When we were in the midst of wedding planning, Shane and I had to decide if we wanted to do a "first look" or not. We weighed the pros and cons -- would it be more meaningful for Shane to see me for the first time when I was walking down the aisle? Would it be more special for us personally to have some time together before the whirlwind of the wedding began? Would it be a more efficient use of time to do photos before? We landed on doing a first look because we decided it would be important for us to have a little time together before the wedding. Knowing myself, I figured I would have some anxiety on our wedding day and being able to see Shane before everything got started would calm me down and settle my nerves. Plus, this was one of the biggest days of our lives, and if we didn't see each other and talk before the ceremony, we wouldn't get another chance for real conversation until we left the reception.
The weather on the weekend of our wedding was very unpredictable. The forecast had gone from snowy to cloudy to rainy to cloudy to snowy to cloudy. Waking up on our wedding day, the skies were overcast, but the weatherman was only calling for some rain in the afternoon and evening. Not ideal, but not the end of the world. Thankfully, because of how unpredictable Colorado can be, we had made the decision to move our ceremony indoors.
As soon as all the gals were about to leave to head to the outdoor location for our first look, it started snowing. Shane and I had joked that nothing had gone as planned for our wedding week and we didn't mind because we just wanted to be married, so at this point, I didn't even care anymore. I just couldn't wait to be with my almost-husband! As we got closer to our photo location, the light snow had turned into a downpour of the biggest fluffy flakes. We parked and one of my bridesmaids hopped out to see what the plan was for pictures. I could see Shane standing under an umbrella with his back turned while he waited for me. Cue the best kind of butterflies.
I got out of the car into the freezing cold and walked up to him. I'll never forget the way he looked at me and how excited we both felt. With snowflakes in our hair and eyelashes, we suffered the cold for some of the most beautiful first look photos I've ever seen (not that I'm biased or anything.) 😉
Something happened to me on our wedding day. I felt the lightest and least-stressed I had been in years. So even in the midst of a blizzard, unable to feel a thing, shaking violently from the cold, I didn't care. I wasn't nervous. I wasn't stressed. I wasn't anxious (a HUGE answer to prayer.) This was the happiest day of our lives and we were about to officially start our new adventure together.
Now that it's all said and done, I can say I'm still so happy with the decision we made to see each other before the wedding. It was possibly my favorite part of the day and didn't lessen the impact of our ceremony in any way. There are moments and memories from that first look that I will always treasure.😊
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