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To take photos before the ceremony or not???

fizzhiser87fizzhiser87
First Comment
in Hawaii
Hi all!
We are trying to figure out our wedding timeline at the moment and it is seriously stressful!
I love the idea of not seeing eachother until I'm walking down the aisle buuutttt this puts a strain on our photography timing.  We only have one hour between the end of the ceremony and the start of our reception to take all our pics.

Did anyone do photos before the ceremony? A 'first look'? I do think that the photos I've seen of this are beautiful and it sounds really nice to have that time together to relax and get the nerves out before the actual ceremony.

What are your thoughts?? If you did do photos before, how did you feel about it? Did you regret not waiting?

Any info would be awesome! Thanks!!
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Re: To take photos before the ceremony or not???

  • SavvyLittleBrideSavvyLittleBride member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    We decided not to do the first look before the ceremony. I always wanted the first time for him to see me when I walked down the aisle. And it was amazing. So much anticipation and emotion in one moment. We did do a day after shoot and trash the dress shoot to have a greater variety of photos too. HTH
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  • pikakegirlpikakegirl member
    First Comment First Anniversary
    We too our photos between the ceremony and the dinner (and during a lot of the dinner), which turned out to be one of my few regrets. I would have liked to have spent that time socializing.

    It was important to do sume photos during that time because the light was so great (pre-sunset) but I would have liked to do more of the photos pre-ceremony (or the next day, or something) because I feel like I spent half my wedding taking photos rather than celebrating with my guests.
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  • bubsie77bubsie77 member
    First Comment

    We are planning to do a first look before the ceremony - initially it took FI a bit of time to get used to the idea - he's a bit traditional....but he realised that it will be nice to have a private moment for the first look before, and get rid of the nerves in time for the ceremony.
    And one of the other major reason is that we want to spend as much time socialising with our guests - it's not every day that everyone gets together from all corners of the world!

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  • dianalynmdianalynm member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    I'll have to agree with bubsie. My wedding isn't until Decemeber, but we want to be able to socialize during cocktail hour and make use of the time we have with our guests. With that said, we are having a first look. My FI is a bit more traditional, too, and he says he wants to see me for the first time walking down the aisle, but I definitely think a "first look" makes the best use of time, fresh makeup and clothes...etc. Plus you can get the bridal photos taken as well
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  • janeashjaneash
    First Comment
    We had an hour between our ceremony and reception and we used that for pics.  We really didn't want to do a first look.  It worked out really well cause we took our pics right at our venue so we had people standing by and chatting and brining us cocktails as we took our pics so we still felt like part of the action.

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  • lorena224lorena224 member
    First Comment First Anniversary
    We also had about an hour between the ceremony and reception. We really didn't want to do a first look as it meant a lot to both of us to see each other first when I came down the aisle. I don't think the wait was a big deal and we got all the picutures we wanted done in the hour. The property was beautiful so people hung out for a while to check it out and take pictures themselves and then took off to the reception site to take pics there and enjoy some drinks and apps. It worked out well with our small group. We are both really happy with our decision to wait and take pictures after the ceremony.   
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  • destiny1108destiny1108 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    We did first look, I'm so glad we did as I had time to fix my make-up (tears!) before the actual ceremony and it also gave us more time to spend with our guests afterwards.
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  • FINALLYtobeMrsMFINALLYtobeMrsM
    First Comment

    I orginally planned to do a first look, but after more careful consideration, we opted to wait until the ceremony to see each other for the first time.  Since we opted out of the traditional wedding I wanted some element of that tradition feel, so wait we shall. We only have 5 guests coming, but we also have 1.5hrs to take pics before we have to leave for the restaurant. Do whatever feels best, it's your day, have it your way (wow that felt like a commercial lol)

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  • fizzhiser87fizzhiser87
    First Comment
    Thanks everyone! We opted for doing the 'first look' and pics before the ceremony. In the end I didn't want to feel rushed at all and the most important thing for us is to enjoy the day as much as possible. Our photographer is going to set up a nice 'reveal' which should make for some cute photos! Happy with the decision!
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