Photo Project: Documenting a Wedding

Christine. (c) Mercedes Deziel-Hupe, 2011

This past Labour Day week-end, I attended Scott's sister's wedding. Christine was a most beautiful and graceful bride; she kept her cool and her smile all day. She kept busy, she kept on schedule. She'd been with her husband (then boyfriend) for nearly a decade. They are the rare case of 'highschool sweethearts'. Christine has an eye for beauty and a sixth sense for trends, fashion and overall style. Her wedding was a reflection of both hers and Nick's good taste.

Although she had hired a professional photographer, I had offered to shoot some candid and "documentary style" photos of her wedding day (leading up to the wedding) - less than about the wedding itself. This presented some challenges and some fun opportunities.

I first had to worry about the time constraint; there is only so long that the bridal party and the groomsmen are grooming, quite literally. And so, as both parties were preparing for the big day in separate homes, I missed the entire dress-up for the groomsmen. This was a major disappointment for me. I wasn't looking to see flesh (!) but was looking for nice classic shots. Had I known the schedule a little better, I could have worked around this. There is also the fact that I had to worry about not getting in the way of the official photographer, who incidentally, ran late.

Something Blue. (c) Mercedes Deziel-Hupe, 2011

On the plus side, I managed to get wonderful candid shots of the bridal party, a few "stolen" poses as the bride was actually preparing for poses with the official photographer; I shot from a different angle for the sake of variety. I also could afford to play around as I was not on a tight schedule. I got really fun shoe photos out of it!