One of my recent grooms wrote this for the blog! I wanted to get a mans perspective on the first look, and he was gracious enough to take the time to explain it. Sure, I gave him some talking points for organization, but here it is! Straight from a guy who loves tradition! Enjoy!

-Carrie 

 

The first look from my perspective- The Groom

My fiancé and I had decided on the tradition of not seeing one another for the wedding. It was settled, done! Not much afterthought. Then, we were deep into date night conversations, and she says that she may have changed her mind! Wait, what?! I asked what changed her mind and then she explains that after reading the benefits from her bridal guide of why it would be such a good idea it all made sense.

 

Before I get into everything, I am going to give you a bit of a spoiler alert. I changed my mind too! I am a guy. I like things to be simple, easy and stress-free. Although I’m full of tradition at heart, the benefits outweighed my traditional mindset. Here are my reasons why it was one of the best decisions of the day.

Tradition

I learned that the “tradition” of not seeing your bride before the ceremony didn’t actually start in a good place. It was meant for couples during the time of arranged marriages to not bail out on each other for fear of not liking how they looked. OUCH! That was really quite strange for me, and I literally had no idea this was true till I did some research. This was not my idea of a “good” tradition.

I want to celebrate

I’ve been to enough weddings in my life to see that right after the wedding, it was a mad rush to get people lined up for family photos. All I could think the entire time was, “When is it time to grab a drink and talk to my family and friends?” At this time I was a guest, so I could only imagine being in the groom’s shoes and he’s probably wishing the same thing. When you do the first look, all the family pictures are done at the beginning of the day. Which gives you more time to celebrate!

Nerves

Doing the first look surprisingly took away a lot of the nerves. I was able to enjoy a simple moment with just the two of us without having everyone else see me cry. (By the way, I’m not one to shed tears, but yes, it happened.) After that, we were able to enjoy the day more freely together. Not to mention our getting ready space was very close to one another and the stress of hiding from each other all day would have been tough. There wasn’t any rush on our part knowing that the entire wedding party was waiting for us to start dinner and dancing.

Timeline

The first look really helped with the flow of our timeline. Since all the formal pictures were done BEFORE the ceremony, we were able to go about our day at our own pace.

 

More Images

This was the part that really sold my wife. The first thing she said to me when we starting toying around with the idea was “Honey, we get 40% more pictures of the two of us!” For a woman that loves sharing and taking pictures, this was huge. We had way more variety for our final gallery. Our wedding album had tons of options, and we are thankful we essentially got a double portrait session on our wedding day.

 

It didn’t spoil or ruin a thing

I still had the rush of emotion when I saw her walking down the isle. How could I not? She looked beautiful in her gown, and she was about to make me the happiest guy in the world. The amount of love and energy that surrounded us was something that I will never forget. I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to see her not only once, but twice on our wedding day. In a private moment shared just between us, and for our entire loved ones to witness.

I wouldn’t change anything

Looking back on our wedding day, I still wholeheartedly believe we made the right choice. I’m thankful that Carrie was able to educate us on the benefits and explain it in a way we understood. She ultimately has our best interest in mind and wants us to make the most out of our experience.

To see more on the subject of the first look click here!