As photographers, we are often asked to take picture of people that make them look beautiful. As wedding photographers we sometimes do this for people who have never been comfortable in front of the camera. On your wedding day, we are asked to step into your lives, capturing one of those few most amazing days you may ever experience.

We have never taken pictures of someone we did not think was beautiful. Today the standards for beauty have become so specific and even warped in some ways. As men, husbands, fiances, and the people who love you, we see the beauty that every woman holds. We can feel it when embrace you, and when you smile, and even you cry.

We also see when you don’t feel confident in your beauty, and it’s something that is painful for all of us. You might see that in the way we say, “you look great” when you show some lack of confidence in your appearance. We usually aren’t the best at expressing how beautiful we think you are, especially those of us who don’t feel like we are all that romantic, which is most of us.

But take heed when we give you those little hints, those “you look great” comments, or our awkward but pleased smiles when you do a little pose in front of us to see what we think of how you look. We think you are beautiful, stunning, and drop-dead gorgeous. Even if all we can manage is a little comment that completely lacks the poetical flair that we wish we could say it with.

The women in the lives of each of us men, are beautiful. We know it, and see it, and we want you to know it, too. Even when we don’t know how to say it.

I recently saw this project that Dove did about how women see themselves, and it’s a fairly telling expression of how we see you compared to how you think you are seen.

-Reid