I want to start by saying that when we first started wedding planning, I was so against doing a first look. Also, for those of you who don’t know, the first look is when the bride and groom see each other for the first time before the ceremony. I wanted to keep it traditional where Carl sees me for the first time walking down the aisle. But – as I was planning the timeline of my wedding day, I realized all the benefits of having a first look and I ended up changing my mind! And honestly – I’m so happy that we ended up doing it! Here are the reasons why I decided to do a first look on my wedding day:
Calms the Nerves
The morning of your wedding day could be so stressful and overwhelming. When I got to see and talk to Carl during our first look, it helped calm my nerves and I wasn’t as stressed. My mood went from anxious to super excited after being with Carl. I knew I would’ve been a lot more nervous walking down the aisle if I didn’t do a first look!
More Photo Opportunities
When couples choose not to do a first look, typically all the photos are done after the ceremony during cocktail hour. Cocktail hour is usually 60-90 minutes so that is the only time you have to take ALL your wedding photos. This is one of the main reasons why I decided to do a first look. You guys know how much I love photos so when I found out about the small amount of time we had for them – it stressed me out lol. Bear Brook Valley has so many amazing spots for photos and we wouldn’t have had enough time to take all the couple shots I wanted.
By deciding to do a first look, we were able to do a little over 3 hours of photos. We got so many beautiful shots and since we had a lot of time, it wasn’t stressful trying to fit everything in.
Private Intimate Moment
Having a first look was such a special moment I had with Carl. Aside from the fact we were surrounded by our photographers and videographers haha, it was the only time during our wedding day that it was just me and him. The rest of the day we were so busy so it was nice having that private moment together with just the two of us.
I’d also like to point out that one of my concerns with not doing a first look was that walking down the aisle wouldn’t be as special. I was completely wrong! Even though we already saw each other, walking down the aisle was still such a special and emotional moment being surrounded by our friends and family!
More Time to Enjoy Your Wedding
Another pro of having a first look is you have more time to enjoy your wedding! If you get all of your photos done before your ceremony, you don’t have to skip out on cocktail hour.
Since Carl and I took most of our photos before the ceremony, we were able to have a private cocktail hour with just the two of us and try some of the food! Since we wanted to take sunset photos, which was happening during our cocktail hour – we didn’t have the entire hour to ourselves, but it was nice having some time to relax and not have to stress about getting all our photos done.
These are my main reasons to do a first look on my wedding day. However, if you choose not to have a first look – it is totally do-able. It’s all about preference and whatever is best for you two!
Also, after doing our real first look – the photographers had us pretend to do a first look again and Carl made a funny facial expression haha He had me cracking up!
I hope you enjoyed this wedding post 🙂
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