Ahh, my favorite part of a wedding day! Since this truly is my favorite part of a wedding day and creates some of the most beautiful images, I felt it needed its own blog post!

Most of the time on your wedding day, you have just woken up with your bridesmaids, your family, your friends, etc.  Most brides + grooms opt to stay the night at separate places for tradition’s sake.  You go all day without seeing your husband to be and the butterflies you feel while getting your hair and make up done, while putting your dress on, while waiting to see that perfect man you’re about to marry, can certainly take over your entire body.  The anticipation builds, your heart and mind are both racing because you’re about to have all eyes on you, but you’re calm and peaceful at the same time because you know you’re about to marry the man of your dreams.  I know this feeling well.  These are the exact feelings I felt on my wedding day. And the second I was able to see my man while walking down the aisle, all of those butterflies flew away, and my whole world was peaceful, happy, pure bliss.  I told my wedding photographer about the ’10 minute rule’ and requested it at our wedding and I am so thankful that I did. My favorite images from my wedding day (which is hard for me to say considering I really disliked my wedding photo’s) came from the 10 minute rule, and when I watch the video from our wedding, the 10 minutes of alone time makes me cry every time I watch it…without fail.

So what is the ’10 minute rule?’  Basically, before a wedding starts, I scout out a secret little area around the ceremony site. I make sure it’s far enough away so nobody will bother my bride and groom, but not TOO far that my couple has to walk a long distance.  Directly after the ceremony, I guide my bride and groom to this secret spot and give them 10 minutes of complete alone time (other than me being there, but they never notice me).  I don’t allow family, friends, wedding party, *ANYBODY* to interfere with these 10 minutes or to even get close to them. It’s the bride and grooms only alone time together until they leave their reception.  It gives them a few minutes to just be with one another, to relish in what they just did, making a vow before God to always be with each other.  Again, they typically haven’t seen each other all day, and so these 10 minutes gives them time to love on each other and let their emotions take over. I shoot the entire 10 minutes from a distance, and it creates beautiful images. It is and has always been my favorite part of the wedding day.  The raw emotion I capture on my camera during that 10 minutes completely takes my breath away and I often shed a few tears — love makes me so weak!

I knew my wedding photographer was going to capture our ’10 minutes’ of alone time, but I had never mentioned it to our videographer.  He somehow managed to find where we were and filmed the whole thing.  I never noticed him OR my wedding photographer there.  The emotions I felt after just marrying my best friend were so overwhelmingly beautiful and to see it all replay before our eyes when we received our wedding video was absolutely amazing. To see yourself in third person, loving another person so much, is so completely breathtaking.

If I’m your wedding photographer, the 10 minute rule will be something we most definitely will discuss together! I can’t wait to capture more of these raw emotion filled moments throughout the weddings I’m shooting this year!  And of course…you MUST be able to see for yourself the images it creates! Hope you all have a fabulous Tuesday — health and happiness to all of you, XO!

Ahh, that first reaction to “we’re married!!!” — I love it!

Haha, I love Melissa and Patrick’s reaction too — They were so giddy and laughed SO much!

I really adored this moment. She found an eye lash so they made a wish together during their 10 minutes. My heart can’t take it!

Nicole & Mike walking to their secret spot!

It was raining at this wedding, but that didn’t stop these 2 from enjoying some alone time!

See what I mean about the 10 minute rule producing some the most beautiful images? Gaahhh.

More laughing from these 2… <3 

Directly after walking down the aisle as man and wife…so excited, so giddy…

He kept telling her over and over again, “I love you so much” during their 10 minutes. My eyes were blurry from the tears!