I hope to be posting more from Sandy and Fred’s gorgeous spring wedding at the Huizen Kalkovens tomorrow, but as I know they can hardly wait, I’m posting a tiny little preview tonight. For the photoshoot with the bride and groom, prior to the wedding ceremony, we went to the amazing Buitenplaatsen (Estates) in ‘s-Gravenland. And even though the weather channel had not predicted the best weather, we got gorgeous spring weather!

 

Oh, alright, one more – with their little man Toine, their handsome son
(and I’ll explain about the bike tomorrow!)

Goodnight y’all!

To start the weekend off right: a small collage of Mini-Studio Photos! In September of last year, we photographed Marije and Jan Willem’s wedding in Jamie Oliver’s Amsterdam restaurant, Fifteen. They did not only have their wedding ceremony at Fifteen, their wedding reception was there as well. We were there to photograph it all and we set up our mini-studio at night, to photograph all the guests. The weather was gorgeous that day, so we decided to set up outside, on the IJ banks in front of Fifteen. Awesome! Our mini-studio is a wonderful addition to your party pictures and it serves as sort of a guest book as well, as you get to have photos of everyone attending your wedding!

Ernst W. Veen is the man who brought the Hermitage to Amsterdam. And in his role as director of the Amsterdam Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) he was very important for the promotion of Art in the Netherlands as well. The Cenootschap Foundation is a foundation which promotes Art in the Netherlands and especially artist Rob Cerneus. The Foundation now honored Mr. Veen for his outstanding work and for bringing the Hermitage to Amsterdam by gifting him a unique and gorgeous sculpture made for him by sculptor Rob Cerneus: The Thinker. Rob Cerneus himself presented the sculpture to Mr. Veen, in the presence of artlovers and foundation members. The presentation took place in the gorgeous Church Hall in the Amsterdam Hermitage. An impression (commissioned by Foundation Cenootschap).

These awesome, colorful wedding albums are, just like al our photoalbums, bespoke albums made by hand in our studio. It’s a set of two matching volumes: a wedding album with images telling the story of the wedding day, and a mini-studio album, with images we took in our mini-studio during the evenening reception. But the most unique part about these albums is the material we used to create the covers: the changeant green/bleu silk is the exact same material that the bride’s dress was made of. The designer had a little piece of fabric left and it was just enough to use for the front covers of the wedding albums.

And on the photo below, a detail of the matching album box for safekeeping the albums. I use a piece of the bride’s gloves on one of the edges to make it even more personal. Amazing!

We are now finishing the last few wedding albums of 2011 – and we’ve already created quite a few gorgeous albums for our  2012 clients as well. Both for weddings and for portrait sessions. It’s one of my most favorite things to do: creating a gorgeous, bespoke photoalbum as the end result of photographing a wedding or a portrait shoot.

Ilnaz and Sasha’s wedding day was absolutely awesome. The bride and groom live in Den Bosch, but were set on getting wed in our capital, Amsterdam. And as soon as Ilnaz graduated law school, she was ready for the next big step: her wedding with love of her life, Sasha.

As Ilnaz and Sasha live ‘down south’, they each slept in a different hotel in Amsterdam, the night before the wedding. And while Marco took photos of the groom and his groomsmen, I was with Ilnaz and her bridesmaids. It was pretty hectic and a lot of fun in her beautiful Hotel L’Europe suite, in the Amsterdam city center.

Sasha and his groomsmen are ready for the Big Day – the limo arrives to take the groom to his beautiful bride.

Ilnaz gracefully walked down the stairs – the very first look of the bride and the groom on their wedding day.

Right after the bride and groom’s ‘first look’, we took the formal family photos and then the wedding photos of Ilnaz and Sasha together. Both at the Amsterdam canals and in the Hotel de l’Europe. What a gorgeous bride! And her groom looks pretty sharp, too!

We then headed to the wedding venue for their Iranian wedding ceremony at De Koning in Amsterdam Westpoort. The wedding guests were waiting for the couple to arrive and the sofreh aghd was ready for the formalities to start. Ilnaz walked down the aisle with her parents and her father gave his daughter to her groom.

The bridesmaids stood behind the wedding couple and held the Ghand cloth over their heads during the official part of the Persian wedding ceremony. They also rubbed the sugar pillars together over the heads of the bride and groom to wish them a sweet marriage.

After the wedding ceremony, with lots of room for all the guests giving the couple presents and having their photo taken with the couple, the bride and groom had their grand entrance in the ballroom downstairs. The De Koning reception room was beautifully decorated and the party started right away – with lots of music, dancing, food and drinkies.

The groom had the important task of earning back the knive from his new wife and her friends before the wedding cake could be cut!

He fortunately managed to get it back, so the bride and groom got to cut the wedding cake.

The party lasted long after midnight……