LAST DETAILS by the PORTUGAL WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

Photos of the bride with her sisters, who help her with the details of the earrings and dress for the wedding day

• Pode ler este artigo em Português. 

Almost Time for the Wedding Ceremony

As a wedding photographer, I still wonder why—once a bride is absolutely ready—there’s always someone who believes that without their final touch, she’s not quite in proper shape to go meet the one she chose at the wedding ceremony location.

So many times, just when the wedding photographer thinks the bride—or even the groom—is finally ready, here comes the mother, or a sister, or an aunt pretending they’ve discovered a little thread on the dress no one had seen, or that the dress needs to be adjusted on the shoulders because it’s off to the side, or that the tiara was actually crooked.

The Last Affections Before the Wedding Ceremony

Actually, I think I know why. These are the last affections. Instead of kisses and hugs, they make sure she’s perfect and will make a great impression when she arrives at the ceremony and everyone turns their heads and says, “Look, there comes the bride—how beautiful.” She will be because I made sure of it. For every last-minute adjustment that didn’t need to happen, I see a kiss, a big hug that would have messed up the look, an “I love you so much,” a “you’re going to be so happy,” a “you know you can always count on me.”

The Photographer and the Bonds Between These People

And I think I bring back photographs that prove it. Even those who just stand nearby and can’t do anything but look and say, “You look so beautiful, give me a kiss—even if we’re just pretending now,” that’s what they’re really doing there.

And the wedding photographer feels it’s his duty not to miss any of those translations, those things that seem like one thing but are clearly another—the bonds that tie those people to someone they love deeply.

And I was there. I can testify to it.

Point by Point:

• At almost every wedding, especially with the bride, I find people who think a small final adjustment is still needed before she can go to the ceremony.
• Just when we’re about to leave—me, the wedding photographer too, of course—someone appears from across the room, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, or a friend, discovering a stray thread on the bride’s dress or a button slightly off.
• After many weddings, it seems clear to me that this has nothing to do with the bride needing fixing. It’s about last affections disguised as something else.
• Instead of a kiss or a hug that would require makeup to be touched up or the dress to be smoothed again, they do that. They pretend they know what needs doing.
• This is the wedding photographer’s theory about those last-minute touch-ups on the bride—or groom—before heading off to get married.

What You Need to Know:

• Throughout my time as a wedding photographer, I’ve always found these last-minute saviors. It’s simply because they love, and in that moment, they don’t have any other way of showing it. A wedding day is exactly that—a constant demonstration of affection and love. Probably, if everyone in the world were always, all of them, living in wedding-day mode, we wouldn’t have all those other things we do because of a lack of love. Out of context, perhaps—but that’s what I think.

On your wedding day, you’ll meet them too. Smile and thank them. It will make them happy for the rest of the day. I, of course, will be there to capture it all in photographs. Come meet with me so I can show you the wedding albums and many other photos and chat, of course.