Is there a great benefit to waiting until the wedding ceremony to see each other?
There isn’t any, really. Let me explain it this way…
You’re going to see each other for the first time at one point or another during the wedding day, isn’t that true? So it’s what’s surrounding that moment that can enhance it – or break it.
If you wait until the ceremony to see each other for the first time, you spot each other at some point when you’re walking down the aisle and then… what actually happens? This: You have to get right down to the business of the ceremony, hand off your bouquet, pay attention to the officiant, recite the vows, exchange rings and then, when at the end of it you’re pronounced husband and wife (ah, finally, after all that planning), you have to get right to the task of a receiving line and/or getting pictures done quick because you have a limited time, hurrying and scurrying as family is scattered among the guests socializing and you’re steaming that nobody’s keeping in step and cooperating. The limo driver interrupts because he needs to drop you off soon and run to his next job… your MOH says she’ll be right back because she has to change take care of her baby and disappears, mom’s looking for grandma, one of the groomsmen is missing in action the clock is ticking away and all you really rather do is get it over with and party, and so, you’re like, aaargh. Not fun.
… and the resulting pictures look like they were “grab what you can” with a tense bride and groom that are feeling rather anxious and who’d really like to get to their cocktail hour rather than miss it plus have to pay overtime to the limo driver trying to deal with knocking out some needed photos so we can get going.
Do you get what it feels like? This is what it’s like probably 99% of the time, despite all assurances to the contrary.
Compare that moment to this moment: when you see each other for the first time, and it’s prior to the ceremony, away from 100 guests buzzing all over you, away from the necessity to attend to the immediate task at hand, away from the pressures of time – then you’re having that “seeing each other for the first time” experience, but now, in a much more relaxed, intimate manner without the time pressures. You can embrace, you can kiss, smile, snuggle warmly, you can hold each other and take in the moment. You can enjoy it, every second of it, one hundred per cent.
And don’t you think the photographs will show that emotion, will depict that serenity, that happiness? Of course they will.
Isn’t that the experience you really want when his eyes meet with yours for the first time that day?
Memories are made of this.
Now, add in that instead of passively *accepting* a patch of grass in the side area of a catering hall compromising image quality to knock out as many shots as possible in the limited time because the maitre ‘d is tapping his toe impatiently telling the photographer to wrap it up in five minutes (even if he’s not yet gotten everything) because he wants to show the couple their room before he has to open it up to the guests, you’re instead proactively *choosing* to take the time needed to create quality, awesome wedding images in amazing surroundings without any pressure on you but with lots of great, warm feelings, knowing that you’ll soon be fully enjoying every second of the rest of your day rather then missing them.
Which images would you really rather have? Which experience would you rather have? Which memories would you rather have?
You see each other for the first time once at some point in the day.
Make it count.
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