Modern or Traditional: First Look?

We did our wedding a little different. We had a two hour cocktail hour and whiskey tasting before our ceremony, we greeted our guests together when they arrived. We didn't do a first look per say, but we were together before the walk down the aisle. It was perfect for us.

Aww that's so sweet Kayla!! I have only seen that done a few times and it's always such a special moment.

Wow, that's going to be so cool!! What have you told your guests? Where do they think they're going?

Very traditional here. He didn't see me until I was walking down the aisle. And I didn't see him until a few minutes before that when I peaked out the window of the limo.

Traditional. He doesn't get to see me until I am walking down that aisle. Our venue has a balcony and I want to stand on top while he stands on the porch below for a picture before the ceremony but still not have him see me.

This was not even something I thought about before reading this thread and now I am super conflicted. My FH and I are getting married in Vegas and our timeline doesn't even include a cocktail hour, so I have no idea when we'll be able to take pictures. We will only have a 3-4 hour reception so I can maybe do it afterwards, but after dancing, eating, etc I feel like I wont be as camera ready....SO much to consider

Aww the first touch will be so cute!!

Omg!! I love this idea! The balcony photo is going to be epic!

I'm so excited for it! But I still have a year to wait for it haha ... It may have had a lot to do with the choice to go with that venue

Yes!!!!! I would've chosen that venue for that same reason!

What a great question. I was thinking about this the other day for pictures but we might go more traditional.

100% traditional! This is the one thing I'm absolutely not budging on. I want the walk to be the first time we see each other.

I love that as well! It's so special, even better when the raw emotions are captured on camera!

We went MODERN! I may have posted in here before but I'm here again to give the update. We did first looks and are SO GLAD that we did. Let me tell you first off that in no way did doing the first looks take the anticipation, emotion and WOW FACTOR off of the entrance! Trust me! He still got all teary-eyed, the guests still gasped, the wow factor was still there.

I did first looks with my dad first, and then my husband. It was the BEST THING we could have done, no joke. In all honesty, it may have been my favorite part of the ENTIRE DAY. I think if we didn't do them, we all would have been sobbing messes, and I'm fairly sure my dad would have fainted lol. It made for some of our FAVORITE photos (and that's just from our voyeurs on their cell phones!) and it helped give us a calm before the ceremony. It allowed us to relax and really take it all in.

It also gave us a few good laughs - we did ours in a big, empty room with two doorways. I entered through one, and my nerdy group of ladies and moms (haha) huddled outside the other doorway to watch but be out of the way of our vision/photographer's vision. Well, during the ones with my dad, everyone got a little misty and you heard a lot of "awww" coming from the peanut gallery. We giggled. But when I did mine with my now husband, my sister of all people, lost her cool and started crying. Had to run out of the room. The girls cheered and yelled "WE GOT HER!" and we all had a good laugh.

So my point - if you're worried about nerves, DO THE FIRST LOOKS! If you're worried that it will take away from the moment, trust me that it won't.