“Of winter’s lifeless world each tree now seems a perfect part; yet each one holds summer’s secret deep down within its heart.” – Charles G Stater
Winter is not a popular time for weddings, so getting to shoot a marriage in the quiet season—as I did when taking pictures of Dragos and Irina’s ceremony—is a rare treat. I met this couple through Marietta, a close friend and one of the best personal trainers in Limassol.
Winter is not a common time for weddings for a couple of reasons; one, obviously, is the proximity of Christmas — most brides do not want to be “upstaged” by the holiday to come, or accidentally interfere with anyone’s plans—but the other lies deeper, in our modern perceptions of the wheel of the year. Today, spring is associated with new life, with hope and the coming of better things, and summer is symbolic of love in full bloom, resplendent with the blossoms that drip off every tree and bush. Winter, by contrast, is associated with endings and stillness.
This was not always the case, however; in pagan lore, Yule (the winter solstice, shortly before Christmas) was seen as a time of rebirth, of new life and the glory of dawn. What could be more fitting, truly, for the rite of marriage?
Dragos and Irina met in Limassol and, after a whirlwind romance, decided to embrace all the charms of a winter wedding, opting for a simple marriage ceremony in the beautiful village of Yermasoia, at Yermasoia Wedding Counsel (which is quite close to Limassol). They chose to have a small intimate wedding, surrounded by the people that mean everything to them, so that they could celebrate Christmas as a married couple and bring the gift of their newly-wed bliss with them everywhere.
Just after the ceremony, I took the overjoyed couple down to the beautiful dam and nearby beach for a set of photos; here in Cyprus, summers are dry, and the rains of winter bring lush life to the land—as such, the scenery was spectacular, a crowning glory for the love of this smitten couple. As you can see from their radiant smiles, this simple marriage ceremony was the joy of a lifetime for Dragos and Irina.
