FIRST LOOKS
THE MJS EXPERIENCE GUIDE
A helpful resource for all our couples
The Rundown
THE MJS EXPERIENCE
HOW WE CAPTURE THE REAL MOMENT
You’ve decided to see each other before the Ceremony and get all your photos out of the way – first let us say you’ve made a fantastic decision! Not only will we have more time to capture beautiful photo and video in a less-stressful environment, but you’ll also be able to enjoy the remaining parts of your wedding without us interrupting much.
If you (or your partner) are still on the fence about a first look, we’ll explain here how we capture it, where we capture it, and why it’s something we actually recommend. First, let’s watch an actual first look on a real wedding day.
Pretty great, right? Eva and Steve were able to have this private, intimate moment without all their guests watching. They got to verbalize what they were thinking and feeling to each other – something you can’t really do in a traditional ceremony setting.
“But how did you capture it without getting in the way?”
GREAT QUESTION.
If you’ve only hired us for photo or only video, you’ll want to ask your other vendor how they go about capturing the first look (it’s really important to know b/c we’ve seen some pretty intrusive ways of doing it). Here’s what we do:
We first bring the groom to the first look spot, which has been scouted prior, and set him in place. Speaking of scouting, we’ll scout the location the morning of the wedding. We’ll ask you if you have a preference for where we do it but most couples leave the location to us since we’ll pick a place that has the best light. Remember, it’s all about the light.
Once the groom’s all set, we’ll get the bride. At this point, all crew members are set and ready, their cameras rolling. We’ve all got long lenses on so we can be far away from the action.
We let the moment happen in real time. We don’t stop you or interrupt. This is your moment – the moment you’ve waited so long to have. If your other vendor doesn’t tell you this – ASK. Or better yet, TELL THEM. Tell them you don’t want them to interrupt and that we’ll do a second take when they can get all the posed photos/video they want (more on this in a second).
If you rewatch the first look of Eva & Steve, you’ll notice cut away shots that were pretty close to the couple. These are shot during the second take of the first look. After you’ve had your moment we ask the bride to restart and walk the same line she just did. It’s in this take we’ll capture all those additional angles.
The first take where we capture the genuine reactions together with the second take of the close ups creates the epic first look moment you’ve seen in our films and photos!