Mario and Rachel’s Saphire Estate Wedding in Sharon, MA
Wedding photography has come a long way from its early incarnation of perfectly posed portraits. The contemporary wedding photographer is a documentarian, a historian who illustrates the day the a couple’s story began. In today’s world of wedding photography it is more important to capture the moments and emotions as they unfold before your eye, not to be the one who scripts a static and stoic scene. Having been this style of photojournalistic wedding photographer for many years now, I have learned to recognize moments as they build. This allows me to prepare for a shot before it happens. Even with all the weddings I have captured, nothing could have prepared me for the moment that made Mario and Rachel’s Saphire Estate wedding so unique. I have photographed countless first dances shared between newly weds. All of them have been special. But I have yet to see anything quite like Mario and Rachel’s. They took the choreographed first dance to a whole new level, recreating a scene from one of Disney’s famous love stories: Beauty and Beast. I am still not sure if either of them has experience as a dancer, but their performance was flawless. It was impossible not to watch, and impossible not to keep shooting as their elaborate choreography gave way to more choreography. Their expertise and obvious joy throughout their first dance is more than evident in the images we captured. I hope these images will remind them of the joy they shared when reminiscing about their wedding day for the many years to come.