If you live wedding in first person, like bride and groom do, you will have spent whole days to imagine it right down to the smallest detail.
And even the photographer, prepares and constantly educates himself, to be ready for such an important day.
But past the wedding day, it will come for all: the moment of truth.
Said this way it sounds very dramatic and theatrical, but after many hours of work, behind the camera and in front of a screen, then the day I look forward to more than any other in our work, will arrive.
And paradoxically, it is not the wedding day.
Beyond any commercial aspect, beyond prizes and awards that can be collected in competitions, the thought of a single moment feeds the passion for wedding photography: delivering the album to the newlyweds.
As we have already discussed in our previous post “The importance of a printing your wedding photos“, constantly we run the risk of seeing our favorite memories evaporated in a digital desert, turning every important step of our lives in disposable products, buring our jpg files into disks that we will not open anymore. Then it’s far better to have thirty photographs made with love and printed on paper, than having a thousand worthless shots we’ll look at once and then we will forget forever.
If we would judge only by the money we earn from each of our services, facing the many investments we made in terms of equipment and training hours, probably we would have been out of business long time ago.
The moment of truth: the eyes of the bride
After a few months from the wedding day, after a creative process made out of post-production and image processing, but also after spending hours in design and in the choice of materials, finally we will have in our hands the sole object, able to climb over the ephemeral of a digital file: the wedding album.
That said, I’d like to be buried in my studio with all the albums we made and from which I would never want to be apart, each time undergoing the sadness of separation with almost paternal love.
But these feelings last a blink of an eye: a new couple will cross our threshold, will sit in front of us, and once again, with real amazement, will begin to touch and to flip through their album.
Yet it will not be the first time they see their pictures. Before arriving to the album, the couple will have seen and selected their proofs, will have discussed and approved our pagination.
Although it seems impossible, the switch from a computer screen to a printed page, the move from a volatile back lit feeling to a warm and real object to touch, generates the same reaction every single time: pure happiness.
And pure happiness is the one I caress, while she touches and browse a real memory from the best day of her life, and I look up and stare into… the eyes of the bride.
Maurizio Mannini
