Castell de Sant Marçal
When we arrived to Maude´s family house in Grasse- France, Manu, the groom, was waiting for us by the driveway. Many friends and family members were already there and they have just finished eating their lunch in the garden. This very same garden was to host a wedding celebration later this evening.
It was a hot summer day, but you could feel storm in the air. It was going to rain without a shred of doubt. Despite the prediction, every single person gathered in this beautiful old garden shared the same carefree holiday mood. There was a big protective tent installed all over the tables and the dance floor. It was meant to be an outdoor garden wedding and no rain was going to spoil it. Just as everyone went to get ready for church, the heavens opened!
As if on request, the rain stopped for an hour, when the bride was about to come out of the house. It poured again as we all arrived back from the church. Despite all this water, this garden wedding turned into a fantastic part. No one seemed to care that, by the end of the night, the white wooden dance floor looked just like the rest of the muddy garden. Some guests abandoned their shoes and danced knee-deep in the mud as if it was brought there for their pleasure.
This was an elegant “haute couture” wedding designed with style and a great taste! Every little detail mattered to Maria, the bride to be!
“She thought it all through and had it all under control” – Hugo, the future groom assured us.
When you have a clear vision of what your wedding should look like, do not conform, be persistent and have it your way! Maria managed to have a little chapel opened just for them, she insisted on replacing traditional name cards with carefully selected stones and despite the rain prediction she hosted an outdoor candle diner under the stars. She even kept the wedding venue a secret until the very end.
The most important thing about planning your wedding is to know that the planning ends when the wedding day begins! Maria and Hugo found the happy medium and proved that it is possible to have your perfect wedding vision come true and still fully enjoy playing the leading role on the big day.
They knew how to live and appreciate every single moment! They laughed and cried and danced and laughed even more!
They carefully picked a team of professionals and put themselves in their hands. The wedding planner Claudia & co. from Entre Tonos Pastel was on top of every single detail. The cheery stuff from the venue Xalet del Nin made everyone feel welcome and at home. The catering Sensacions prepared sensational cocktail and dinner under the stars of the Mediterranean Sea.
It was nothing but perfect!
“Andreu! Que si estamos recuperados? IMPOSIBLE!!! Seguimos eufóricos, emocionados, flipados,…en definitiva FELICES. Ni en nuestros mejores sueños podíamos imaginar algo así. Y tus fotos DE ESCÁNDALO!! No nos equivocamos en absoluto con el feeling que nos transmitiste desde el primer momento. Esperamos que hayáis disfrutado tanto como nosotros de todos y cada uno de los momentos de nuestro día. Nos sentimos inmensamente felices de haberos tenido en nuestro equipo.”
Maria and Hugo
There is no question about it. La Baronia with its movie-like deco makes for an ideal wedding location! This fairytale house, also known by the name of Can Bosch, is a textbook example of the XX century Art Nouveau architecture (Spanish Modernismo). Built by Antonio Gaudi´s student Joan Rubió y Bellver, this astonishing family house lived through some swinging times before it was converted into a wedding venue by the third generation of owners.
Felisha and Steve came all the way from Los Angeles to Barcelona to celebrate their destination wedding in this dreamy scenery. The house facade with its adjacent gardens does not require much additional decoration. Everything looks great just the way it is! The interiors of the building offer fantastic background for a photo shoot. Cocktail and dinner can be hosted outside and the views are splendid.
“We’ve received your photos in the lovely packaging! We are so excited to share them with our family and friends! They are absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It’s like I’m flipping through a Bridal magazine. They are everything I dreamed of and more. Thank you for capturing this very special moment for us! You two are absolutely wonderful to work with and your dedication and passion for your craft truly shines through your work! The next time we are in Barcelona we will be stopping in to visit you two.”
Felisha & Steve
One day after the wedding of Jorgina and Miquel in San Carlos de la Rapita, Tarragona, their family boat was due to set sail from the local port. Jorgina´s father is a fisherman and he owns a large fishing boat. Many male members of the family work for him. We simply could not resist the opportunity to witness their return to the port after a day fishing in the Mediterranean Sea. This is how our post-wedding reportage in Delta del Ebro started.
As soon as the boat was moored, the fishermen worked really fast to download all the fish, before the fearless seagulls get to it. We felt lucky and privileged to be allowed on board in the middle of the action. Gal·la, Jorgina and Miquel´s little daughter, was delighted to see her grandfather and uncles work. She was not afraid to inspect the daily catch and posed with a fish in her hand proving that the fishermen´s blood runs in her veins.
When the day of hard work ended in the port, we moved on to the nearby rice fields, the most emblematic landmark of the region. This time of the year, the luscious green rice plant is already sprouting above the ground level, but the flooded black soil is still the dominating texture. In a month, those lands will turn into endless lawns of green.
Delta of the river Ebro is probably the most authentic and unspoiled agricultural region of Catalunya, but it is also renown for its incredible, natural beaches, dunes and swamps. To show the cross section of this magical place, we ended our session by the beach, right where the river reaches the seawaters. The sunset there is so unique, that no camera can capture its true beauty.
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Gill and Chris brought their friends and families all the way from Scotland to celebrate their wedding day under the blue skies of Spain. And they hit the bull´s-eye! Everyone was amazed with the venue Casa Felix, the food and with how stunning the bride looked. It was one of those weddings where everything goes as planned and exceeds expectations. On top of that, it was Sant Joan, the longest day of the year and a magical night of celebration here in Catalunya! If that was not enough, it coincided with Chris’s birthday! Que vivan los novios! Lang may yer lum reek!
Gill and Chris
I met Florin Stefan (https://florinstefan.ro/) for the second time at the Fearless Conference 2019 in Aachen (https://www.fearlessphotographers.com/). The conference is always a nice opportunity to see friends from all over the world again and share our photographic experiences with each other.
With Florin, we got to talk about our plans for 2019. He told me he was traveling to Italy in May to photograph a wedding in Tuscany. Obviously, immediately I offered myself immediately to come as a second photographer and he quickly agreed.
So here we were in Tuscany, pouring rain under the cloudy sky. But this didn’t affect anyone’s attitude or mood. That´s one of the things I love more about destination weddings. Everyone is there on holidays but on top of that, they have the opportunity to enjoy a wedding with family and friends in a completely different context as they usually would. The bride and groom, Rumanians based in The Netherlands, they got a good mix of friends from back home and from all over the world.
From the very beginning everyone made me feel very welcome and part of the team. One of the things I love the most about being a second shooter at a wedding is that you can take off your back the responsibility that comes as the main shooter. You are there to help in anyway you can, but also to enjoy and have fun photographing, almost as doing it for pleasure. You can find angles, perspectives and moments that otherwise, being the main photographer; you wouldn´t always have the time and the patience to spot.
The weather forecast wasn´t very optimistic, but that didn´t stop the bride and groom to have an outdoor wedding. It was an orthodox ceremony and I loved it. It is always very interesting to see different kinds of religious celebrations rather than the ones we are used to. It´s a privilege to observe and learn from different cultures and traditions by being an spectator in such an important day of their life and also to have the luxury to capture it.
By the time we were ready for the cocktail, Florin had already ordered the clouds to open up (there is nothing he cannot achieve) and we enjoyed the last rays of sunshine before dinner. By the end everyone was ready to party to commemorate these amazing few days in Tuscany.