Photos before or after the ceremony?

We did many of our photos ahead of time of family, bridal party and our first look. It allowed us more time to spend with our guests at the cocktail hour. I’m glad I did it this way.

We did photos both before and after the ceremony.

We did both before and after. We had a first look and I did a first look with my dad as well. I also did all of photos with my side of the bridal party and he did all of the photos with his side of the bridal party beforehand. During cocktail hour, we did family photos, bridal party photos with both sides together, and additional couple photos. Doing photos before definitely cut on time otherwise one hour for cocktail hour wouldn't have been long enough. My brother and his wife didn't do any photos ahead of time and their cocktail hour went over an hour and they did their couple during the reception which meant they missed of their reception.

We did both. We got many done before the ceremony, including a first look, and then we did some more after.

I did it before and I enjoyed having time to just enjoy my wedding after

We did bridal party photos and our couple photos after our first look, before our ceremony, and we did our family photos and a few more bridal party photos after the ceremony. We didn't have a cocktail hour (by choice) and we didn't want our guests waiting on us to start the reception. The after ceremony photos took maybe 15 minutes - and we did this while our guests were finding their seats in the reception hall. This worked great for us because we got most of the photos out of the way prior to the wedding and then had more time in the reception. If I had to do it all over again, I would do our photos the same way

Get as many done before the ceremony as you can. A friend of mine got married recently and wanted to do all pics after the late afternoon ceremony they had out of tradition (no dancing at church dinner reception but still left just before midnight) and she said the photographer suggested doing them all before the ceremony. She said she's happy she trusted his professional judgment because it didn't take away from the magic of the ceremony and they were able to spend more time with guests.

We will do ours after our ceremony for our big wedding because my husband will not see me before I walk down the aisle.


We did that for our minimony as well

I'm a second time bride, and a former wedding photographer


- at my 1st wedding, I didn't see my fiancé before the wedding due to tradition, and it made it a little more complicated to get everything taken during cocktail hour- as a wedding photographer, the smoothest timelines are the couples that do first look/bridal party photos before the ceremony and leave family/friends for cocktail hour. I've also had couples leave extra time (e.g. 2 hours) between ceremony and reception for photos and "down time"- for my upcoming wedding, I'm doing a first look/family photos before the ceremony
It's totally up to you and how you want to map out your timeline, but things are MUCH easier and less hurried if you take portraits before the ceremony -OR- allow extra time between ceremony and reception

If you’re doing a first look, then it makes sense to do photos before. I’ve also seen couples do some before and some after, where the bride and bridesmaids took photos before and the groom and groomsmen took photos together before and then after the ceremony was the family photos and entire wedding party together photos. We’re just doing photos after, but our reception is laid back and not far from where we’re having the ceremony. Also I already took bridal portraits so I won’t need the solo photos.

We did after, and I'm very glad we did.

It gave us a little bit of time together, allowed our families a little bit of time away from the crush, and we absolutely did NOT want to do a first look.

We also had a little park *right* next to the venue, so we could take pictures there, no problem.