First Look

It is not a Catholic tradition to keep the groom from seeing the bride until the wedding ceremony.  In fact, the recommended Catholic procession is to have the priest enter, followed by the best man and maid of honor, followed by the bride, the groom, and both sets of parents.  This is supposed to demonstrate equality between the bride and the groom, versus the American protestant tradition of "giving the bride away"--literally as property to the groom at its inception.  In practice, though, most Catholic couples will use the protestant form.  Our priest said he has done hundreds of weddings and only used the Catholic form twice.  As for me, I would have been open to the Catholic form, but it also makes logical sense to me to have your opposite-sex parent walk you from one phase of life into another.  I left the decision up to my dad, and he felt strongly that he wanted to walk me down the aisle, so that's what we're doing.  (I will be requesting that our priest skip that "Who gives this person away?" nonsense.  I have been living on my own since 2006 and working and moving between states almost as long; I hardly need someone to take care of me.)

The Catholic Church's position on this matter made me feel validated in my thoughts that playing "hide the bride" was a tradition I could, and probably should, skip.  Trying to stay out of sight all day sounded unnecessary and tedious to me.  I don't think Lance seeing me before the ceremony will detract from my walking down the aisle--it's a powerful enough moment that it stands on its own!  When we met with our photographers for the first time, they asked if we would be interested in or open to a "first look," a moment in which you see each other in private for the first time on your wedding day, and the photographers capture it all.  I was open to the idea already, but they made a strong case for having a first look.  We are getting married on literally one of the shortest days of the year, so daylight hours for taking pictures are at a premium.  You also get photos of everyone early on, when their hair and makeup is fresh and no one has ketchup on his shirt.  Our photographers said that they did a first look when they got married, and it made their whole day more relaxed because they weren't rushing to fit in all of their photos before cocktail hour was over.  So, we decided to do a first look, and I'm pretty excited about it!

I don't know if you've seen first look photos before, but they are awesome.  You get everything from surprise:

To joy:

To curiosity:

To emotion.

Now we just have to find a place to do it!  It depends on the weather that day, but we should probably scout for a pretty place indoors at our hotel or nearby so that we have a nice backdrop.  If you want to see more photos like those above, check out these links from the Huffington Post, Bridal Guide Magazine, and the Knot.  :)