Santorini Destination Wedding Photographer | Leslie and Ryan

The perfect place, the perfect dress, and the perfect partner. Everybody dreams of the perfect wedding. Couples plan and prepare for it after getting engaged but in all likelyhood, brides have set their hearts on it ever since they were little girls.

I realize how much importance people put on their weddings. And for this reason, I devote myself to each of them like it is my own. I envision, I plan, and I prepare, always.

When Leslie and Ryan approached me last year to shoot their wedding in Santorini in Greece, I knew that it could be one of the highlights of this year. The place is magnificent in any perspective and my style of shooting will bring out a fresh and enhanced point of view of a wedding that’s celebrated there.

Details often get bargained with in destination weddings. Because of distance and convenience, the beauty and uniqueness of the place gets traded off with the individuality of the couple. Yet it was obvious from our email exchanges that Leslie and Ryan’s wedding is going particularly diagramed – a nod to both their architectural and interior design background. While the wedding will be intimate, it will be very well thought of and filled with elements that represent them.

Leslie and Ryan are very picky and I am also very picky. Leslie and Ryan have great aspirations for their wedding and I have the same great aspirations. Everything seemed to be perfect and on the same page. Almost.

This is when the carriers lost the luggages that contained Ryan and his groomsmen’s suits. The same set of luggage also held all the make-up that will be used for the wedding. Then the florist cancelled the flower delivery last minute and several of the details that were agreed upon months before we’re not delivered. These unfortunate events led to more logistics problems that by the morning of the wedding, nothing right seemed to be happening.

Leslie was frustrated and everyone was helpless. There was no way or time we would all be able to carry out what we planned to do. The way I foresaw everything was falling to pieces right in front of me. Of all the weddings, why it has to be this one.

Then I told myself, “maybe not all of the weddings are as perfect as you dream of it to be, maybe there are weddings that will really fall short of your vision and you are there to document it just as how it is but still the best way possible.” Uneasiness then became hope and apprehension turned to excitement.

Miraculously, everything turned around. The men were able to get suits and finished all the last-minute errands. The women arranged the flowers and did their own make-ups. Everyone did a little of everything and it was really touching.

We were pressed for time and a little bit late but we were able to do what we set out to do. By the time Leslie walked down the stairs of Firestofani, everyone was gleaming and overjoyed. It was stunning.

It may not be the exact way we all expected the wedding to be, but in the end, the photographs are not only beautiful but meaningful, the wedding is not only breathtaking but wholehearted. A wedding that became more perfect than perfect.

Also check the feature of this wedding in our e-magazine for the more enhanced experience and more photographs.