Journal · Wedding story Check a date

Journal · Kitzbühel, Tyrol · June

One wedding in Kitzbühel.

Around 2,000 frames that day 1.305 of them edited and delivered 24 of them here 3 to 4 weeks until delivery

Anyone can show a best-of. This is one single wedding day in the order it happened — including the parts where nothing is happening.

Most photographers’ sites show twenty high points from twenty different weddings. It looks magnificent and answers none of the one question a couple actually has: What will our day look like once it is over?

Hence this piece. Twenty-four images from a single day, nothing reordered, nothing left out for being unspectacular. The empty church window belongs here as much as the kiss, and the waiting horse as much as the dance floor at half past one.

Go through the images in this order and you do not just see photographs. You see how a day runs, where the calm sits and where it gets tight — and you can draw conclusions for your own day from that.

One more figure, because it shows how I work: this June day in Kitzbühel produced around two thousand frames. I delivered 1,305 edited images — everything that was technically sound and not a duplicate, not a selection from them.

Bride and father in the bright doorway, seen from inside
Moments before the entrance, seen from the dark vestibule
01

Before the ceremony

I am there before the guests are. Not out of diligence, but because a church half an hour before a ceremony has a mood of its own that does not come back later. The light is already in place, the pews are empty, outside the first arrivals are gathering on the gravel. That half hour produces the images that get looked at longest in the album.

The light arrives first
The light arrives first
A phone and a hymn book, side by side on the pew
A phone and a hymn book, side by side on the pew
The youngest guests are always ready first
The youngest guests are always ready first
The last greetings before it goes quiet
The last greetings before it goes quiet
02

The entrance

The moment everyone is waiting for, and therefore the hardest one to photograph: twenty phones are quicker than any photographer. In that minute I do not stand in the aisle, I stand beside it. From the dark vestibule you can see what nobody sees from the front — two people waiting a moment before it begins.

Bride and father waiting for their cue
Bride and father waiting for their cue
The walk everybody films
The walk everybody films
03

The ceremony

The official part happens at the front. Half the day happens in the second row. A grandfather looking ahead. A girl looking sideways. A pew full of people feeling the same thing at the same moment and showing it differently. That is why I photograph backwards more than forwards during a ceremony.

From behind, from the back row
From behind, from the back row
The pews from above
The pews from above
He looks ahead. She looks to the side.
He looks ahead. She looks to the side.
04

The recessional

Then the door opens and the day tips over. Applause, petals, embraces, everybody talking at once. Here I do not walk with the couple, I walk against the current — the faces looking towards them say more than the couple does.

The recessional, straight through everyone
The recessional, straight through everyone
The first embrace after the vows
The first embrace after the vows
Petals falling, photographed from the wrong side
Petals falling, photographed from the wrong side
05

On the meadow

Then comes the hour no running order allows for and which is the finest all the same: fizz on a meadow, group photographs nobody takes seriously, and in between a crowd of people simply being there. That hour produces the frames nobody ordered and everybody keeps.

The guests make their own picture
The guests make their own picture
Between two group photos
Between two group photos
A moment to breathe
A moment to breathe
She photographs the group photo. I photograph her.
She photographs the group photo. I photograph her.
06

The journey

At almost every wedding there is an hour between the church and the reception that is planned as transport. That is exactly when the two of them are alone together for the first time all day. A horse that waits longer than anyone else. A fountain with no audience. A very long path that I deliberately photograph from far away, so you can see how small two people are allowed to be on their biggest day.

The horse waits longer than anyone
The horse waits longer than anyone
Leaving
Leaving
At the fountain, no audience
At the fountain, no audience
The long walk to the reception
The long walk to the reception
07

The evening

From here on I photograph only with the light that is there. No flash, no stands, nothing that changes the mood in the room. It costs frames and it produces images that look the way the evening felt. At half past one there is usually still something going on that nobody quite remembers the next morning. That is why I stay.

Arriving with the sun already low
Arriving with the sun already low
Into the party
Into the party
On the dance floor
On the dance floor
After midnight
After midnight

The facts

Place
Kitzbühel, Tyrol
Ceremony
In church
Month
June
Season
Meadows in flower
Frames
around 2,000
Delivered
1,305 edited
Delivery
3 to 4 weeks

Your day happens once.

If you have read this far, you already know fairly precisely how I work. The next sensible step is not a price list but the question of whether your date is still free at all.

Check the date Introductory call, 15 minutes
MUNICHPIXART · Christian Heil · Munich Passion for photography ch@munichpixart.com · +49 176 14651982