A common question photographer’s ask their brides is “When will you first meet your groom?” The answers vary but typically the questions is returned, “What are your thoughts, when should we meet?” and most every photographer will respond with “Before the ceremony”. We, being practically newlyweds of only 5 years ourselves, really wish we would have met before the wedding, this is one thing we would change about our wedding.  Samantha’s sister on the other hand, took our advice and met her groom before the walk down the aisle and her story is very different. She wouldn’t change a thing! After much thought & research we decided to dedicate a post to this very topic: To Meet or Not to Meet Before the Ceremony?

Reason’s Why Jonathan & Samantha Think a “First Glance” is the Way to Go:

1) the groom is able to fully take in the beauty of the bride without time or emotions hindering

- when the bride is walking down the aisle there is a rush of emotions making it hard to recall the events, not to mention all your guests are standing & the groom does not even seen his bride until the very end.

2) the bride has her groom before the nerves kick in of “getting married”

3) makes things run so much smoother as everyone is not spending their day trying to keep the Bride & Groom seperated

4) it allows for more together time for yall & the wedding party

5) it allows the photographer to capture photos that otherwise could not be captured which makes for a very happy couple & a happy photographer

6) it allows everyone at the ceremony to proceed directly to the reception without an hour of photo interruptions

Here are what a few other professional photographer’s have to say about the topic:

Jasmine Star Photography: http://jasminestarblog.com/index.cfm?postID=727&the-first-look-grooms-perspective

Here is just one of our couple’s “First Looks”: