When it comes to weddings, I’m kind of pervy. Maybe pervy is too strong a word. I’m a wedding voyeur. When I see a wedding party during that in-between time after the ceremony and before the dinner, it piques my curiosity. What do they look like? Does the marriage stand a chance? What are they wearing? Are they victims of cookie-cutter celebrity culture? Or are they showing something of themselves here?
The first in this series is one of the first photos I ever took with a DSLR camera – an Olympus E-1. I was on holidays in Quebec City and passed a church in the old town as a wedding was spilling out of the doors and onto the street. The girl on the left looks supremely bored.
The next, I took in Scotland. My friend, Mark Johnstone, picked me up from the airport in Paisley. We barely had time to say hello and he was off to officiate at a wedding. I tagged along and sat in the gallery at the back of St. Mary’s Parish Church in Kirkintilloch.
The third photo is by the Pont Alexandre III in Paris which, I discovered by accident, is a favourite photo site on Saturdays. The wedding parties were lined up like airplanes on a runway, waiting their turn for the nice background that the bridge provides. By the way, just because it’s in Paris doesn’t mean the posing is any more natural.
One of my favourites is from the 2013 Toronto Pride Parade. It isn’t really a wedding photo. More a re-enactment.
When I was in Ottawa this May, I caught a wedding party in the process of being photographed to death on the shady side of the Chateau Laurier. The groom looks like he’s had enough of it.
Meanwhile, around by the entrance of the Chateau Laurier, I found another couple with their photographer.
A few weeks ago, I was trying to capture an uncooperative bird at the Toronto brickworks. Meanwhile, a photographer was setting up a shot of a bride and her maid of honour. I rustled some bushes and poked my head out. I caught the bride looking at me, probably thinking I’m some kind of wedding pervert. Which I am.
Finally, here’s one at the Distillery District. You can go there any weekend and catch any number of wedding parties boring their guests to death.
