ALMOST LIKE A MOVIE by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER IN ALENTEJO
Because of the entrance of a bride, with her father, into the Igreja Matriz de Santo António in Reguengos of Monsaraz
• Pode ler este artigo em Português.
Pomp and circumstance, in the wedding ceremony
Epic films about antiquity always have a scene where kings and queens walk through corridors filled with people who applaud them, for whatever reason. The passage of the main characters always brings satisfaction to those waiting, who had good reason to be there.
That’s the feeling I always get when photographing the bride’s entrance at any wedding. It is pomp and also circumstance. It’s a ceremony about to take place, with the anticipation that all ceremonies carry, and the bride’s arrival is already the guarantee that it will happen. Hence the great joy on all the faces that, even beforehand, show a deep desire for the best for the couple who will soon be saying yes to each other.
First great moment of duty fulfilled, by the photographer
That’s why the bride’s entrance is always, for wedding photographers, a moment of great expectation and concern in ensuring that it is captured with all that emotion inside. It is perhaps the first great moment of duty fulfilled when the bride reaches the altar beside the groom, who is waiting impatiently. At least that’s how I feel.
Point by point:
- When a bride enters the wedding ceremony, whether in a church or at an estate:
- Everyone stands to watch her walk by
- There’s happiness on the faces of those who look at her
- There is the feeling that something important is happening
- It resembles scenes from films about ancient times with kings and queens
- The wedding photographer must:
- Follow the bride’s steps through the guests
- Carry that anticipation and nervous energy into the photographs
- Turn that walk into an epic journey
- Choose one of those ceremony photos for the wedding album
- The bride’s entrance is always full of expectation for the photographer because it’s a fast walk during a very emotional moment. It must be guaranteed to live forever in the wedding photographs.
Point by point:
- After all these years photographing weddings, if you asked me which is the most important moment of the day, I wouldn’t hesitate, despite the many symbolically significant moments. This moment, for the expectation it generates among all present, is the most awaited one of the entire wedding day.
- Without it, there wouldn’t even be a wedding. It seems there’s always a quiet expectation about what would happen if that moment, when the church doors open or the bride begins her walk at the estate, didn’t happen, for whatever reason. There’s great anticipation in everyone until finally, the grand door opens, the daylight floods into the church interior, and she, ethereal, wrapped in that light, begins her walk to the altar.
- The bride has arrived. The wedding photographer tries to solve the ancient battle between his cameras and the invading intense light and, with his tricks, follows her on that path through the guests to the place where her prince awaits her for the long-anticipated “Yes, I do,” just moments away.
- It’s the most intense moment for the wedding photographer throughout the day. Brief but unrepeatable. Because of that, he knows he cannot afford to miss the first take, as if this entrance were part of a film about princesses, princes, and love—but in real life. That’s his job.
That’s how I will photograph the beginning of your wedding ceremony. No second takes. Come and talk to me, we have a lot to discuss and many photographs for you to see, as well as wedding albums
- You can see a full wedding story: