Wedding in Dallas, Texas - Day 3

WEDDING IN DALLAS, TEXAS – DAY 3

The Christian wedding; indeed, Stephan is catholic and he chose to officiate a ritual also in the Christian way.

The preparation of the couple took place in the suite of the Hotel Hilton Anatole in Dallas; getting ready in the Hilton suite surely permits to find interesting views for a photographic service.

For the photographic service before the ceremony, the couple chose a typical location in Dallas, the Bothanic Garden. They arrived there with a vintage red bus, with a group of friends.

Here, we spent lot of time taking group pictures. Under this aspect, the photography of English clients is very different from the Italian’s: if I talk about group photos to an Italian couple, they usually reject it and they ask me to dedicate more time to the couple phtoos. Contrary, for the English people, the memory of the photos with their friends is very important and we dedicate time to groups.

Personally, I don’t ask myself the question “it’s better the English or the Italian way?”, in my idea, the most important thing is always to satisfy the clients.

But, both ways, I suggest to my couple to spend time for some shots they two together. It’s important to ask them to dedicate time to take some pictures alone. In lot of services, the clients ask for a reportage service, one of the most abused words in the Photography history.

With “Reportage” we usually mean a non-posed service taken with stolen pictures. This is surely a great way to narrate a day in which you’re really nervous and in which the emotions can become the red wire of the story. But, at the end of the story, someone will gift to the married couple a frame (ad a wedding, someone usually give a frame as a gift) and you’ll have the question about what picture insert in that frame. So now you’ll need a simple but well done photo, with a smile on.

But let’s go back to our Wedding in Dallas.

After the photos in the Bothanic Garden, we moved to the Modern Art Museum in Dallas where the ritual was celebrated.

Between the Frida Kahlo frames and the Canaletto’s operas, they decided to renew their yes in front of a Christian priest. In the small garden in front of the entrance, the space for the ritual was set up. Differently from our ritual, there’s no the Mass part, they quickly go to the poing and ask to the couple if they want to become husband and wife.

Then the party and the reception continued inside the Museum hall, while I was there I asked myself if in Italy could be possible the get married in a museum. Can you imagine a wedding in the Uffizi? Really, the Uffizi can be rent but I cannot imagine the Venere of Botticelli as background for a wedding. But, while these thought were in my mind, I asked Damiano: “Do you remember that night in Florence?”

Exactly in Florence, years ago, I was called to taking pictures at a wedding in a very particular location, a place with an incomparable artistic value, but this story has to remain top secret and so I cannot say anymore.

Photos: Alessandro Colle and Serena Rossi.

Post-production: Serena Rossi