When Brian and I were planning our wedding a few years ago, I knew that I wanted to do a first look session. Like most girls, I had dreamed of the moment that my future husband would see me for the first time on our wedding day! I imagined that I’d enter the room in a beautiful wedding gown and see him at the alter with tears streaming down his face. What I didn’t imagine was the time of day we’d get married, the fun cocktail hour events that would follow, where we’d get married or that it would be a room full of people watching as well. So when I actually met my future husband and started planning our wedding day, I knew that a few factors about our day would lead us to doing a first look session.

Location

The wedding venue that we chose was awesome for what we wanted our day to be. We wanted the option of having an indoor or outdoor ceremony. The country club had an indoor ballroom for the ceremony and/or reception, an outdoor patio beside the pool for cocktail hour and an outdoor pavilion that we could use for the ceremony. Being that our wedding was in August, we decided to have our ceremony and reception indoors with cocktail hour on the patio. But outside of the actual space, there weren’t a lot of pretty spaces around the venue to use for portraits. It was really just a parking lot and then a housing neighborhood! Not exactly what I wanted for us or our wedding party photos. For this reason, we added an extra 1-2 hours in our timeline so that we could drive to one of my favorite spots in downtown Raleigh with the wedding party and our photographers.

Just the two of you

Even though the wedding party was there to make sure that we made it to the exact spot, they all left us alone for a few minutes during our actual first look. Even though the photographers were there, it felt like it was just the two of us! It’s important that you have a moment with the just two of you on your wedding day. Once you reach the ceremony, there will be a lot of people around for the rest of the day.

Daylight

Depending on the time of day that you choose for your wedding ceremony, you may run out of daylight. Being that we’re primarily natural light photographers, we make it our goal to use natural light for most of the portraits. Especially the bride and groom, wedding party and sometimes the family portraits too! Our ceremony was set for 4 p.m., so we were fine on both sides for lighting. But if you’re planning a late ceremony, especially during the winter, you might want to consider a first look. We can always set up flash and other lights, but nothing replaces the look of outdoor photos during sunset.

Attending Cocktail Hour

Who doesn’t love cocktail hour? It’s the first time that all of the guest get to mingle and enjoy drinks and hors d’oeuvres. It’s also another reason we chose to do a first look. We knew that it was going to be hot on the patio during cocktail hour and so we brought in one of the Sweet Water Ice bikes along with a band to keep our family and friends cool and entertained. We also wanted to get out there and enjoy italian ices and listen to our uniquely organized band! We say unique organized because all three of the guys are from different bands. One is Brian’s childhood friend, one is our drummer from church and one is from the band Cameo. So if you’re planning something cool for cocktail hour or if you just want to mingle with your guest, we suggest taking as many portraits prior the ceremony as you can!

Here are a few photos from weddings where the bride and groom did a first look session last year!

McAllister and Cornell had their first look session outside of their family’s home. In addition to their first look, they also took all of their family portraits and wedding party photos prior to the ceremony. This allowed us lots of time after the ceremony for just the two of them in downtown Raleigh.

These guys had their first look session outside of the Rand Bryan House in Garner, NC. We found a spot to hide the groom while the bride walked. His reaction was priceless and we had a few minutes to spend on portraits of these guys during their first look. 

These two planned their wedding ceremony for 6 p.m. in November, which meant that it would be completely dark after the ceremony. For this reason, they planned a first look session in a nearby courtyard prior to the ceremony. It worked out great as they got to see each other, take bride and groom portraits as well as wedding party photos prior the ceremony.