Something you may have never heard of until you started planning your wedding was the question, “Are you going to do a first look?” Hold up. What in the world is a first look? You know what your fiance looks like, right? You should know haha. I know that there are dozens, no hundreds if not thousands of articles online about doing a first look on your wedding day. Yet, we still get asked for our “professional opinion”. And here we are. I wanted to write something up just for our BT&C couples because it is something we do get asked quite often.

If you are looking for a yes or no from me you won’t find that here. It’s just too personal of a choice for us to sway you either way. But, we won’t leave you hanging. Over the next few blog post, we will break it down for you so you can make that educated decision for yourselves.

“What is a first look?” It is usually followed by “How does that even work, where and what do we do?”

A first look is simply were you and your significant other see each other before the ceremony. It’s a reveal to your soon to be husband of how you look in that beautiful wedding dress, and you get to see him all dapper in his suit. You get to enjoy a few moments to yourselves, to take it all in vs. seeing each other for the first time as you walk down the aisle. Of course, that is the traditional route. How you do the first look on our wedding day is where it’s vastly different for each couple.

Typically it is done on the day of your wedding prior to the ceremony. Some cultures have photo sessions the day before.

Next, comes the question, do you want to keep the moment private or share it?

There is no wrong answer. I repeat. There.is.no.wrong.answer. PERIOD.

Whether you opt for it to just be the two of you. Completely Private. Giving you an exclusive moment alone to enjoy each other’s company and sole attention before the chaos of the day. Or you may want your parents near or the whole wedding party to witness the sweetness but not close enough to hear what you say to each other.

Once you opt to do it and know who will be there, your photographers will help you. Or if you have a wedding planner to help well that’s even better! When creating a photography timeline of your day, your photographer and wedding planner will help you when exactly during the day it should take place and help execute it as you wish.

You’re going to have a lot of opinions on who and how. I mean just about everyone and their mother will have an option. But remember, what is important is that you two should focus on what YOU need. If a moment just you two alone then that’s amazing. If you want your parents and or bridal party there then perfect. Let it unfold the way you want it.

Now that you have a better understanding of what a first look is, you are probably wondering if you should do it? There are pros and cons. Stay tuned next week, we will share with you our top 5 things you need to consider when doing a first look. Bonus we’ll also dive into the wedding tradition of waiting until the ceremony to see your bride and how that came about.

I’m always here to help so if you have any questions about your wedding planning whether it’s photo, video or not leave a comment below or send me an email and let’s chat!

Hugs, Chabeli

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