It’s the age old wedding day photography question for brides. Should I have my posed wedding day pictures take place before or after my ceremony? In order to make this decision easy for you as a budding bride, I’ll cut to the chase. Nine times out of ten, you can determine your best course of action on whether or not you will have a first look between the bride and the groom. It’s really that simple. If you are NOT going to have a first look and instead save that experience for when the bride walks down the aisle, then you will want to save the main wedding party pictures for AFTER the ceremony. Makes sense right? You wouldn’t want to take pictures with your fiancé if you don’t want to see them until you’re standing at the pulpit. Therefore, if you’re not going to have a first look with your bride or groom, then save the main posed pictures for AFTER the ceremony.

On the other hand, if you ARE going to have a first look between the bride and groom before the ceremony, then feel free to have your main wedding pictures take place BEFORE the ceremony. After all, at that point you’ve already seen your bride or groom to-be anyway, so there’s really no mandatory reason to wait until after the ceremony to take pictures together. Now of course there are always exceptions, primarily due to time constraints. If you have a first look but there still isn’t enough time to have the pictures before the ceremony, than simply wait until after the ceremony. The choice is totally up to you. These days, many wedding couples who have a first look decide to go ahead and knock out the main wedding pictures in order to simply relax and have fun once the ceremony is complete.

After the ceremony you will still need to have your wedding family pictures, regardless of what you do before the ceremony. They will have been there in the audience and not available for pictures before the ceremony. Therefore, you will want to prepare time for the family pictures after the ceremony regardless of your decision to have the main wedding pictures taken beforehand. The good news is, this doesn’t normally take very long and you can get everyone off to the reception for the most fun part of the day!

If you have any questions or would like some advice for your big day, please comment below or contact us. We’d love to help! After all, we’ve done this a time or two!