The Dilemma with the Staged First Look.
The best part of a wedding is that when something happens on it’s own, it’s beautiful, emotional, and memorable. When it’s a manufactured moment however, like standing in a field waiting for your partner to show up, it feels like cheating.
Often these set up moments are the result of either the wedding planner putting it in the timeline of the day, or the couple putting in their timeline because they saw it on a wedding website or a magazine article about the “ten must have moments to photograph”.
Trust me - the moment your father sees you in your dress for the first time when he walks into the room is always far more authentic if it’s not planned.
The same goes for the first time you see your partner. Doing the whole …walk up to your partner and tap them on the shoulder thing is so cliche. You may as well have someone directing you to cry on demand as well when you look at each other.
No matter what, on your wedding day, you will see your partner for the “first time” as he or she walks down the aisle towards you.
That’s if you’re even following along with wedding traditions like getting ready separately from one another.
Now look - I’m not here to dictate what you do on your day.
Nor am I here to say that doing a first look is a totally shit thing to do. Sometimes within the set up there’s something awesome that happens. There is a reason that these moments are staged like this - especially when there are a lot of people and a million moving pieces and a tight schedule to keep.
This opportunity to see each other also gets the nerves cleared out for some couples. And while the “moment” is staged and sort of directed, the reaction is often something that can’t be set up.
As a photographer who really loves to seek out authentic moments of joy and emotion, I enjoy the challenge of looking for these moments to take place on their own, and even in a set up moment like a planned first look, there is often a moment or two of real emotion present…and that’s what I look for and capture.
