The First Look - Photographers Perspective

For those of you that don't know, a "first Look" is when the Bride and Groom see each other before the ceremony. 

Every couple wants to know if it's better to do a first look or see each other for the first time at the ceremony. I always tell my couples that it doesn't matter to me, because I'm a fast photographer and I'll get you good images either way.... but that's more of a comforting statement to my clients. Secretly, I wish they would all do a first look! 

My main reasoning behind doing a first look is, it allows me to photograph you at a slower pace, which in turn allows me to be a lot more creative with your wedding photos! The most interesting thing I have found is that it doesn't effect your reaction at the ceremony at all! Walking down the aisle is a completely different feeling than seeing each other before hand.

Here's a few examples of how emotional a first look can be.

First looks can be very emotional

They allow for beautiful pictures before your ceremony

Every Bride loves this reaction from their Groom ;)

so awesome

First looks also allow you to be alone with your Bride to relax and talk with each other. You can guarantee that this will be your ONLY alone time for the rest of the day. So enjoy it and take it slow.

After the first look, they read bible versus to each other

Before their first look, they read cards from each other

And of course, if you still want to remain traditional, there are always tricks to allow you to see each other before hand without actually seeing each other ;)

I wasn't really sure what to show for examples for this post, because I honestly get good pictures either way. I can just tell you that photographers have to run their butt off after the ceremony to get you great shots before everyone gets bored at the cocktail hour. Doing the first look allows everyone to relax and you will usually get 2-3 times the amount of awesome pictures just from seeing each other before hand.

Today's post was my wife's idea ;) Next time I'll dig back into some cool photography stuff!