When it came down to creating an emergency kit, I knew it had to happen. I’m always afraid of the “what ifs” and I was for sure not going to let anything happen on Madison’s wedding day. Everything was going to be perfect if I had the capability of controlling it! With plenty of research on my side, I started shopping for the emergency kit about a month in advance. I wanted to be sure I was able to find everything I wanted to have in time for the wedding! Luckily, it all came together perfectly with the things I was able to find along with things I already had around the house. It was a big hit among our section of the bridal party, and it definitely was put to use! Here’s what I put in it!
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Now you might be thinking that I didn’t use all of this. We definitely didn’t use all of it and I’m really thankful for that. However, we did use quite a few things that I brought so I was really glad that I came prepared. If you’re a maid of honor or a future bride, you’re definitely going to want an emergency kit present. Here are our must-haves for future brides!
Band aids
Shoes are pretty but they can rub you in all the wrong places. You know what they say: beauty is pain. You don’t want to look and feel uncomfortable when pictures are being taken, so pack some band-aids! As a bonus, add in some antibiotic ointment. You’ll thank yourself later! Or maybe your feet will be- I’ll let you be the judge!
Bobby pins
You won’t want to forget these! They quickly became one of the most popular items in our kit. I didn’t use these for myself, but I definitely used these on Madison! I brought secure hold bobby pins, because after all, it was an extremely important day. Parts of her updo were coming down, so I pinned them back in place. When it was time to attach her veil, I did so by criss-crossing bobby pins!
Hairspray
Hairspray was entirely essential right before pictures. It was very windy outside the day of Madison’s wedding, and I was determined that her hair was not going to budge. I sprayed her down with hairspray before we stepped outside for pictures and it did it’s job! After pinning her veil in, I gave her another quick spray down. Because hairspray is so sticky, it gave something for the prongs, the pins, and her hair to stick to. Her veil didn’t budge for the entirety of her reception!
Sewing kit
Just like the bobby pins, you won’t want to forget this either! In case some alterations in your dress don’t stay, you’ll want something to help you fix it. The alterations that held the deep-v of the dress together came apart on two of our dresses, basically exposing our chests. One of the bridesmaids got to work with the sewing kit I brought and stitched us back together! She went ahead and stitched up the other two to make sure they would be comfortable when bending over. We wanted to make sure no one got flashed – it definitely isn’t that kind of event.
Deodorant
In the heat of the moment, it’s really easy to forget to put on deodorant the morning of the wedding. Especially if you’re the maid of honor and trying to perform all of your duties, it’s easy to pass up. I packed two extra travel sized sticks of deodorant and both ended up being used! They’re nice to have around even just to freshen up on some downtime. Even if you end up just bringing one to share – make sure there is at least one stick of deodorant in your kit!
Scissors
I didn’t realize how important scissors actually were. With the hassle of trying to stitch everyone up with the sewing kit multiple times, we ended up losing track of the scissors that came with the kit. I packed an extra pair of scissors just because I had them laying around I figured they may be useful for something. Little did I know, they would come in handy! We ended up using them for the sewing kit to cut the thread. We also noticed that no matter how many times we tucked in the hanger straps on our dresses, they kept showing. They ended up just being cut off – they weren’t even needed anyway! Moral of the story: bring them even if you think you don’t need them!
Tide-to-Go pen
Very important! Am I sounding like a broken record? I thought this would just sit in the bag and rot. However, I ended up using the bleach pen I brought to clean one of the girl’s shoes! Sounds weird, but she had brought white shoes and they needed cleaned around the soles. I took the pen to them and they cleaned up very quickly! Otherwise, you could use the pen to spot treat stains – especially if you get makeup on anything. These pens work wonders on just about anything!
Feminine products
I was hoping we wouldn’t need these, but you’re seeing the trend already. Mother Nature really threw us through a loop! Two of us out of the five ended up being on our periods, so we ended up getting into this stash. I didn’t know everyone’s preferences, so I packed a little of everything! Tampons, pads, panty liners: I wanted to be prepared in case we did need any of these. I wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable with the products I brought! Everyone definitely has their preferences and I wanted to cater to that!
Pain reliever
Pain reliever was really important, especially since two of us ended up having surprise periods. You never know what you may need them for! Headaches, cramps, or the occasional aches and pains can come whenever and that’s subject to your wedding day as well. Be prepared and have these on deck for your tribe!
Lint roller
Very, very important! Before steaming every dress, I went through and quickly lint rolled them. I wanted to make sure they were all super clean and picture perfect. This would also work super well for cleaning off the bride’s wedding dress post pictures if you’re taking them outside! It will clear any grass from the layers of her dress and get her ready for the ceremony or reception!
Fashion tape and/or double sided tape
You don’t realize how important this is until you need it. One thing we did to make sure our dresses didn’t further come open when we bent down to pick something up was line the neckline of our dresses with double sided tape! Fashion tape generally would work better for this, but there wasn’t a store close to me that had it. The tape kept the dress attached to our skin and kept the wedding PG along with the extra stitching added to the neckline.
Steamer
If you take anything away from this post, please let it be to bring a steamer. This may be in my top three things to bring! Our dresses were pretty wrinkly when they arrived to the venue. None of us had really done anything to our dresses since getting them out of the box, so they needed quite a bit of help. Steaming them made a world’s difference! It was night and day! I was so glad I brought it along with me and that we didn’t have to lug in and iron and an ironing board. This route was so much easier!
Power strip
I swear it’s always when you need an outlet that they’re all in use. In our case, we only had two outlets in the entire room! I was really glad that I brought a power strip. In all reality, we didn’t need that many outlets anyway, but it made finding a close outlet much more accessible. Since the cord to the steamer was so short, we were actually able to steam the dresses in a comfortable spot without moving a lot of furniture.
Mini water bottles
This may sound weird, but we didn’t really have much access to water at the venue. There were two bathrooms on our floor, but one was closed off, and the other was being used quite frequently. We ended up using the mini water bottles to fill the steamer! Honestly, it filled my steamer nearly perfectly. On the other hand, it made for an easy way for the rest of us to stay hydrated!
Snacks
It’s not on the original list, but snacks are extremely crucial to your emergency kit! This was a last minute addition on the day of the wedding. I had bought bagels for the girls that the wanted to come over the morning of. Because I had no self control, we had quite a few bagels left over. I ended up packing them away (along with some Oreos) in the emergency kit for us to snack on while getting ready. This worked out really well! It allowed us to tide ourselves over until dinner since we were technically skipping lunch!
For reference, here is the bag I used to put everything in!
Vera Bradley Signature Cotton Campus Women’s Backpack
This bag was phenomenal for storing everything I needed it to! There are so many pockets for you to do a ridiculous amount of organization. I put all of my hot tools and hairspray in the laptop pocket so they were all tucked away. In the side pockets, I put the umbrella and the steamer. It made them easily accessible! For the most part, I had everything in the biggest pocket of the backpack and sorted in ziploc bags. It was easiest to find things when they had categories and were in small bags. Otherwise, I would’ve been searching for days and it would’ve taken forever to find the smallest item!
If you’ve made an emergency kit before, what was used the most? Was there anything I missed? Let me know in a comment below! If you just want more in-depth advice about the kit I made, email me at makaylamais@gmail.com.
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