And now for something completely different. I recently photographed a wedding for our friends Robin and Mae. I hear you thinking: but I thought you don’t photograph weddings? Almost correct. I just do it for friends and family — and people who beg me. Robin has been a very good friend of ours for a long time. He didn’t have to beg. He is a friend, not only to Sophie and me, but also to our boys. He was also the most eligible bachelor we knew. So when he called us from Antwerp: I’ve met someone and we’re getting married — and you’re all invited! it took us less than half a second to decide we were all going!

And what a party it was! Mae, his Philipino bride is warm and beautiful. The weather was fantastic. We did a photo session in the morning in the park by the Middelheim Museum. The afternoon began with the church service, in the magificent Sint-Carolus Borromeuskerk. It was followed by a reception, a dinner and a fantastic party.

I don’t photograph many weddings. Not that I don’t enjoy it, but it’s hard work! I have the greatest respect for fulltime wedding photographers — I couldn’t do it.  A friend of mine, a really good wedding photographer in his own right, whispered me the secret one time: it helps to fall in love with the bride a little! That has actually turned out to be pretty good advice. If you like the bride, the wedding is easy. If you don’t… it’s a tough job.

Falling in love with Mae was no challenge at all :-). It was easy to see how our good ole’ friend lost his heart to this warm, compassionate beauty. The wedding was a real reflection of who they were: a perfect blend of Cypriot fun, catholic reverence and compassion (both Robin and Mae are actively involved with a catholic mission to the poor and marginalised), and Philipino fun, good food and laughter. High points for me were when Robin started throwing the roses from the wedding cake into the audience, and when he and Mae started dancing and singing to ‘Now I’ve had the time of my life’ (Dirty Dancing), Oh yeah, and when my boys started dancing… Boy, they can dance!

Best idea of the day: Mae had a wedding dress with a zip. During the day it was a beautiful long dress. But in the evening she just unzipped a part, stepped out, and it became a great dress for dancing. Now why didn’t someone think of this before?

Just to explain a thing or two: Robin is from cyprus. And so we did some fantastic greek line dancing. So fun to be not just a photographer and to get to dance! And dance we did. My wife and my boys (and me) partied till my feet hurt. Here’s a picture of Sophie, Judah, Joel and Joshua with his girlfriend Rio.