The morning
The groom dressed at a mirror hung from rope in a timber villa, with the bay behind him, and had his boutonniere pinned on by his father beside the pool. The bride did her own makeup at the window and her mother laced the back of the dress on the deck, then set the flower crown in her hair. These are the frames couples tell us they look at most, years later, because nobody else saw them happen.
The ceremony on the beach
The aisle was lined with coconuts on the sand, the gazebo was dressed with dried flowers and pampas grass, and the registrar performed the civil ceremony with the island across the water behind her. Both read their own vows from small notebooks. The parents were the witnesses, and they toasted each other afterwards under the palms.
One frame in the sequence is the registrar herself signing the Act of Marriage. That is the moment the marriage becomes legal in Seychelles, and we always photograph it.
The granite and the jetty
After the cake the four of us walked to the granite headland, where the water turns the colour it does in these frames. A rope bridge between two boulders leads to the far side. The album ends on a wooden jetty that runs out between two towering boulders, photographed from inside the gap so the couple stand small in a frame of stone. We have shot on many islands and this is still one of the strongest places we know.