Wedding timeline and Photography...?

Long story:
I have always wanted my fiance to have to wait and see me all put-together until he saw me coming down the aisle. BUT we want fantastic photographs and a pretty formal wedding, so that would dictate that the photographs be taken outside in natural light (for the great photographs) and the wedding take place in the evening (for the formality) which means the photographs would have to be done before the ceremony.

Should I just get over the whole idea of him not seeing me until the ceremony?
Should I buck tradition and etiquette and have a formal wedding with a ceremony in the day and the reception in the evening?
Should I change my theme?

i work in the wedding business and from my experience, couples who do their photos BEFORE the cereony get things done on time. whenever they do photos after the ceremony, they are always late for the reception. there arent a lot of photographers who do their photos quick. its always the photographers that hold up everyone else. if u have a list of photos u want taken by the photographer, the longer it is, the longer it will take for the photographer. in jewish weddings, the couples see each other before the wedding and me (as the videographer) make sure that i get them on tape seeing each other for the first time. and its not only jewish weddings that do that. my husbands nephew did that too because they didnt want to mess around with photos after the ceremony---they wanted to party right away.
so what u could do is still have this "first time seeing each other" but not on the aisle. just make sure u have ur photographer (and video if u have) right there when u guys do see each other. it saves time and u end up doing more photos when u do it BEFORE.

hope that helped!

I guess it depends on what's most important to you. If it's especially important that you wait to see each other until the ceremony, you'll need to move the time of the wedding. I don't see any reason why you can't have a formal ceremony while it's daytime (about an hour before dark, depending on the length of your ceremony) & then let your reception run into the night time. If by-the-book-formality is more important, I guess your groom will be seeing you before you walk the aisle.

The main factor of fantastic photographs is the photographer. Choose someone that you have complete confidence in & the rest will fall into place.

What you are wanting is very possible. Most if not all weddings I've been to the photographs are taken outside at a beautiful park after the ceremony but before the reception. The ceremony doesn't have to be done to early.Let your photographer know your time frame and he/she should be able to work with you.

Don't change the theme of your wedding! I work at a hotel and we see a lot of brides come and go for the wedding including rehearsal dinners at my hotel and all. Keeping everything traditional can't always be the case. If you want to keep that part of the tradition with the groom not see you prior to the wedding, then have the ceremony in the afternoon and the wedding after. I see a lot of weddings that take place in the afternoon and the reception follows later.

In the end, its your choice.