First Peek Phots :)

When I sat down to meet with our photographer, she had brought along an album titled "First Peek," so immediately I asked her what these where.  She explained to me that she offered a private moment about an hour and a half before the ceremony for the bride and groom to see each other and she would capture it on film.  She offered this for two reasons; 1.) because the groom is often extremely nervous and seeing his bride usually calms him down quite a bit and 2.) being able to see each other up close is a much more intimate moment than across the isle.  Once she started explaining the reasoning behind her offering this option to her brides, I couldn't wait to go home and email Chris about his thoughts because I already knew that this was something that we were going to do, no matter what he said because I knew that the pictures would turn out amazing.  Well, it turned out that he did not like the idea at all.  He was much more traditional and thought that the groom should not see the bride until she was walking down the isle.  This just meant that I was going to have to work a little bit harder to get what I wanted because we all knew that eventually I would get my way.  So I kept bringing it up and he kept turning it down but I could tell that he was starting to waver just a little bit.  Eventually, if came time for him to come home and we went to go our engagement shoot in Washington, DC and our photographer explained more in depth to Chris the First Peek photo shoot and the purpose behind it.  Well, once we got in the car, he turned to me and said " You know what, I think that sounds like a really great idea and I think we should do it." So, there you go! We were scheduled to do our First Peek photo shot, and while many people may not have understood why we did it or thought that it was nontraditional of us, I would not have changed it.  It was Chris and I, it settled our butterflies, it left more time for us at our reception, our pictures came out much more intimate and we are both pleased with the end result.  While my bridesmaids were more basket cases (ahem heather) than I was on my wedding day, Chris was a bundle of nerves.  As I was driving to the ceremony/reception site my butterflies and excitement started to kick in.  I was about to marry the love of my life and start a whole new life with my best friend. I couldn't help but feel a little jittery.  So I walked up to Chris and put my hands over his eyes, when he turned around to see me and I saw his eyes lit up with love, I knew we were making the right decision.  There was never a doubt in my mind that we weren't making the right the decision, but to see him look at me the way that he did, I knew right then and there that he would love me until the end of time.  Those moments when we were standing on the ceremony site, just the two of us, knowing we would grow old together, knowing that this day was the beginning of our new life together, was the most intimate and personal moment of our lives and I wouldn't have changed anything about it.