Laura and Martijn live in a beautiful old farmhouse in a small village near Breda. It is located in the Dutch countryside and the house is built on a dike, which gives a view of the large garden attached to this historic building. I arrive at the farm on April 21, 2018, and knock on the door. On the side of the house, the gate to the backyard suddenly opens and I am welcomed by Martijn. Everyone is already busy and I immediately get to work to capture the hustle and bustle. Make-up for the bride is one thing, but mothers helping out with ironing is just as important. When Laura is ready the day she comes down for the first look moment where Martijn hands her the bouquet and it is time to shoot the wedding portraits.
The wedding car, an old Volkswagen van, has to be started in a bit of a strange way. I am glad that we did not encounter any police on the way because it necessarily looks suspicious if someone is constantly fiddling with the wires under the steering wheel to start the car. The countryside is incredibly beautiful and there are plenty of beautiful locations to take great photos, such as abandoned train tracks, a lot of sheep and a 'tunnel' of trees. But it doesn't take much for awesome shots with this beauty around, I could even use the minivan itself to get creative in my shots. For example, I had to stand in a muddy ditch to take the shot of the wheel with the wedding couple in its reflection, but this was completely worth it.
The ceremony and party took place at a unique wedding location, a church. Weddings in a church are common, but this old church was transformed into a restaurant and officially no longer served as a church. The big advantage was that they were able to rent this location for the rest of the evening to have the wedding ceremony take place and to be able to party until late at night. The party ended with a dance of the wedding couple that started spontaneously in the middle of the dancefloor. Fortunately, I was still there to capture this amazing ending to a great day.