THE STORIES by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER IN CASCAIS
Some of the photographs of the bride and groom in the run-up to the wedding
- Pode ler este artigo em Português.
The Words on the Wedding Day
There are three important words on a wedding day and, for a wedding photographer, perhaps they are the words towards which all the other photographs eventually point.
I would still like to know why. I found myself thinking about it just now, because there are so many wedding photographs about putting on suits, dresses, and all the other things that need to be done so that a groom and a bride can leave through a door and fly towards each other, to a place where they will, without the slightest doubt, say to one another: yes, I accept.
Those are the three most important words of a wedding day.
Everything they do, from the moment morning becomes morning, converges towards them.
It Would Be a Shame to Lose Those Photographs
It is no surprise, then, that so many articles by a wedding photographer, on his blog, on his website, are precisely about that time. The first part of the day.
The part that begins when there is still so much to do, when the wedding has not yet happened and, nevertheless, everything is already happening.
There are cases when the couple tells him, during the meeting, that it is not necessary.
That they do not need photographs at home.
That they are not very interested in them.
And he, instead of immediately saying Yes, great, less work; I do not need to leave so early; I can go straight to the ceremony calmly instead of rushing along roads I do not know, does everything he can to convince them that they are wrong.
It is not a matter of wanting to start earlier simply for the sake of it.
It is because the wedding day will have a story.
And every story has a beginning.
It would be a shame not to have a record of the atmosphere of the morning. It would be a shame if some of the affection they receive at that time remained only in the memory of those who were there.
It would be a shame if certain conversations, certain gestures, certain moments of waiting and that very particular confusion of a wedding morning simply disappeared because someone decided that they were not yet important photographs.
They will receive a lot of affection, and it would be a shame not to remember it later, in photographs.
Etc., etc., etc…
You have no idea how many photographs I can fit into the etcs.
And it would be a shame if they were lost forever before they ever became photographs.
It would be a great injustice to them.
The First Part of the Wedding Day
Just look at the conversations he has with the couples simply so that he does not lose that part of the wedding day.
Of course, some parts of his body, which will reach the end of the day completely exhausted, aching, and wishing everything would finish early or start late, do not particularly like the idea.
But since they only begin to make themselves heard later in the wedding day, at this point they give the wedding photographer no sign that they are not particularly fond of the plan.
And he carries on. He carries on because there is something about that first part of the day that seems important to him.
- The groom is not yet where he will be later.
- The bride is not yet where she will be later.
The wedding guests have not yet all arrived at the moment when the wedding will take on another shape.
There is a kind of before, and that before is also part of the story.
That is where the preparations begin for those three words to be said later.
So, when the wedding photographer insists on being there, he is not necessarily trying to add photographs simply for the pleasure of adding photographs. He is trying not to let part of the story fall away along the way.
And perhaps that is the part the couple cannot yet see at that moment.
Point by point:
- What the couple does as soon as the morning begins has the purpose of bringing them to the moment when those three obligatory words will be said: yes, I accept, at the wedding ceremony.
- That is why the wedding photographer does everything he can to convince the couple to let him come and be with them, so that the story of the day can be complete in photographs.
- The morning is not simply the time left before the ceremony. It is the beginning of the story that will take them there.
- Although there are parts of his body that, later in the day, will have nothing nice to say about the decision, the wedding photographer knows that it will always be for the good of the bride and groom.
You Need to Know:
- A photographer interested in what best serves the couple, even those who think it is not necessary, should be at their wedding.
- Some photographs can only be made before the day reaches the moment everyone is waiting for.
- And there is a difference between having photographs of a wedding and having photographs that tell the story of the wedding from the beginning.
It seems that he is successful. At least judging by his blog, where so many articles are precisely about the first part of the parts that make up the wedding day.
He, the wedding photographer, knows.
But there is one thing we can take from this: it is all for the good of the bride and groom.
Well, and his too. A little bit. Indeed…
Conclusion:
Perhaps that is why these three words are so important.
Not only because they are the words the couple will say to one another when they finally reach the moment for which everything has been prepared, but because everything that happens before them is also part of that moment.
The clothes, the preparations, the people, the affection, the conversations, the waiting, the rushing, and all those little things that do not yet seem to be the wedding are, after all, taking them there.
And it really would be a shame if, when everything was over, the beginning of the story was precisely what was missing.
If You Want the Story to Begin Before the Ceremony
If you feel that the wedding morning also deserves to be remembered, it is worth talking to me before deciding that those photographs are not necessary.
Very often, what looks like mere preparation is exactly what helps tell how that day began. And I like being there to see it happen, before the three words that change everything.