With wedding season upon us, I gearing back up to get into wedding mode! Going through all my checklists, organizing my equipment and basically giving myself a little refresher course on how to shoot a wedding! While I’m doing this, I also find myself just reflecting on weddings in general. Getting back in the zone and running through a wedding day in my head. While I do that I am reminded of all the emotions that come with different parts of the wedding day- excitement, nervousness, joy, stress, and everything in between!

People often ask me what my favorite part of weddings are. What’s the part of the day that I love to shoot? Or if I have any crazy stories about things that happened on a wedding day- maybe that’s a post for another time! I am so in business mode when at a wedding, that I’ve never really stopped to ask myself what my favorite moments of that day are! What are the moments that make my heart skip a beat and renew my passion for this amazing job I am so blessed to have? As I actually put into words those special moments for me, it just reminds me of how special and amazing weddings are and how lucky I am to get to participate in so many of them! While it was hard to narrow it down, here are a few of my favorite wedding day moments!

Father-Daughter First Look. More often than not, the bride can be quite frazzled on the morning of the wedding. She’s running around doing last minute tasks, delegating out tasks that need to be done- and all while getting herself ready for her wedding day! Then it’s time to step into the dress (that moment almost made this list!) and everything starts to get real. A lot of my brides will ask to do a Father-Daughter first look after she gets dressed, and I’m so glad they do! In that moment when their dad sees them in their wedding dress for the first time, all the stress and anxiety of the day melt away. In that moment she is just her daddy’s little girl, all grown up. It’s that moment that every father and daughter look forward to since the moment she came into the world. There is really just something so special about that moment that gets me every time! Bride and Groom First Look. Another similar and obviously special moment is the Bride & Groom first look! This is the first time the bride and groom are seeing each other on their wedding day, so it is always very special and full of emotion! This is that moment where the reality of the day sinks in! And if there’s anything that can bring a grown man to tears, it’s seeing his beautiful bride for the first time on their wedding day! This moment is also so special because it’s only part of the day where the bride and groom are alone and get to just ‘be’. No one around watching (except me of course!), no pressure to have a certain reaction. They just get to be their raw and real selves before embarking on a big and exciting journey together! Post-Ceremony. You are officially husband and wife and you gleefully exit the ceremony, hand in hand. Then you have a few moments to celebrate with your close friends and family as everyone processes out of the ceremony. I love this moment because emotions are so high about the fact that they are officially husband and wife! I especially love the groom during this moments because you can also see that look of “Oh my gosh, this actually happened” on his face! He celebrating with his buddies and can’t seem to stop fidgeting the new bling on his left hand! And the bride is just overflowing with joy and hugging every person in sight! So how can you not love a moment like this?! Father-Daughter Dance. I guess I just have a thing for Father-Daughter moments! But the Father-Daughter dance is a moment that just always gets me. I don’t know what it is, but it always does! I can imagine that a father dancing with his little girl is a moment that he has been looking forward to for a long time. And I feel like you can really see that in their face during this special moment.  Reception Party. I remember on my own wedding day that I was more stressed than I would’ve liked. Things weren’t going according to plan and it felt like all the decision-making was falling on me. I remember after the ceremony I just kept thinking to myself, “Get me to the party. Get me to the party. Get me to the party.” I knew that once I got to the reception I could just relax and go with the flow. All the big parts of the day were out the way, I was married to my hubby and all I had left to do was celebrate! So now as a photographer, I love seeing my couples go through that same relief as they get to their reception party! You can really see all the stress melt away as they just let loose and celebrate with their friends and family. This is where they can really just take a step back and soak it all in. And there is just nothing quite like dancing the night away on your wedding day!  A few other great moments that didn’t make this list are the groom seeing the bride walk down the aisle, the bride getting into her dress and the first dance! What are your favorite wedding day moments??