual deodorant or antiperspirant, plus any glycolic/body product you have already tested and know works for your skin. I would also have Febreze or another fabric refresher for clothing that gets a little too lived-in — use it on fabric, not skin, and patch-test special fabrics first.
Hair + makeup touch-ups
Lip colour, powder, lash glue, hairspray, bobby pins and whatever your HMUA specifically tells you to keep.
Mini pharmacy
Your regular medication plus the just-in-case basics you normally keep at home and know you can take safely: pain relief, antihistamine, indigestion relief, rehydration/electrolyte tablets, anti-diarrhoea tablets and anti-nausea tablets. Keep them in their original packaging.
Personal essentials
Contacts, eye drops, inhaler and period products — ideally enough that a bridesmaid or guest can quietly borrow one too.
Blister kit
Hydrocolloid blister plasters and normal plasters. Use them when you first notice a hot spot.
Dental + freshen-up bits
Dental floss, mints, tissues and anything you personally like having after food.
Tiny repair extras
Spare earring backs, lint roller and a tiny tube of superglue for non-fabric accessories only.
Power + fuel
Charged power bank, correct cable, water and an actual snack you know you will eat.
WORTH KEEPING NEARBY, NOT NECESSARILY INSIDE THE LITTLE BAG
Bride’s backup outfit and shoes, groom’s fresh shirt, clothes and shoes, spare underwear, and the second groom’s buttonhole.
06 · ONE PERSON KNOWS WHERE EVERYTHING IS
Assign someone to be in charge of the kit and spare outfits.
Give the job to one bridesmaid, sibling, planner or trusted person. They should know where the small emergency kit is, where the bride’s backup outfit and shoes are, where the groom’s spare clothes are and where that second buttonhole has been kept.
There is absolutely no value in owning the world’s greatest wedding emergency kit if it is locked in a hotel bedroom while you are twenty minutes away at the ceremony.
I like splitting it into two: a small keep-close pouch with the things somebody may genuinely need during the ceremony and drinks reception, and a larger backup bag that can live somewhere sensible at the venue.
A THOUGHTFUL EXTRA
Want to make one for your guests too?
You can absolutely extend the idea to your guests. I’ve photographed weddings where couples left little recovery or emergency bags in bathrooms or guest rooms with things people might suddenly need: plasters, mints, tissues, stain wipes, period products, electrolyte sachets and a few other practical bits.
Kim and Alex even made individual “hangover kits” for their guests, which is where this photograph came from.
I would think of it less as another wedding favour you have to manufacture and more as a genuinely useful extra if you fancy doing it. A few practical things people may actually reach for will beat a bag full of novelty bits every time.
A good wedding day emergency kit is not about preparing for disaster. It is about making sure a tiny problem stays a two-minute problem instead of stealing fifty minutes from your wedding.
PLANNING A WEDDING IN SUSSEX OR BEYOND?
Do the thinking beforehand. Then go and be in your wedding.
I will happily think about the timeline, the light, the people, the little things that might need fixing and the photographs you cannot leave to chance. Your job is to actually enjoy it.