The Wedding Kiss

The other day, I was talking with a photographer that I work with on occasion, and he asked me what I thought about offering advice to the bride and groom on kissing once given permission by the officiant during the ceremony. I thought it was strange at first but the more I think about it, it makes since. Sometimes, brides and grooms will go into the ceremony with no idea about how they are going to kiss or be kissed. This photographer said that he wanted our bride and groom to kiss in a certain way so that it would be better from an image standpoint and also add a little bit of romance to the ceremony.

This is what the photographer recommended as the way for a bride and groom to kiss once given permission by the officiant. Head should be kept as vertical as possible and whether you are a right side or a left side kisser, the noses should be as close together as possible at the moment.

Leading up to the kiss, the bride and groom should both keep their mouths as normal as possible without puckering lips or sticking their tongue out. And then pause or hesitate once their lips are about an inch apart. And then seal the ceremony with a kiss.

Passion is shown in the placement of the hands. If a groom places his thumbs in front of the ears of the bride with the rest of his fingers extending behind her ears and into her hair, and then the bride places her hands behind the groom’s head, from an appearance standpoint, it is a very passionate and heartfelt kiss. For a little more flair the groom can dip the bride and the bride can kick up a leg.

The kiss between the bride and the groom is the climax of their wedding ceremony and as a bride or groom, you will want everybody leaving the wedding with that moment galvanized in their mind.

If you’ve got a good photographer, they will be willing to spend the time with you to go over the visual impact of different things during your wedding day. From the bouquet toss, the garter throw, the cake cutting, the kiss, the dance, etc. It’s not necessary to manage these things, but when they ARE managed, the results can be just that much more breathtaking.

Wedding planning and elopements are what I do. In my experience, the more planned out every aspect of the wedding day is, the better it will go. It’s my job as a planner to ponder and plan for the things that might not have occurred to the bride and groom before hand. A wedding is more successful in my mind when there is a smoother transition from each scheduled occurrence during a wedding event. I never would have thought to plan a kiss, because in my mind, it’s highly personal. But on thinking about this, it’s no different than planning the schedule for the first dance or the bouquet toss. The bride wants everything to be as successful as possible…….and that’s why they hire me, after all.

Carla Pryor



stsimonselopements@yahoo.com