36 years ago.  Seems like yesterday. 

I was looking through our wedding photographs this morning, thinking it might be a good idea to scan and upload a few so I don’t have to use the same old one I trot out every year on this date.  I couldn’t help but contrast our small album of 36 proofs and the big brown leather album containing the dozen selected enlargements with Seb and Maria’s Facebook “sneak peek” yesterday, uploaded by the photographer.

Lovely, spirited photographs of a special day, capturing the moment beautifully.  They make our photographs look so posed and our discomfort and awkwardness is clear in several of them, even if the first picture I used today is a hint of the way wedding photography was moving.  It’s the exception, though, and most of our pictures are what could best be described as traditional poses.

As you know from my previous post, I took a couple of pictures in the church during Seb and Maria’s wedding, but as I did, something I’d read online a few months ago was uppermost in my mind and I quietly put my camera away.   Seb and Maria’s celebration was a small, mostly family affair and though several guests took an occasional photograph, they were not intrusive and I don’t think they got in the way of the professional at all.  It’s a fine balance though, and though he was there to record the ceremony of course, at times I found his presence distracting.

It’s a dilemma, though, isn’t it?  Though we wanted photographs of our big day in the same way as every bride and groom, we’d have preferred a more natural record of the whole event rather than three dozen snapshots.  Actually, we did get a surprisingly natural recording because my Hero’s Auntie Joan hid a cassette recorder in her handbag and taped the lot – even if it was she and Uncle Tobe singing the hymns which came through the loudest!

For now, then, I’m so glad Seb and Maria didn’t put on a “performance”, ready to be uploaded to FB, YouTube and everywhere else, because a wedding day is so much more than that.  36 years later is probably a great time to reflect on that thought.

And the next big thing?  Oh my goodness.