Hi friends! happy Monday!! Today’s post is for all those brides out there who are in the midst of wedding planning! Based on many chats I’ve had with brides and grooms over the past few years, I discovered that the first look is a very polarizing topic in the wedding world among couples who are planning a wedding! Everyone has an opinion on it and they are usually either strongly for or strongly against it, with very few indifferent to it. Then why, exactly, am I suggesting you buck tradition and do a first look? Here are three reasons why they are beneficial:
1) You get to create a special private moment between the two of you on your wedding day
I think it’s so beautiful to start off your wedding day with a special, quiet moment between the two of you before the festivities begin. During the ceremony, all eyes will be on you as you walk down the aisle and your fiancé sees you for the first time, and it can be more meaningful to have that moment be a private one that just the two of you share. It is one of the only chances you will have on your wedding day to truly be alone with each other and soak each other up until after the reception ends. If you ask any recently married couple, I guarantee one thing they will tell you is how surprised they were by how little time they actually got to spend with one another on their wedding day.
2) More time for photos = more photos
On a wedding day, things usually get off schedule and start running late. Guests arrive late and the start of the ceremony gets delayed for 10 minutes, grandma went missing during family photos and it took your mom 5 minutes to track her down, the limo driver hit traffic and that delayed the arrival of the bridal party at the photo location and so on. When these things happen (and they will, weddings rarely stay on schedule) your portrait time is unfortunately what usually gets cut down in order to accommodate and make up for the lost time. Once your wedding is over, your photos are all that you have left to remember your wedding day by and by eating into this time you will have less of them. By doing a first look and seeing each other before the wedding, we can knock out all of the photos of you and your groom without being rushed (but I can’t promise I won’t pull you outside for 10 minutes as the sun is going down for sunset photos ☺) as well as all of the bridal party photos! This ensures that the portrait time won’t be reduced when the timeline gets behind and leads to number three…
3) You can enjoy cocktail hour with your guests
By taking all of the photos beforehand, after your ceremony all you have to worry about is signing the marriage license and taking family formals. Once those two things are done, you can actually enjoy cocktail hour and mingle with your guests instead of taking portraits. One thing couples always say after their wedding is they hardly had a chance to say hi, much less visit with all of their guests, and this enables you to spend a bit more time with them on your wedding day (plus actually enjoy that signature cocktail you created for your guests)!