4 Reasons You Should Have A “First Look” on Your Wedding Day Itinerary.

So you’re planning your wedding and you’ve come to the part where you ask yourself “do we want a first look?”

Don’t worry, I can help you answer that question. Here’s some reasons you might want to consider a first look:

#4 If you want to enjoy the cocktail hour you paid for with your guests..

If the answer is yes then you most certainly should have a first look and get portraits during the first look done so you can enjoy more time with your guest.

#3 If your ceremony takes place after sundown.

Lighting is going to play a HUGE role in quality wedding photos. The time of day in which your wedding ceremony will take place plays a major role in the kinds of photos that are possible to make. I always advise couples who are planning their ceremony for later in the day to have a first look. This way we can use the light to its fullest potential.

An example of this is a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony.

Majority of rabbis will not marry a couple on Shabbat, because of that couples typically go for a late ceremony after sundown on a Saturday. I always recommend first look photos earlier in the day to create beautiful portraits using gorgeous natural light.

#2 You have a large family you’d like family formal portraits.

(thats takes a lot of time)

The most complex part of the wedding day is taking formal family portraits.

(especially with a large family)

In my experience, the longer the list of formal family portraits the couple might want to get the more they would benefit from having a first look.

This is just because organizing large groups of people takes time.

For most families, this is the first time family has seen each other in years and everybody is eager to hug the newlyweds & love on the newlyweds.

Given that cocktail hour is typically only an hour long, trying to squeeze in many large family formal portrait combinations, along with wedding party and couples portraits can be very challenging.

Having a first look and even just taking the couples and wedding parties photos can relive the stress of the list of photos you might want to get with larger or extended family.

#1 Use cocktail hour time to have more intimate time with your spouse.

This is number one because this is something a lot of couples say at the end of the day is that “the day went by so fast”.

One way to slow things down a bit is to take some sacred time with your spouse and sit together in the beauty of where you are and how far you’ve come.

Sooo… I hate to admit it but I do have gets about my wedding day and this is one of them! I had less experience working with weddings at the time and I just did not think my timeline of that day through.

The day was so rushed and jam packed with things to do I would like to argue that I did not get enough FaceTime with the face that a I was marrying that day!

Of Course we had the wedding night and forever to enjoy each other. BUTT in the hype of the wedding day I would have loved to have a slowed down moment where we could relax and get away from the party together.

Before you celebrate with friends and family you can celebrate quietly and more intimately with the one you love.

How do you want to experience (and re-live) that special day?

One of the major benefits of choosing a first look is that you will receive one-of-a-kind photos that will capture your spouse’s genuine reaction upon seeing you for the first time on your wedding day. While we can capture that moment at the ceremony, first look photos allow for a level of intimacy and spontaneity that cannot be matched.

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, then having a first look in your wedding day itinerary is for you!