If you have been here for any amount of time, you have probably noticed the love that I have for styling bridal details for each wedding!!! Over the years I have collected all sorts of items to help me out when it comes to my wedding details styling kit. I have gone through phases of different styling items, for sure, but I think I really honed in on which items you really need to make the best wedding detail shots that you can get. I’ve always thought that the bridal details were such a fun part of the wedding, and the bride has taken months if not over a year hand-picking each item to help pull her look together. I want to document it all and that means having a wedding details styling kit!

Wedding details are all those important pieces that your bride has chosen to help complete her look for the wedding day and her wedding day as a whole, including but not limited to: her dress, the veil, jewelry, invitation suite, shoes, special hankies- you name it. I want to make sure I’m documenting those little, but so important pieces to her wedding day that she may not remember in the years to come. It won’t be until she pulls out the wedding item that she remembers the sweet note she got from her dad, or the little frog one of her friends gave her for good luck. THOSE are the reasons I love shooting my bride’s wedding details.

All that said, I wanted to give you a great list of items that you can add to your wedding details styling kit to boost your details shots. I KNOW what you’re thinking….

“Misty, what do I do when my bride doesn’t have a lot of details.” Girl, I’ve got you. Don’t fret.

Styling Board/Mat

One of the biggest items that I think stepped my wedding details game up was my styling mats. I have had many through the years, but my favorite I purchased most recently are from Chasing Stone. I have had large hardboard styling mats before, and while they were nice and sturdy. They were a PAIN to transport to weddings. The lay flat mats from Chasing Stone are easily portable, light weight, and SUPER easy to clean.  There are also companies like Kiss Books also makes some styling mats as well, as well as Olive and Oak. If you don’t feel like you can splurge just yet on some of those options, check out my tutorial from years ago to see how to make your own!

If none of those options intrigue you, feel free to think outside the box for your clean backgrounds. You can use a bridesmaids dress, furniture, a plain white foam board (I always bring one as a reflector!), just keep in mind if you use something colored, you may get a color cast onto some of the items you’re photographing.

Ring Boxes

This is another item to invest in. Sometimes all it takes is one little ring box to make your details shots go from okay to real good.  My favorite are The Mrs. Boxes, but there are also cheaper options available from even Amazon–see them here! If you go with the Mrs. Box, my favorite color is the Margaery. She’s like a unicorn and manages to shift color JUST enough that she goes with anything. If that’s still a little too rich for your wallet, you can search Etsy for all sorts of vintage ring boxes!

Staples/Stamps/ Ribbon

Ok, ok- bear with me. There’s a ton of times my brides don’t have a full invitation suite or they don’t even bring an invitation…

In fact… I’d probably say, more often than not, i have one piece of paper, sometimes not even an envelope for the invite. It’s time like these that you get to be a bit more creative. Use more of the items that your bride has for her bridal look. Her earrings, jewelry, or veil make a great start to putting in more items to help elevate the look of those invitations! I love bringing a box of staples, but not for the reason you think. I use staples on my board to help elevate (literally) the invitation to make it higher than the other items on the board. Something I just figured out was using acrylic blocks works just as well. You can find those HERE!  They help bring that invitation up a little higher than the rest of the items to bring more attention to it. EASY!

Stamps are also an awesome little extra to have in your kit. I like having a blank envelope with the invitation and then either placing the stamps ON the envelope like it was getting sent off, or even just off to the side. You can find all sorts of vintage stamps on Amazon. Sometimes you have to go through them to see what you think will work well for weddings- maybe not a mushroom, but who knows! HA!

Lastly, ribbon- it can add so much to an image just to add a little ribbon to it. Whether it’s under the invitation, or just off to the side, it can just help tie everything together. Pun unintended. HA! Here some of my favorites from Amazon- Linked Here.

Extras

Just a few more items I have in my wedding details styling kit:

I made it really easy and you can check out my favorites on Amazon- HERE!

• 3M hook – for the wedding dress. Sometimes you just can’t find somewhere to put the dress. This fixes that problem.
• Embroidery Scissors- just one more little fun extra you can add to your images.
• Pinch bowls- there are so many cute pinch bowls that you can find on Etsy. I love to use them for stamps on the side, or even to put rings in for the photo.
• Ribbon- You can get all sorts of ribbon anywhere. There’s velvet, silk, muslin, you name it.