Pros and cons of a first look

View Quoted Comment Seeing as you said in a previous post that you aren’t even considering a photographer then for you maybe it doesn’t make as much sense.

View Quoted Comment Yep

its not a good fit for us

its awesome you’re happy with a first look though

View Quoted Comment I agree that they only see you in “the dress” with everything perfect for then”first time” once

its really a personal matter of how you want it memorialized

up close and alone or from the aisle between and the audience

View Quoted Comment I’m sure that you guys will love that moment as much as we will!!

View Quoted Comment No way!! You will be fashionably and traditionally “late” at worst

then you get to do the grand entrance when everyone already has drinks and have started to loosen up from ceremony

View Quoted Comment My ceremony is at 10 am & we are doing one. I'll let you know how it goes lol. Hopefully we're both awake.

View Quoted Comment Same reasoning for us.

I was for it but he is adamant about not doing it so I’m going with what he wants. He said he wants his first time seeing me to be me walking down the aisle! We’ll just take all the pictures that don’t require the both of us before hand

We’re doing one for three reasons

1. This is the most important reason. We really want to enjoy a private moment between the two of us before the whole production begins and we’re mingling with friends and family the whole night. Due to this, we would have done a first look even if the other reasons didn’t exist.
2. We have a lot of out of town guests that we don’t get to see very often so want to spend as much time with them as possible. We don’t want to spend cocktail hour taking pictures when we could be hanging out with our friends and family.
3. We’re getting married in November in New England and the ceremony starts at 6:30. We wouldn’t be able to do any outdoor pictures if we didn’t do a first look!

Wow, ok, so we are DEFINITELY doing a first look photo before the ceremony, and we are so excited to discover that it was even a thing! We are 100% non-traditional, non-religious, non-superstitious (#ProudAthiest, #ProudScientist), and we are also super interested in not spending more money than we need to. So when I realized the whole point of the cocktail hour is for the wedding party to take photos, because they "can't" do them before the ceremony because of religious and superstitious reasons, I figured that was the perfect plan to do photos BEFORE the ceremony instead! We'll do first look photos, and all the other posed photos we could want at our wedding before the ceremony, then go have the actual ceremony, and then be able to go directly into the reception portion from the ceremony (all in the same room - people will already be at their tables for the ceremony, so there's no change over needed!). No making people wait around for us to to take photos without them!! The people are hungry and want to get this party started right away!! LOL Of course cocktails are still available from the moment they arrive till the end of the whole shindig, so I don't understand why *WE* need to spend more money on catering and decorating /another/ room/part of the wedding.

Moral of the story: It's YOUR wedding, and you can do what you want to!!

I wanted to do one for the convenience of photos but it’s important to my fiancé not to do one.

We’re doing one and after we talked to our photog about it I’m even more excited. She says she loves when couples do them because it’s a chance to have a private moment before the ceremony, away from family and friends. She says a lot of her favorite pictures come from first looks because it’s a super romantic and exciting moment for just the couple. That’s the pro to me!

View Quoted Comment We also have a toddler who will be with me all morning. Idk how we’d arrange care and what not.

I can get into my reception space at 10am, have to get to my ceremony by 10:30am. Only have a photographer for 2 hours


gonna be fun lol

We did a first look and it was the best decision we made. I was actually nervous when I saw him standing with his back to me, so it helped calm my nerves. For weeks beforehand, he was super nervous about standing in front of our guests during the ceremony, so it helped calm his nerves as well. Also, I'm a ball of emotion and knew I would be the second I started walking down the aisle, so being along for the first look helped me get some of those emotions out (I ugly cry and my guests do not need to see me ugly cry haha!).

But the best part was that first look was ours and no one else's. It was just the two of us, alone together, staring in each other's eyes, talking and laughing and hugging and kissing. It made that moment so much more special for us and we actually got to take our time and soak it all in. And when people tell you the day flies by, they aren't joking. It goes way too fast and that first look was the only time the entire day we got to be together just the two of us.

After our first look, we shared a bottle of champagne and took more photos with my MOH (my sister and his BM (best friend) at a rooftop bar, which was so much fun. So, you could always have your first look alone and then include others who are special to you for some photos and more memories.

Edit: I have no cons. The first look was a must for us and it was incredible. Ooh, another pro: we got to enjoy more of the cocktail hour because we had less photos to take.

We live together and are staying together the night before, so we'll have our private moment (no photographers necessary) in the morning, before the insanity of the day begins.

View Quoted Comment

Strongly agree with this. Exactly what we're doing

I think we will do one. We haven’t fully discussed it yet, but logistically it makes sense. I’d rather get pictures done beforehand so we can enjoy cocktail hour with our guests.

We did one and loved it. We are super traditional in every other sense, but we wanted a Friday evening Catholic wedding. We didn't want a gap and wanted our guests to be able to come after work, so we scheduled a 6:00pm ceremony with a reception starting at 7:30 (15 minute drive to reception and Mass tends to be a little more than an hour).

The first look allowed us to get every single family photo done before the ceremony, so we could go straight to the reception and enjoy our guests. I was also super nervous and it was completely calming to see him before. He was crazy exited to see me and the pictures of him anticipating the first look are adorable. It didn't take away from the emotion of seeing me come down the aisle one bit.

I can't think of a single con! That being said, it's got to work for you. If both of you want that first moment to be when you walk down the aisle, you could consider a first touch to help you calm down.

We did one and it was one of the best parts of the whole day. I loved having some one-on-one time with my H and his reaction when he saw me was so amazing.

I didn't wear my veil for the first look so I looked a little different before I walked down the aisle. A walk that I got so nervous/excited for even though I had already seen H that day and he had already seen me. H still got choked up when I entered the room with my dad. The first look took absolutely nothing away from the walk down the aisle.

On top of all of those pros we had gotten almost all of our pictures out of the way before the ceremony so we were able to join our guests at cocktail hour and begin greeting and thanking everyone which minimized the time we need to spend doing table visits and allowed us an opportuinity to take some amazing sunset pictures at our venue.

We did one and we are SO glad we did!

On your wedding day, you do not get to spend any time with your spouse. Because we did a first look, we got to spend SO much time together and ti was amazing. We have so many beautiful and wonderful pictures of the two of us and they are so special. I have zero regrets.

It helped up to calm our nervous, and quite frankly, I was really really missing him that day. We stayed together the night before and we both cried when I had to leave and start getting ready in my own hotel room. I loved getting to spend that time with just him. It was such an intimate moment and private.

H cried and got so misty during our first look. It was so sweet! He didn't cry during our ceremony, and I didn't expect him to. He was so nervous to have to stand in front of so many people for the ceremony. Our first look did not take away from him seeing me at the ceremony at all, it really helped him to relax and enjoy the moment instead of feeling the pressure to cry and have an over the top reaction.