Last month I had the chance to shoot Sharon and Luca’s beautiful wedding in Luxembourg. The wedding ceremony took place at the church of Alzingen, and it was followed by an amazing reception at the famous Château des Sept Fontaines, the ancient castle of the Villeroy-and-Bosh family.
Getting ready in Bettembourg
I started the day around noon with the getting ready of the bride & groom in Bettembourg. I quickly shot a portrait of the groom and a few details shots such as cufflinks, and I then moved on to spend more time at the bride’s place. She already had her hair dressed, and I landed right during the make-up session for some candid shots. I also took the time to photograph the wedding rings using my new macro lens.
Next, the bride put her dress on with the help of her mom and bridesmaid. The room was super small, and it was not easy to shoot. I found a nice angle to get an original shot of the dress hanging in front of the wardrobe’s mirror.
Back to the living room, I decided to use my beauty dish to take a nice portrait of the bride on her sofa. It was then time to go to the Hesperange parc for a first-look and a photo-session with the bridal couple.
First-look and portraits in Hesperange
The bride & groom wished to do their portrait photos at the Hesperange parc. I know this parc pretty well since I regularly visit it with my kids. That said, parts in general are not my cup of tea for wedding photos, especially at 2 PM under the bright, harsh light! Obviously, I had brought my ProFoto B2 Kit with the softbox to make the photos more interesting 🙂
The bridal couple had rented a magnificent back-coloured Ford Mustang, so we took a few shots with it before heading to the ceremony at the Alzingen’s church.
A religious ceremony at the Alzingen church
I live very close to this little church, and yet, I had never been in before! Most of the time it is locked out, and I don’t attend mess :p
That said, it is a charming and very bright church, which helped me a lot for the photos of the religious ceremony. I had already shot a ceremony led by this same friendly priest, but it was in another church.
The ceremony ended around 5 PM and then we moved on to the Château des Sept Fontaines, literally the castle of the seven fountains.
The wedding reception at the Château des Sept Fontaines in Luxembourg
This is the castle of the Villeroy-and-Bosh family. It is located near Luxembourg city center, and it is magnificent and very well preserved. Very suitable for wedding receptions indeed!
During the cocktail, we took a lot of fun group shots with the guests. I also took some formal portraits inside the castle to take advantage of its beautiful interior wallpaper.
It then took some detail shots of tables using an off-camera flash with a blue gel to create some more interesting light.
During the dinner, there were some moving speeches followed by an impressive pyrotechnic show in the castle’s courtyard. It was organized by Das Feuertanzwerk Mr. Ingo Schweiger. Use of my flashes was forbidden, I could not even use video lights 🙁 So it was somewhat of a challenge to capture the moments, even at ISO 6400. And focusing was even harder! The show ended with the Sharon and Luca lighting a huge heat with torches!