WHEN SHE ARRIVES by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER IN LISBON
Photos of the bride’s arrival at Quinta do Castro in Cadaval for the wedding ceremony
Everyone waiting
Everyone is waiting. The wedding photographer is one of the characters that make up a wedding day. The only one who is on his side. Yes, the wedding day has two sides.
That of the bride and groom with the guests and that of the photographer who has to be attentive to their side and constantly collect the photographs that they, in great quantity, will give him. Then their side has many parts. It’s not my place today to talk about the others, but there’s one of them that gives me special attention, and a certain frenzy, because of the intensity it has and the speed with which it passes. It is as if a kind of energy were building up, gaining pressure, and exploding in unison: there she is. She, the bride, of course.
On her part, the bride, after a morning of which the wedding photographer was a witness and kept a testimony, also notices tension, even if disguised, because the moment, that moment for which she was in preparations all the time until she got there.
The waiting groom
The way the wedding photographer sees it, the wedding has a point, let’s call it a vortex, to which everything converges and, after it, everything diverges. That moment is the one where the main characters of the day say, yes, I accept, followed by the exchange of the rings that symbolically put into effect an alliance that love, before them, had already resolved.
Thus all those who, also for love, have decided to accept to witness such a moment, hold a certain tension for the time of waiting and until the final unfolding of the action.
As soon as the wedding photographer arrives and notices that not a single one of the guests directs his attention to the groom who, poor man, is alone at the end of the red carpet, near the ceremonial altar, waiting as if he were the least important person there, who could leave at the last minute and nobody would miss him because she has arrived.
She, the bride, is arriving
And when she, the bride, arrives, everything happens at a breathtaking speed to test all the wedding photographer’s skills. If you don’t notice: take note of the conditions and mood in the space of her guests with all eyes on her, the bride. In the blink of an eye go downstairs and bring the groom inside a photograph to see how he was at the moment when…she arrived.
Coming back, like some comic book superhero, immediately to see her, photograph her, getting out of the car by the hand of her father and whoever else offers, because a bride in a wedding dress always needs help.
Then, backward follows the moment of the bride that no matter how much the wedding photographer tells her, mentally, slow down, slow down, it’s no use because her only intention is to get close to the one we know. As soon as the one in the one place waiting for her starts to approach, a new athlete’s leap is needed for the wedding photographer to gain a new point of view with them already side by side, but not yet happily ever after. That will be in a little while.
An epic worthy of Greek heroes. If Homer had ever seen a wedding photographer in action, he would never have chosen those uninteresting warriors as heroes for his Iliad and Odyssey.
Let the wedding ceremony begin
So don’t expect that after this apotheotic arrival that serves to let everyone breathe a sigh of relief because she has arrived, the job is done, and he sits there next door and waits for another part of the wedding day to begin. It was good, it was. I mean, it wasn’t. The wedding photographer wouldn’t have any patience to stand there with nothing to do.
Fortunately, many guests are wiping happy tears from the corner of their eyes, two of them comment – you see, I didn’t tell you it would come to this – the parents of one and the other side of the couple who make an effort, dignity obliges, so as not to have to ask the handkerchief for help and those incredulous friends who swore that something like this would never happen to them, to the bride and groom.
But it is happening and the wedding photographer is there, attentive so that it is known, forever, that it happened. That is his duty.
NOTE: Today’s text got a little longer than it should have been. It’s because the writer stretched himself, ecstatic about the wedding photographer’s work, and before he knew it… it was already done.
Next time it’ll be back to normal, I promise.
- In Quinta do Castro In Cadaval, Portugal
