As destination wedding photographers, we have been so lucky, both with our clients and their choices of destination; for the second time, we packed and caught a flight to the desert country of Qatar to shoot another royal wedding!
Surrounded on three sides by the blue waters of the Persian Gulf, Qatar is a country of dramatic opposites; space age metropolises, with sky high reflective towers, bordered by vast, barren deserts. Modern high tech sits right next to traditional Middle Eastern culture and beliefs, glass and polished steel alongside pale limestone lined alleys, recessed archways, and bright tiled panels.
It is a rich, diverse country, full of fantastic photo opportunities. The ancient souks sell pottery, intricately carved chess sets, and beautiful, vibrant woven rugs; shimmering gold jewellery displayed next to a café with men in traditional white dress drinking cardamom tea and chatting. Everyone seems to smile and laugh all the time – we love our visits to this amazing country.
The baking sun makes outdoor events impossible; the temperatures can reach an astonishing 55 degrees in high summer, so naturally, the wedding was held inside. The lighting was perfect for our shoot, and although artificial, the hosts had gone to great lengths to ensure perfection with this traditional Middle Eastern wedding (the last wedding we shot here had a more European flavour).
The blue and gold decorations around the graceful arched doorways made stunning backdrops for our pictures; the curves and interlaced lines of the lattice work could take up a whole album of photos on their own! This beautiful pattern continued onto the slick tiled floor, contrasting nicely with the clean lines of the tables and gold arch-legged chairs.
On these tables, amongst the settings of gold, white and deepest blue, were placed delicate gold dishes filled with mouth-watering traditional delicacies – perfect for some well-focused close-ups. White roses, camellias and gold stamened orchids formed the centre pieces, and as their scent filled the air, I, doing what I love, took photo after photo of this stunning location.
Pauline, meanwhile, spent her time with the bride as she prepared for her marriage, wearing a gorgeous dress from designers, Ralph & Russo. With traditional Middle Eastern weddings, the day belongs to the bride, her female friends and her family. The only men allowed to gaze upon the bride are her father, the groom, and the groom’s father – even I, as the photographer, wasn’t allowed access! Also, unlike Western tradition, there is no cutting of the cake, no first dance, and even no actual ceremony, as we would define it, anyway.
As the evening wore on, the women danced, and celebrated; the dresses were stunning – Luxurious designer couture, accessorised with sparkling diamonds, sapphires and the deepest red rubies set in shining, shimmering gold; every piece reflecting and refracting the lights, sending prisms of colour around the ballroom. It would have been a fabulous photo shoot if it had been permitted!
Towards the end of the evening, the groom’s family entered, the men finally allowed to see the bride in all her glory; Pauline took a small number of photographs, before the bride and groom left the celebration.
The Qatar royal family are the most amazingly kind and generous clients we have had the pleasure of working with, and we decided to stay on for a few days in their beautiful country – it really wasn’t a hard decision to make!
Obviously, we had to take a trip out into the pale desert; photographing the shadows across the windswept dunes was too good an opportunity to miss. The desert sand, from a distance, just looks flat and barren, but the tiny moving flurries and whirlwinds of sand grains brought it to life. The border between sea and desert is blurred by the ebb and flow of gentle ocean waves and echoed by the rippled pale landscape. Our desert photographs reflect the mystical beauty of this ancient land.
With a temperature of 55 degrees in the shade, it was too much, but the cooling breeze made it bearable, and with night approaching, the drop to 30 degrees felt cold, too cold, in fact, to even set a toe into the inviting sea. So, although we missed out on our nighttime swim, we made up for it by going dune drifting, a thrill-a-minute experience! We raced across the sliding dunes in a 4×4, powering to the very top of the largest dunes, before slipping and sliding down the other side, usually sideways, speeding across steep-sided valleys, the wheels spinning and throwing up clouds of sand, laughing as we slipped sideways again.
We finished our trip by photographing the hazily distant Saudi Arabia across a vast inland sea; the glass towers, like shining stalagmites, pointing fingers into the turquoise sky, with the deep, deep blue, gently waved water in the foreground. A magical end to a magical journey!
For destination wedding photographer, this was an unusual project without the usual wedding party photos, but it gave us a chance to concentrate on smaller, intimate dioramas, hints of the celebrations to come, teasing snippets of the unfolding love story. We loved every second of this journey!
