It’s not exactly a firm tradition on the blog for me to mark the first anniversary of friends’ weddings, but it has happened once or twice, and it happens once again today as Fiona and John start their second year of marriage. My weekend started with a visit to Fiona and John and I gave them a photobook of shots that I captured at their wedding, and while looking through that book beforehand I took more notice of this photo than I had previously – on second glance there’s more going on in the image than at first it might appear.
The photo is taken during one of my favourite parts of a wedding day – the few minutes after their ceremony as the happy couple get their first opportunity to mingle with their guests. It’s a time when everyone is that little bit more relaxed – the pre-wedding jitters have passed for the bride and groom, the guests are finally getting the opportunity to get a good view of the bride and steal a few photos outside the formal setting of the ceremony, and in particular any kids that are at the wedding are on the longest leash that they will be on all day.
At the ceremony the kids are kept close for fear of making a scene. At the reception they are equally close so that they can be fed and don’t get in the way of the waiting staff. But outside the church, there’s no real harm done by them burning off a little bit of energy and running around. Which is why, at this part of the day I always have one eye on whatever kids might be milling around.
The other eye is on the bride and groom, and when they’ve just walked through a guard of honour courtesy of the groom’s hurling team – there’s always going to be some images to be got.
Having photographed, like all the other guests, Fiona and John walking through that guard of honour, I kept the camera on them for a minute more, having spotted Fiona’s veil getting caught in something as she made her way along, which caused John to pick up and check the end of the veil. That is primarily what is happening here, but there’s some secondary action also.
At the right of frame is a fellow guest/photographer having just caught his photo, while between him and John we can see that Fiona is finding it all quite funny. In the background a number of guests are doing one of two things – getting a closer look at the dress, or getting a quick photograph of their own – and all are enjoying the moment also. Behind them, yet more guests are conversing and enjoying each other’s company. And finally at the extreme left of the frame you see the remnants of the guard of honour with one hurley held high and one just being lowered, which adds a little more to the story of the photograph for those who weren’t present at the time.
Having captured this shot my other eye spotted one of the afore-mentioned kids taking advantage of that longer leash as a bell tower in the car park beckoned. Off he went to ring the bell, and off I went to steal another photo. It doesn’t feel like a year ago since all of that – not to Fiona and John either I’m sure. Happy anniversary folks!
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