wedding pictures before or after

theta_bombshell

Brides!

This is my first post. yay! ok... now to details.

So wedding is November 13th. I have an AMAZING photographer (Rob Greer) and want to take advantage of him as much as I can.

He suggested, and I think its a good idea to take our weing pictures BEFORE the ceremony to take advantage of the day light since the sun does set so much earlier. Thing is... my fiance really doesnt want to. He really wants to see me walking down the aisle for the first time... and I can understand... Im just scared we will run out of time.

How are you planning it? Any advice? Our ceremony time is set for 3pm (which probably means 3:30pm) and our reception starts at 5pm. Our ceremony and reception site are in the same place so people only have to literally walk a about 30 feet to the reception from the ceremony site.

Im stressing over this... but am sure it will tien out just fine. Just need some advice.

Thanks!

CurlyGirlyGirl

There are many brides that want to take their photos beforehand, but if this is important to your FI, I would probably let him have his way.  He might not have made as many decisions about your wedding so if this is his input I would go with it.

Plus, I find it hard to believe that your photographer wouldn't get good shots after your ceremony if the reception starts at 5.  Sure, the sun goes down early in Nov. but not before 5.  If he's as good as he says he is, you'll be fine.

lala90

Most photographers like to do photos before for lighting and timing reasons.  I am a traditionalist like your man and I don't like that idea--but to each his own.  I personally would get you photos with you side of the family before, your bridesmaids, photos of flowers before, shoes, dress, getting ready and boys getting ready, his family, etc.  This way you have lots of the shots already taken care of ahead of time.  Good Luck!

imlovingit

Men are usually more traditional that women when it comes to walking down the isle. I was actually in your same spot a when we got married. I wanted tp do pictures before because I thought it would help me with the nerves and because I knew I would cry while walking down the isle of happiness.My husband did not like that idea and we decided to keep traditional.

I think if it means alot to your hysband you should wait. If you or your photog do not feel like it's enough time for family pictures, bridal pix and your pictures of just the two maybe you can do some seperate shots before the ceremony. I'll be honest we did that and it was not that big of help because the photos that we really had a lot of was with both of us in them. In reality you don't need to many pix of you with your family without the husband because you are a team now you want both in the pix. If doing that does not work maybe you can have your photographer do pix of you after the wedding.

[Deleted User]

For time constraint purposes, it's better to do them before rather than after.   I actually wish we had done all of our formals before.  But I ended up getting to the church later than anticipated and formals had to go into the coctail hour and after that the entire night felt super rushed.

Seeing your FI before the ceremony can also cut down on nerves.  And no, it shouldn't spoil that special moment when he sees you, from our perspective actually better to do it when we had some time in private(with your photographers catching the shot), it gave us both time to take each other in without the pressure of having to go directly into our vows.

sicilianmarie

I don't care about light or time.........I dream of my FI seeing me walk down the aisle for the first time, and I am keeping it that way lol It's my wedding

dawnbeatty

We both chose to do before pictures.  We really wanted to get as many pictures as possible since we had unlimited time with our photographer.  We wanted to got as many places for backdrops too - so it worked out for us.  Our wedding wasn't until 5:30 and we started taking pictures with our bridal party at the hotel at 1:30.  We had our 1st look I think at around 2:30 and then we took group pictures around the hotel for about another 1/2 hour.  The we (DH and I ) went to the train station and took pictures for about a hour before we had to go to the ceremony.  So we had a lot of pictures and we loved it. 
We still had time after the ceremony but it was rushed trying to get all the family pictures so I don't we would have had nearly the amount or type of pictures we got if we didn't do it prior.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_california-los-angeles_wedding-pictures-before-after?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:68Discussion:0ead8291-ac89-4952-a83b-cd302245aeddPost:618d6861-9eb6-4932-b36b-7d788adfd3cf">Re: wedding pictures before or after</a>:
[QUOTE]Most photographers like to do photos before for lighting and timing reasons.  I am a traditionalist like your man and I don't like that idea--but to each his own.  I personally would get you photos with you side of the family before, your bridesmaids, photos of flowers before, shoes, dress, getting ready and boys getting ready, his family, etc.  This way you have lots of the shots already taken care of ahead of time.  Good Luck!
Posted by lala90[/QUOTE]

This. FI and I are doing a "first look" and all our pics beforehand (family might be after), but if he's dead set against it, try to get as many pics separately as possible before the ceremony - then you can enjoy more of your reception.

We're doing pics downtown and our venue is in Toluca Lake, so there's no way we'd be able to pull that off if we waited.

bostontoLA

We took these pictures before-
getting ready separately, me and the bridesmaids, he and his groomsmen, me and my family, he and his family.

After the ceremony we these pictures-
me and my husband
all the family with us

We didn't want to see eachother before the ceremony.