To First Look or Not to First Look?
One of the major decisions of your wedding day- deciding whether or not to see each other before the ceremony. This is one of the first questions I ask my couples, not because I want to sway them towards doing things one way or the other, but because this is a crucial piece in deciding your wedding day timeline. Your answer to this question can sort out the entire pre-ceremony timeline. Crazy right?!
If you’ve been on the fence about doing a first look, or you’re trying to sway your significant other, keep reading!
To start us off, here are the top two reasons why some of my couples choose NOT to do a first look:
Tradition. This one is pretty self-explanatory. The age old tradition of not seeing your other half before that moment when the doors open and one of you walks down the aisle. As more and more weddings become non-traditional, this is one that is still important to many and that’s totally awesome!
2. The emotions. If the partner that’s standing at the end of the aisle is an emotional human, capturing the excitement, surprise, and sometimes tears on their face in photos can be a major driving force behind waiting to see each other until the ceremony time!
On the other hand, the top two reasons why some of the couples choose to do a first look:
1. Getting the jitters out of the way. The stress of wedding planning and the wedding day is the greatest before the ceremony. By seeing each other, spending some quality time together before the craziness of photos and ceremonies and receptions ensues, you’re able to recenter yourselves around each other and the thing that truly matters for the day- getting hitched!
2. Timelines. By doing a first look, your photos can be DONE before the ceremony and you can get straight to the party after you tie the knot. The day starts earlier, but the planned parts are over sooner and you can dance the night away or run off to your honeymoon- whichever suits you best!
Although this question can sometimes be hard to answer, it’s important to sit down with your partner, decide what’s important to each of you, and go from there. You got this!
