Imagine this:

It’s your wedding day. You’ve spent the morning with your girls drinking mimosas and listening to ALL the love songs. You’re all glammed up and loving your wedding day look. You have been talking about your excitement to get to marry the love of your life. You’re starting to get giddy and feel like a kid on Christmas morning just thinking of that first meaningful embrace from him on one of the most important days of your lives together. You walk outside, it’s quiet and peaceful. No one else is around and then you see him.

You aren’t able to see his face just yet but that doesn’t matter. Somehow you can still just tell he has that sweet smile on his face because he knows you’re on the way. You walk up and give him a soft tug on his hand. This is the moment. He turns around slowly, he looks into your eyes and it’s like he is seeing you for the first time. He grabs your other hand and just takes it all in. Time feels like it’s standing still. You two lean in and hold one another close while your foreheads meet. Together, you take a moment to fully adsorb this intimate, once in a lifetime moment. It feels as though you are the only two people in the world. No one around but you two. You are fully able to appreciate your moment without needing to feel rushed.

A first look gives you the chance to  experience an incredible moment in time just like this.

That is just one of the reasons why Yianni and I always highly recommend a first look to our couples. We understand that some couples have good reasons why they are deciding to wait to see each other until they walk down the aisle. We respect those decisions and always encourage our couples to do what best represents their beliefs, values and is true to themselves. For some, the thought of a first look and all the different ways it makes a positive impact on your wedding day, just isn’t something that you’ve thought about. That is what we are here for. We want your wedding day to be as smooth and stress-free as possible. We think the option of a first look is a major way to guarantee that it is!

Timelines

One of our favorite parts of being your wedding photographers is that we get to help you with so much more than just photos! We really connect with our couples and consider you our friends. Just like any good friend, we are there to help! We help with any recommendations on amazing vendors to work with, all the best places to go looking for your gown and so many other important steps in making your wedding day all you’ve been dreaming of! Such a big part of this is sharing our knowledge on your wedding day timeline. We have created timelines for so many different brides all depending on how they were envisioning their wedding day. We have made timelines for couples who will be having a first look, and couples who did not. Something that I can tell you with certainty, the two timelines look very different.

The first look changes the entire way that your wedding day will flow. If you are able to be together before the ceremony, that means that we can utilize the time before your guests arrive to take so many of those important photos! We can get the bridal party photos done and a good portion of your family photos, as well. This means a few things.

First, it means that after your ceremony finishes, we have less photos still on our list. We will be able to focus on your bride and groom portraits. Which will let us get more variety in your gallery! Bride and groom portraits are always our couples most cherished takeaway from their wedding. So when you get the chance to spend more time on them, it is always wise to take it.

Second, it also means that your family and bridal party are available to head on over to cocktail hour to mingle with your guests. This not only will help keep those guests from wandering around waiting for you to get it back, it will give your family more time together! Which ties right into the next benefit of first looks.

Your guests

You spend less time away from your guests! Alright, if I’m being completely honest here, I could take bridal portraits all day! I love the detail shots and the photos of the whole family. And yes, the photos of everyone out on the dance floor are always pretty amazing! But bride and groom portraits is what it’s all about. Your whole day is to celebration your relationship. To take time to preserve the new legacy your love is creating! These photos will be cherished and passed down from one generation to the next. Plus, there is no twinkle in a couples eye quite like the one of a couple who just tied the knot! So believe me, we are tempted to keep taking those photos, but we know you have guests that you love dearly excited to see you two make your entrance as a married couple for the first time. So we are always very mindful of time. We know that after the ceremony we generally only have one hour for photos.

Like we mentioned earlier, if you do a first look, many of those must-have photos can be taken before the ceremony. This leaves more time for the bride and groom portraits. Now, imagine you don’t have the luxury of getting the photos done prior to the ceremony because you didn’t go with the first look. Well that’s okay, but now we need to get all of your bridal party photos, each variation of family portraits (which does take some time), AND your bridal portraits. That can be a tight squeeze on time. Depending on how many family members are involved and how organized the process is, this may run over the hour.

PRO-TIP

The best way to handle family portraits is to designate one (or possibly two if you have a large family) person to help the process go smoothly. This should be someone who you trust and who knows the family members extremely well. This can be a sibling, a close cousin, or possible a BFF (but we are talking Kimmy Gibbler from Full House kind of close friend!). Give your person a list of all must have family photo combinations and who is needed. They are in charge of ensuring that all family members are readily available when it’s their turn. As much as we try to get to know everyone at your wedding, we might not know your third cousin’s kids and their names to call them over. So having this person in charge will make things go quicker, let Yianni and I focus on taking the photos and you focus on staying stress-free on your wedding day! Trust us, you will thank us later for this one!

You went with a first look though. So all these are taken care of before the ceremony! Now all we have left is your bride and groom portraits. We might even be able to get done before the hour is up! Wohoo! This means you will have more of that valuable time to spend with all those eager guests. The first look really does give the gift of time, which is the most precious gift of all.

Yianni and I are always so happy when our clients trust in our advice and go with a first look. We really do take each detail of your wedding into consideration and feel honored that our couples have the faith in our decisions. I could go on and on about how much we love the first look, so if you have any question send us a message! We would love to help you decide if it’s the right choice for you!

We want to leave you with some of these amazing moments from one of our favorite couples first look experience (Tiffany and Jason’s wedding). These are such sweet, rare shared moments. We are so happy we could capture them.