For a lot of brides-to-be, the anticipation leading up to the groom's "first look" at the bride is almost suffocating.
Brides will spend a lot of time daydreaming about how the whole thing will go down. Will they surprise the groom as he faces a window? Will they tap him on the shoulder? Will they wait to see him until it's time to walk down the aisle, while they're surrounded by hundreds of their closest friends and family?
No matter how carefully they plan the moment, the one thing they can't predict is how the heck the groom will react.
Maybe he'll cry, or maybe he'll laugh uncontrollably. Maybe he'll be so shocked, his eyes bulge out, and he'll wonder why they chose the dress or hairstyle they did.
To get some honest answers as to what really goes through a groom's head during that moment, I asked nine guys to share what they thought during their first look on their wedding day:
1. I kept on blinking.
The only part I actually remember from my wedding was when I did my first look at my wife. It was so emotional for me. I kept blinking to see if this whole thing was real. It sounds very cheesy, but whatever. She was the prettiest girl in the world to me, and on our wedding day, she looked extra amazing.
– Chris J., 28
2. I tried not to cry.
We did our first look, and she turned to me, while the video guy was filming, and asked me if I was crying. Was I crying? No. But I was about to. God, she looked incredible. I felt like in that moment I was confirming everything I thought about her. She was the one for me and had never looked better.
– Russ K., 30
3. I wondered, “Why me?”
She tapped me on the shoulder, and I remember turning around and being so completely speechless. She asked me what I was thinking, and I just told her that I wasn't sure why she picked me. I know it's not the most confident thing to say or to ask a person, but I just felt like she looked superior in a way that made me wonder why she picked me, a messy looking guy, to marry her.
– Jason N., 33
4. I wanted to skip the wedding.
She looked so damn hot and sexy that I wanted to skip the whole wedding thing and go straight to the part where we make this thing “official” in the hotel room. I couldn't keep my hands off of her. I was mostly excited for my guys to see how much of a babe she was that night.
– Brett K., 29
5. I was surprised, not in a good way.
I thought she would pick a different dress and just look very different than she ended up looking. It was very over-the-top. She looked like a princess. There's nothing attractive about that look for a guy, I guess. I was just disappointed, and I think it showed in my face.
– Henry G., 26
6. I felt like the luckiest man ever.
I hit the freaking jackpot. That's what I thought when we had our first look. It was pretty cool because we were surrounded by photographers and a videographer, and it just felt like we were famous for a few minutes. Best first look and first-look kiss ever.
– Gregg B., 27
7. She looked like my mom.
I still honestly don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but she looked just like my mom. It was weird. I saw wedding photos of my mom and I just thought that my wife had the same overall look.
– Doug P., 29
8. I thought she had on too much makeup.
I don't want to say she looked like a clown but she kind of did. It's just that she's a very natural girl and never wears a ton of makeup. Here she was, on the wedding day, wearing these long, fake eyelashes and all this face makeup and stuff. It didn't look like her and it was just too much.
– Pete B., 31
9. I didn't think anything.
I guess I was just so overwhelmed with emption that when I saw her for the first look, my mind went completely blank. I guess you could say I kind of blacked out. Everyone always asks me about what I thought during that moment, and I just say, 'Ummm, it was great?'
– Scott D., 27
