This week Ryan and I are celebrating FOUR YEARS of marriage. FOUR YEARS!! It’s gone SO fast that I can’t even begin to wrap my head around how it’s already been four years. I thought this week and next week would be the perfect time to talk all things wedding related. If you haven’t checked out my original wedding posts you can see part one here, part two here, part three here, and the last part here. Let’s kick this wedding week off with a post talking all about first looks. You know, the classic photos of the bride sneaking up behind the groom with a sweet tap on the shoulder?!
Did you or did you not do a first look on your wedding day?! This is probably the number one question that I get asked about our wedding. So did we or didn’t we do a first look?! We totally DID and to this day I am so happy we made the decision to do so. It was one of my favorite moments of the entire day and some of my favorite pictures. Fun fact.. we now live right up the street from where our first look pictures were taken. One of our favorite restaurants that we frequent can faintly be seen in the background of a few of the photos.
Reasons Why We Did A First Look:
- We knew that seeing each other for the first time on our wedding day was going to be a very emotional and intimate moment. Because of that, it really seemed like it needed to be a private moment between the two of us. We were right, it was SO emotional. Both of us were crying, shaking, and overjoyed to see one another.
- I don’t like crying in front of people <— does that sound bad?! It’s not suppose to, but I get very uncomfortable being overly emotional in front of other people. I wanted to be able to express how I was really feeling seeing Ryan for the first time that day but felt much more comfortable doing so in private. I did still cry walking down the aisle but not nearly as much as the first look. If you’re wondering if the first look took away from my moment walking down the aisle, I can honestly say it didn’t. I actually feel like I got to experience two sets of overwhelming feelings of happiness and just pure joy twice in one day.
- I wanted as many pictures as I could get of us. That’s the truth! You pay a lot of money for your wedding pictures so I wanted as many as possible.
- We thought it would help calm our nerves, and it did. I get terribly nervous when I have to publicly speak, and saying your vows in front of 100 people is public speaking in my mind. Since we decided to write our own vows I knew I was going to be even more nervous since I was basically pouring my heart out in front of all these people. At one point before the ceremony I questioned why we decided to write our vows ourselves, haha! So needless to say, seeing each other beforehand helped to eliminate some of those nerves.
- It was another oppurinity for us to spend more time together on our wedding day. That might sound weird but your wedding day doesn’t have much alone time to just soak up the moments of becoming husband and wife with just the two of you. A first look gives you an extra few minutes to soak up all those wonderful raw emotions of your wedding day.
Doing a first look was a very intimate moment on our special day and one of the moments that I most vividly remember about the day. It’s also a very personal decision about whether or not to do a first look. If you’re unsure, I would make a pro and con list and look at the reasons to each and see which ones outweigh each other for you personally as a couple. At the end of the day, it’s all about what is going to make the two of you happy.
I’d love to know what your take on first look photos are! Are you for them? Against them? And did you do them or not?
Wedding Photographer | Hannah Suh Photography
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