Confessions of a former bride | part one

Tips, Weddings

January 10, 2012

I got married last year, so it hasn’t been too long since I was a bride myself. Since getting married I’ve also stepped into the wedding industry by starting my own photography business! Both sides of the wedding industry are pretty different but we’re all working towards a common goal…putting together a beautiful wedding! Since it’s that in between time when people are busy planning their weddings I thought it would be neat to put together a series of informative posts with wedding confessions and advice. I have a few ideas already, but please let me know if there is anything specific you would like to see!

Part One | The First Look

Photographers LOVE first looks! You want me to love you (more than I already do)? Choose to have a first look. Beyond just making time for portraits, having a first look helps to ensure that your day flows smoothly  by getting a big part of the portraits out of the way earlier on. Not only do we get to shoot you and your spouse to be in an excited/blissful/nervous state, but if we get to do a first look and you guys have seen each other already, we can knock out bridal portraits and even family portraits before the ceremony so everyone has time to breathe afterwards! If you are interested in exactly why photographers love first looks there are tons of articles and blog posts about it by photographers who are much more eloquent than I am…

I would much rather explain the concept of a first look to you from the perspective of a bride. Not just any bride, but an extremely introverted bride. I was never really very nervous about the wedding because I knew I was ready to marry John, but I did catch some anxiety over walking down the aisle. I was so worried about people looking at me and whether or not I was going to be doing the ugly cry like Farrah on Teen Mom.

It was around 3pm and it was HOT. I was anxious because we were running late and just nervous in general. None of the panic really set in until I got to the site of the first look. I was supposed to wait til they had John where he couldn’t see me, but my heart was in my throat and I couldn’t wait any longer. So I just went. Walking over to my soon to be husband I felt so anxious, like I was going to throw up all the chips I ate for lunch. But in a good way. I was sweating and trying to keep it together, but the closer I got to him the more I felt my eyes well up. When I finally reached John after what felt like both a lifetime and a split second, I tapped him on the shoulder and he was already crying. What can you do when your future husband is crying happy tears but cry yourself? I flat out bawled too and told him to stop crying.

Looking back I’m so glad that our first moment on our wedding day was just the two of us. Because it was exactly that…a moment. A few precious minutes where we could privately revel in the fact that we were about to get MARRIED and breathe in and out the warm May air. Honestly I don’t think we would have had that if we had waited to see each other until the ceremony. Seeing my husband waiting for me at the altar was a pretty magical moment, but it really does not compare to the intimacy and nervous excitement of a first look in my opinion. Also, the ceremony itself begins right after you get to the altar so you don’t have a second to relax and just take in both your soon to be spouse and what the day means.

So to summarize, from former bride to future bride: you will not regret a first look. You just won’t.

Stay tuned for the next installment!! It’s about TIMELINES! Fun, fun:)

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Images courtesy of Jodi Miller Photography

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  1. milsztof says:

    What a great post. I’m a photographer so I love the first look and like very much you put it.

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