Dave and I knew as soon as we got engaged that we wanted to do a first look on our wedding day. It may have been the least traditional part of our very traditional wedding, but we had our reasons :) I would say the two biggest were that 1. we’re admittedly both criers, and thought a first look would help us hold it together during my walk down the aisle. 2. Our church requires the photographer to stay in one place throughout the Mass. This was totally fine with us, since the reasoning was very much in line with our goals for the ceremony (no distractions from the sacredness of the Mass), but it did mean we wouldn’t get any close-up pictures of our faces.

All that said, we did decide to keep our first look private–we didn’t do any family or bridal party pictures during that time. I truly think this was the perfect compromise for us, because we got to see each other in a special, intimate way and pray together before our ceremony, but it was only for about ten brief, emotionally charged minutes. It really made our first look all about us, with no distractions.

Thank you Ryan Ray for these incredibly special photos!

I love these pictures so much! I still remember everything about how the breeze felt against my skin, the way my heart pounded when I got out of the car and saw Dave standing under the tree, and how completely at peace I felt when he wrapped me in his arms and prayed over our day. After that, we could barely contain our excitement as Ryan snapped a few quick portraits of us, and then we went our separate ways to meet up again at the front of the church! :)

I’m so happy that our videographers, Inkspot Crow, included quite a bit of our first look in our wedding film–you can see it on Southern Weddings here!

More wedding posts:
Our Wedding Feature
Our Wedding Morning