Wedding Day Details
Thoughts on First Looks | Rochester NY Wedding Photographer
September 22, 2011I meet with really cool people.
My favorite thing is hearing their story. What makes them amazing. What they are passionate about. All the fun stuff! 
So, part of a conversation yesterday resonated with me — enough so that I felt compelled to blog about it — because, as always — to ME — SEEING what I’m trying to talk about is as important as the words…
Todays Composition Title:
First Looks.
First Looks are misunderstood.
First Looks break tradition.
First Looks are scary (and exciting, and intimate…and…wait. I’ll get there. ::grin::).
A lot of brides come to me and when the subject comes up — they say — “oh no. I want my fiance’s first view of me to be when I am coming down the aisle”.
Yup. I TOTALLY get that. And respect that. and LOVE it if that’s what you want and choose to do…
But…if you are at all open to this — I want you to think about the advantages of a first look:
It’s yours.
You are not sharing it. It is your day with your man (or woman). It’s a moment that you DON’T share, except with each other. You don’t have to think about your dad, or your mom, or all those people who love you who try to catch your eye as you walk down the aisle.
Nope. It’s just you two. Alone.
And it is breath-taking. And quiet. And soft. And romantic.
THEN!
You have TIME. For photographs…for time to breathe and laugh and play a little bit.
And here’s the biggest secret that no one really understands until you go through it –
When you come down the aisle and the music plays and everyone is crying…
You Forget the First Look Ever Happened.
You are IN THE MOMENT.
It’s Magical.
Then the OTHER magical part? ALL YOUR PICTURES ARE ALREADY DONE. You don’t have to make family and friends wait for you to go off somewhere — you’ve ALREADY DONE IT.
It’s efficient. Which, really, is not a romantic word…but I can tell you that it makes your day smoother, less stressful, and fun. And it gives your photographer time to do what you are PAYING THEM TO DO — which is take beautiful photographs of important people who love you and who you love.
I am a big supporter of First Looks.
But it’s, ultimately up to you. I just wanted to give you something else to think about (and look at.)
…
So … Elyse and Josh had their First Look at…wait for it…the EXACT place they had their first kiss.
Perfection!
And then? We had time to play and take cool pics.
Maybe just…think about it?
xoxo T
Okay. Sit back in your seats. Continue only if you have a lot of time to oooh and ahhh over an AMAZING location, PERFECT weather and an AMAZING couple.
Ready?
Labor Day Weekend, I traveled to Long Beach NY (go there. now. it’s incredible!) to photograph the wedding of Jocelyn and Joe at the newly opened Allegria Hotel. What made it difficult, like so many of my weddings, was that it got picked up by the gorgeous Merci New York Style Blog — and because they wanted to wait until warmer weather to showcase a beach wedding — we had to wait to talk about it…although a FEW images sneaked out here and there because, frankly, I couldn’t wait perfectly.
I want you to look at the photographs and think about the fact that Jocelyn conceived the concept of sea glass and wove it through the entire wedding. Blues, greens, that soft color that only comes from years of being washed in the ocean — were featured throughout all the details of their wedding. They also got up the next morning at sunrise with the entire wedding party to do a day after session — and both “events” received rave reviews from the blog writers over at Merci New York. Special Thanks to Jessica Weiser for coming all the way from Maine to shoot this wedding with me!!
Things that were cool:
Aforementioned decor and design — Joce even designed, printed and HAND DYED the ribbon on her invites. Sooo beautiful.
Perfect weather. Loving family and friends.
A large crowd on the board walk that participated in the ceremony — seriously, like hundreds of people were watching. It was fun!
Jocelyn and Joe practiced not one but TWO choreographed dances at their reception. I’m talking “Dancing with the Stars” level dances. Super impressive!
A Chinese Tea Ceremony integrated both families
Sparklers at the end of the night.
A Day After Session that ROCKED!
So you can see…it was hard to wait to share these. If you want to peek at the write up on Merci New York click the pic:
Some fun pics from the wedding (wait. day after session also coming!)
And then we all got up at Sunrise. But TOTALLY WORTH IT!
Awesome wedding images! Love the day after session!
9.22.2011
And that is why we choose to do a first look
At first we we’re like, “No way!” But when I watched Will & Kate’s wedding all I kept thinking was how they were having this REALLY BIG IMPORTANT moment with the whole world watching them! I knew I didn’t want that, even with a small part of the world. I just wanted it to be a moment for US 
12.31.2011
Gorgeous images!!!