What Wedding Planners Pack to Handle Emergencies on the Big Day

Lauryn Prattes is a planner based in Washington, DC, and she’s been coordinating weddings for the past 15 years. She approaches packing an emergency kit by sorting items into three categories: essentials for the bride, gear for guest comfort, and tools for managing setup at the venue.

To stay organized, she also divides supplies into two separate kits: one dedicated solely to the bride and another that holds everything else. The bride is the star of the show, and she usually has her own set of unique wedding-day needs, so it makes sense to pack a dedicated bag just for her. “If you can’t find what you need, that defeats the point of having it,” Prattes added.

When it comes to what goes in the bride’s kit, Marcy Blum — a New York–based planner with nearly four decades of wedding planning experience — told us it should include all of the basics, including hair ties, bobby pins, safety pins, hair spray, and deodorant. But Blum’s bridal kit includes a few unexpected essentials, too.

This hood zips over the head to shield the bride’s hair and makeup while slipping into the dress, so it prevents smudges, snags, and stains.

Hair and makeup are typically done before the bride steps into her dress. So one wrong move could leave foundation smudges on a white gown or flatten a perfectly styled updo. To avoid last-minute mishaps, Blum keeps a protector hood in her kit. It slips over the head so the bride can slide into her dress without messing up her hair and makeup or staining her dress.

White chalk can be used to mask small stains on a white wedding dress. It can help hide dirt or grass marks so they don’t show in photos.

Both Blum and Prattes told us they always stash a few pieces of white chalk in their kits. And they specifically use it to camouflage small stains on a bride’s white wedding dress. While it won’t remove a makeup smudge or a grass stain, a quick dusting of chalk can blur the spot so it doesn’t appear in photos.

Disposable straws will allow the wedding party to stay hydrated without smudging their lipstick.

To help preserve the bride’s makeup, Blum keeps a stash of plastic straws in her kit. “Once you have your makeup done, you don’t want to be drinking from a glass without a straw,” Blum explained, noting how easily lipstick can smudge.

She prefers disposable straws because they’re inexpensive, lightweight, and convenient. Unlike reusable straws, they can also be thrown away, so she doesn’t need to keep track of them or worry about sanitizing them in between weddings.