Benahavís Church – Hotel Amanhavis – El Cortijo de los Caballos, San Pedro, Marbella

Meabh and Barry´s Special Day

 

Benahavis church was to be the setting for the wedding ceremony of Meabh and Barry. It had been raining for a few days and was in fact still raining, but nothing was going to change the mood of this lovely wedding at Our Lady of the Rosary church in Benahavis. Although I live close to the village it was my first time photographing a ceremony in this church, and i was looking forward to photographing in this light spacious church.
Below are just a few of my personal favourite images and the story of their day…

Meabh and Barry’s day
Preparation
We met at Hotel Amanhavis, a quaint hotel in the village of Benahavis, Meabh’s room was a little dark for my photography as I do not like to use a flash, but the room had character which wouldn’t be the same otherwise. Meabh appeared not too worried about rain as she prepared herself to walk to the church. She looked stunning dressed in a beautiful white lace wedding dress, matching bird cage vale and matching lace shoes. Instead of a standard bouquet, my attention was caught by a Bridesmaid’s wrist corsage on an elegant pearl bracelet that really was fabulous and again by the younger bridesmaids who had pearl beads attached to her bouquet. Everyone looked fantastic as I noticed that they were all matching and coordinated perfectly with the brides bouquet of white and cream flowers. I took a quick walk in the rain, the short distance to the Benahavis church to wait for Barry and his best man. I captured some images of them and went straight off to cover the arrival of the beautiful Bride. Although raining she hardly seemed to notice or care, nice to see as too many Brides build up false hopes of Spanish blue sky weddings. This freak shower was rare but never the less slightly typical of the freak weather that can happen in Spain during late September.
Ceremony
Meabh entered the Church and was walked down the aisle by her Mum and Dad, this is really rare in my opinion and was apparently suggested by the priest, who was in fact their own priest from Ireland, a lovely and increasingly more common method to adopt. The service was a very traditional and a catholic mass style marriage service. Mum’s lit candles signifying the join of two families, readings known as “liturgy of the word” were told and then the “rite of marriage” which is a declaration of vows. Meabh and Barry exchanged rings as a sign of love to each other and a “Prayer of the faithful” read by close family members and friends. The ceremony included a mass, where bread and wine was shared with the couple and the Priest then moved on to share bread and wine with the congregation, giving the Meabh and Barry time to share a few private words with each other. I like to study the happy couple during this time and quite often capture a very natural image here. This ceremony was unlike many typical Spanish services that are over within 40 mins mins, this was 1 hour 25mins, ending with the signing of the register by a very happy couple and their more than willing witnesses. They walked back up the aisle looking very happy as they looked into each others eyes.
Reception
Outside the church, the rain had eased off as 3 Spanish musicians with guitars and accordion played and Meabh and Barry were congratulated some more by their friends and family. They left the church and were all serenaded by the musicians as they passed them to go to the nearest bar called “El Molino” for a quick drink, and while waiting for coaches of course. Meabh and Barry jumped into their wedding car and enjoyed a bottle of champagne that was waiting in the car for them and headed off to El Cortijo de los Caballos, not too far from the Benahavis Village. Once at the cortijo we just had some time for a couple of romantic portraits before the guests were to arrive and the rain to return. The guests arrived for some quick cocktails, canapés and light background music from a guitarist as the wedding was running a little late from the ceremony. Tables were set up under a marquee to shelter everyone from rain and there were some touching speeches from close family. Two brothers had travelled from Australia for the wedding meaning it was the first time everyone had been together for 6 years and it was clear that this was making their gathering even more special. Some fantastic buffet style food was enjoyed by all and was followed afterwards by a personalised broach top wedding cake by Fi of Sweet Things by Fi. Personalised as one of the broaches on the cake was in fact Meabh’s Grandmothers, very touching and even more special.
Party
Monkey tennis and paella was on offer for the evening celebrations and although I was unfortunately not asked to cover the evening celebrations, I hear everyone had a great time and the rain held off the best it could. It is a shame that I was not there past this time as I would have loved to finish this reportage in full.
All in all it was a great day for everyone and some beautiful memories for the happy couple.