Problems w/ not seeing each other before ceremony

[lock3130]

My fiance and I have elected not to see each other before the ceremony. I just got my BEO and saw that we only have about 1/2 an hour after the ceremony ends to take pictures. We were told it'd be 20 minutes w/ family and then only 10-15 minutes with each other. That doesn't seem like very much time! Has anyone else had this happen? Is that enough time to get pictures? Now I'm a little concerned.....

 

[lurkyloo]

This is exactly why we decided to see each other before the ceremony.

But if it's just not an option for you to have a "first look" before the ceremony, talk to your planner about arranging to have more time. Would you be bumping up against a dessert party on the other side of the reception if you extended the prereception so you could get more pix together?

 

[lock3130]

We are having our wedding in Italy and she said we have to get cleared out of there before the park opens. We are going over to Martha's Vineyard next but I'd really like to have time to take pictures in Italy and around that area. This is a once and a lifetime deal!

I might have to do some more thinking. We are having a dessert party later in Italy but I"m not sure it'll be the same.

 

[lurkyloo]

Yeah, for an Epcot wedding you pretty much have to see each other before the wedding in order to have time to take pix there together.

By having a staged first look (where we did a "reveal" with our photographers and videographers there) we got to have about 15 minutes to take pix around my resort and then another hour and a half inside Epcot for pictures.

Is there a particular reason you guys don't want to see each other beforehand? We found it a lot more romantic to meet just the two of us in private (OK, with paparazzi at a distance) and share our excitement before the day started, without guests around or a ceremony going on. I didn't want to get to the altar and have to hold back all the things I wanted to say to DH until the ceremony finished!

 

[lpizzuro123]

Our ceremony was in Italy this past November. We did not see each other before the ceremony. We did stay in the same room the night before so we did see each other then, but not when we were in our full wedding attire.

Misty and her husband arrived at our room around 6:30am I believe. She did some getting ready shots of me (my DH was still in the room while I was getting my hair and makeup done - but just the beginning stages). My DH left with Misty's husband for some shots of him around The Boardwalk (where we were staying). The guys and Misty's husband then went over to Epcot for some guy pictures.

My dad and my girls were in my room for some before wedding shots both in our room and around The Boardwalk.

The girls and my dad then headed over to Epcot for some pre wedding shots of just the girls at Epcot.

The ceremony started at 9:00 and was over by 9:30. We did some family shots and then everyone but the bridal party headed over to ADH for our prereception party. The bridal party stayed in Epcot with Misty and her husband and took photos. We were probably there until 10:15 to 10:30 and got alot of great photos in that amount of time.

Our reception was over at 3:00 and we were with Misty for about another hour and a half for more photos.

Linda

 

[lock3130]

Linda:

We, unfortunately, have to use a Disney photographer. They are coming to my room for 1/2 an hour in the morning to get some getting ready shots and then going to Italy to take pics of my DF and his family.

So you didn't feel rushed doing pics after the ceremony? My concern is that I'm paying an arm and a leg for these pictures so I want them to be pics of a lifetime!

Carrie: we just decided that we didn't want to see each other before the wedding because we didn't know if it'd be as special. I guess I don't really have a good reason, other than that's not how we had pictured it?

Thanks everyone!

 

[lurkyloo]

I'm glad to hear Linda was able to get the pictures in even with an Epcot wedding - it gives you some options!

For us, we just preferred having time alone together before the ceremony and not keeping our guests waiting while we took portraits after the ceremony. The staged first looked turned out to be just as magical as the fabled "walking down the aisle" first look - and DH even choked up again as I was walking down the aisle, so we got a twofer!

 

[lpizzuro123]

Hey Carrie - yes we did get our photos in. The only thing I missed was I really also wanted to attend the prereception and have time to spend with our guests and see how it was all set up. We did get to ADH in time and would have been able to attend the last 15 minutes or so. Our wedding planner did not encourage us to go upstairs. She said it would disrupt the flow of the day and people would want to talk to us up there and we would not be able to get downstairs in time.

This is something I am still sorry we did not do. I really wanted to catch at least a few minutes of our prereception.

It sounds like the poster has to go with a Disney photographer so I am sure they are not as flexable as outside photographers are. Also, having two photographers definately made it more doable.

Linda

 

[lpizzuro123]

Linda:

We, unfortunately, have to use a Disney photographer. They are coming to my room for 1/2 an hour in the morning to get some getting ready shots and then going to Italy to take pics of my DF and his family.

So you didn't feel rushed doing pics after the ceremony? My concern is that I'm paying an arm and a leg for these pictures so I want them to be pics of a lifetime!

Carrie: we just decided that we didn't want to see each other before the wedding because we didn't know if it'd be as special. I guess I don't really have a good reason, other than that's not how we had pictured it?

Thanks everyone!

I am sure having a Disney photographer will not give you the freedom we felt with an outside photographer.

We did not feel rushed doing pics after the ceremony but as I said above, we also wanted to attend part of our prereception and we were not able to do this.

We did lot of photos after our reception but we were tired by that point. We were at the Boardwalk for at least 1.5 hours and really wanted to get some photos on the monorail and the beach at the GF but decided we would rather rest up for our dessert party later that night (and I really had to take my dress of ). It was very comfortable all day but by 4:30 I needed to take it off.

Linda

 

[lock3130]

My fiance and I are kind of the opposite of Linda. We would rather take more pics and miss the cocktail hour than be sure we make the cocktail hour but ...it doesn't seem like we have much choice in the matter.

Our planner offered to move our ceremony up a 1/2 an hour but that's going to throw everything off.

Decisions.Decisions.

 

[Lindsay22]

If I may...
We didn't have an Epcot ceremony... we had a 7:30pm ceremony at WP and then we only had about a half hour to get to Epcot for our Illuminations cocktail hour. We chose to do a staged first look and both DH and I agreed that it was the best thing we could have done.

First, we got a lot of our nerves out of our systems by just being able to be with each other for a little while beforehand. (Also, it gave me a minute to make sure that DH had his tux on properly, which was something I worried about) We were able to talk to each other and say things that we would have been itching to say during the ceremony and that was nice too.

Seeing each other beforehand didn't take away from any of the emotion of our ceremony. I didn't feel like I missed out on seeing him when I was walking down the aisle or anything. Even though I saw him a half hour before, he wasn't waiting for me at the end of an aisle then. We were able to be much more relaxed and pay attention to our ceremony.

Then, we were able to make it to our cocktail hour on time and have some food (mickey roni and cheese! yum!) It really helped us maximize our day and I would recomend this to anyone getting married.