Hacienda La Herriza, Balcon de la Serrania, Gaucín
Joanne and Brian´s Wedding Day
Hacienda La Herriza in Gaucin was the venue of Jennifer and Brian for their wedding day, a perfect venue for a romantic intimate wedding . After the successful shoot couple of days previously i had been looking forward to this and was looking forward to seeing Joanne and Brian again and capturing their day. As I arrived at the venue the ever professional Jennifer from Spanish Wedding Planner was ensuring that the extra personal details were being prepared.
Below are just a few of my personal favourite images and the story of their wedding day…
The Wedding
Preparation
I went in to see how Joanne was doing and to take a peek at her lovely dress, shoes and anything else I could find to capture of course and I could see that everything was in hand, by the lovely calm, relaxed and cheerful spirit of the room.
After taking a few shots of the girls I t popped into a nearby room to say Hi to Brian and then crept around out of sight for some key moments I like to capture during the groom’s preparation as well as the Brides. Also had some time to capture some guests as they arrived, often greeted by Brian who guided them to the red carpet and down to the lower level.
I went back to the girls room were Joanne looked absolutely stunning, she came down the stairs and was met by her proud Father and I could see everyone in the room were overwhelmed with how fantastic and happy she looked. Whilst the guests now waited patiently, a line-up formed outside Joanne’s door and they prepared to walk down to the ceremony, starting with Joanne’s flower girl, then pageboy and followed closely behind by four lovely Bridesmaids in their fabulous blue dresses.
Ceremony
Whilst a guitarist played a touching piece, Joanne linked arms with her proud Father and they followed the route down and along the red carpet to the tree sheltering the now very warm but smiling Groom. Brian couldn’t resist peering over his left shoulder as he felt his beautiful Bride approaching and could resist watching as she walked down the aisle.
Whilst some of the guests could not hold back the tears, some traditions were carried out in between the Minister Peter Padre’s formal wording and his fantastic humour too, including the 13 coins of the Arras where the Groom traditionally drops the coins into his Brides hands, although in this particular case, Joanne then did the same to Brian which I thought was nice.
Some say the thirteen coins represent the 12 Apostles and Christ, others see it as the lunar calendar of 12 months and the 13 as the honeymoon but whichever their belief here, it is certainly a meaningful part of the typically Hispanic style wedding ceremony.
After their lovely vows to each other and the exchange of rings, Joanne seemingly grabbed the back of Brian’s neck to kiss him for the first time as Husband and Wife and they strolled proudly back up the aisle with big grins, followed closely by a multitude of bridesmaid and best men combinations. Guests then joined them at the end of the carpet to congratulate them with lots of hugs and kisses.
Cocktails
Well, the word ‘Cocktails’ is used loosely here as Joanne and Brian (we hear possibly more Brian on this occasion) had his heart set on the finest of Serrano ham being cut and served straight from the bone (Cortador de Jamon). They also opted for Antonio Ramos to show the great and ancient Spanish tradition called ‘Venenciar’, whereby the guests drinks (usually wine) is served from a great height by a specialist venenciador. Aside from the obvious attraction value of pouring from this height looking entertaining, it also oxygenates the alcohol and offers it in such a way that it maximises the life and flavour of the drink served.
It was a wonderful atmosphere and needless to say, everybody was having a lovely time so I took this opportunity to capture some group shots that they wanted and then straight after I sneaked Joanne and Brian away and up to the main grounds of the venue for some quick but more romantic portraits.
Reception
The guests sat to wait for the grand entrance of the happy couple and whilst holding Joanne with one hand, Brian punched the sky as they entered (I guess this wasn’t because his team had scored), but more of a lads way of saying “Yes, I did it!”.
A fantastic spread of Spanish delights were served including an unbelievably huge paella and before you knew it the sun had completely disappeared and although the heat hadn’t seemed to cool down yet, the guest were getting into the evening spirit.
There were some funny speeches and some touching speeches too, leaving everyone in tears and laughter. Everyone thent headed over for the cutting of the cake with what could only be described as some sort of huge sword.
It was all truly a lovely evening and you could tell that every single person was enjoying themselves nomatter how far they had travelled to get there (bearing in mind also that some guests would be leaving relatively early the next day to head back down and along the coast to Malaga airport).
Party
The first dance was just beautiful, a great way to start the night celebrations, but the tempo soon changed… when the first song finished, the band went into some Irish violin based music and the newlyweds linked arms and danced and pranced in the traditional Irish manor. It was all of just seconds before everyone was up off of their chairs and joining in with the fun and dancing. Joanne and Brian had appeared to sneak off and I thought I knew where I could find them, I was right and am so pleased to have caught them having a ‘moment’, in a hidden part of the reception as its these stolen moments that can never be staged and yet they are sometimes the best ones to show the deepest and most meaningful part of the story of true love between these two wonderful people.
As Joanne and Brian had agreed to have a post shoot the following day and we had now decided it would be at the beach, it was off home for a much needed rest and to prepare for another hot day and if walking on sand is hard enough, photographing an entire group was certainly going to be a challenge….
