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The First Look
In my last educational post I talked about why I strongly recommend 8 hours of coverage to most brides. If you have questions about coverage hours, check it out!
One of the main reasons is that it gives me space to be creative, especially with portraits. But when should portraits be done? This is another of the most common questions I get asked: should we do a first look? And the short answer is YES! Any wedding day timeline (look for a post about how to plan these coming soon) that minimizes the number of portraits to be taken between the ceremony and reception is a good timeline!
Here are a few reasons I highly recommend doing a first look:
1. You have more time and less stress during ALL portraits. I always try to find a full 30 minutes for couple portraits during each wedding. It’s really hard to have that much time when we have to do all the couple, wedding party, and family portraits right after the ceremony. If we can do some (or all) of those portraits before the wedding, everything is less stressed and we have time to be creative.
2. You get more time with your guests. When you only have a few family portraits (or maybe no portraits at all!) to do between the ceremony and reception your guests don’t have to wait long for you to arrive at the party.
3. You get more time on your wedding day with your love. It’s your wedding day! It’s about the two of you and the love that you share, so you should spend the day together celebrating!
4. You get a moment of quiet together. When there’s no rush to get to the reception, you can really enjoy each other’s company during the portraits. If you don’t do a first look, you don’t have much alone time on your wedding day.
I hope this was helpful! If you have any specific questions or thoughts don’t hesitate to get in touch!
