The First Look

It was easy for me to make the decision of doing a first look. There were three factors that I considered: First, we need private moments throughout the day; second, I’m an ugly crier; and more practically, we want time efficiency.
The private moment idea speaks for itself. While I love those photos of a groom seeing his bride walking down the aisle, I really can’t find anything that will take away the magic of that moment. Walking down the aisle to marry the person you love is magic enough, and it is still special even if we have already spent certain time together that day. So tradition didn’t stop us from considering a first look.
Ugly criers, raise your hands. I don’t want to walk down the aisle ugly crying. Does that make me vain? Probably. But I want to look how I feel—happy, excited, in love. Not like I can’t stop sobbing! To help avoid those tears, and to allow time for makeup touch-ups after I inevitably cry when seeing Mr. R, a first look makes sense.
Last but not least: I want to enjoy our reception as much as possible! There are many guests that I want photos with immediately following the ceremony, while considering the size of our group, Tracy has assured us that we can get all of our photos done prior to the ceremony. This will allow us to get those shots with a few certain family members, and then head straight into our reception without missing too much time with our guests!
So for us, the first look makes sense. We’ve even planned to have it be just us and our photographers, with everyone else arriving shortly after we’ve finished our first look and portraits. I can’t wait!