one of the most nerve wracking parts of shooting a wedding, is the first look! if you’re lucky enough for your bride and groom to have chosen this route…there’s a lot of pressure on you to make sure it’s perfect!!! the bride wants you to capture the groom’s reaction and the groom is usually pretty aware of you creeping until he sets his on his bride. i have a few tips to make sure your first look goes fairly smooth 🙂

1} set the groom up BEFORE you even get your bride out the door!!!

9 times out of 10, you’ve got a goofy groom that likes to joke around and keep you on your toes. they’ll ‘pretend’ to turn around or say things like, ‘is that her?’ just to get you worried! they think it’s hilarious but they don’t realize you have a mini heart attack every time! ha! go ahead and have him set up and have someone ‘keep an eye’ on him until you return with your bride.

2} if you can, have a second shooter handy to capture the bride coming in while you are with the groom.

brides always love to see the groom’s reaction in the first look photos, but this is also a great moment to capture their excitement before seeing their groom!!!!

3} capture as MANY details as you can, while keeping the integrity of the moment. during kimberly and adam’s first look a little butterfly landed on kimberly’s dress…which is a good luck charm! she thought it was the cutest thing…so obviously i needed to curate that moment!!!

4} help direct them BEFORE their big moment, so you’re not ruining their private time together

i always try to explain to the groom what’s going to happen before the bride even walks out. small cues like, she will tap you on your shoulder, be sure to turn to your left to see her! or let him know, i will have her stop right behind you for a second and she will speak to you when she’s ready for you to turn. this helps calm his nerves…even though he’s been teasing you about turning around, when the time comes…they’re nervous they’re going to mess it up!

5} capture their reactions, take 60 seconds of pictures {camera on silent shutter mode!!!} and then high tail it out of there!!! give them a few moments to just speak to each other, pray together and be away from all of the craziness going on in other areas of the venue! they will be so grateful for their time together in private because the rest of the wedding day is planned out and those moments do not come often.

final tip} set your bride and groom in the BEST light. don’t worry about their surroundings as much as the light that will be hitting them when you’re moving around. they’ll be more wrapped up in the moment you capture, than the basic scenery.