As a wedding photographer in the business for several years now I have seen a lot of tradition at weddings and a lot of non-traditional weddings. First off, every wedding is different. It’s like a snowflake or a fingerprint. Each wedding is entirely unique to its couple.

This is the first part in a series of traditions vs non-traditions

1. It’s bad luck for the groom to see his bride before a wedding.

I didn’t actually know this until I was researching it for this blog. Apparently, this tradition goes back to when it was common for arranged marriages. The idea was that the groom didn’t see his bride until it was too late to back out… I suppose that’s why it was bad luck (for the bride at least) if he saw her before the wedding and decided he didn’t want to be tethered to her for life. Yikes!

Now, it’s just something people do. Maybe they’re superstitious or maybe they’re just a traditionalist. Either way, one of the most exciting parts of a wedding (as a wedding photographer) is capturing the moment when the happy couple sees each other in their finery for the first time.

The non-traditional aspect is the first look, which has sort of become somewhat traditional. I love first looks because of the special intimate nature of it. Generally it happens with just the couple in a small, quiet place before their wedding. It gives the couple a chance to have an intimate moment just between themselves (and their wedding photographer). It can be exciting and funny. Sometimes there’s tears and sometimes the jokes keep me laughing for weeks later.

What are your thoughts?

If you knew this before you were married, would you have changed anything? I know if I knew the reason behind the “bad luck” I probably would have scheduled a first-look myself.