Jacobiene and Arjan’s wedding was a dream come true for me. While I mostly photograph in and around central Indiana, I love to travel and have, on occasion, been asked to photograph outside of my state and even sometimes country. So, when Jacobiene asked me to come to her hometown in The Netherlands for her wedding I was thrilled! Jacobiene and I met while we were in grad school studying Art History at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland and we have kept in contact with each other and the rest of our small group of classmates (whom we affectionately call TEC) and plan trips to see each other when we can, but mostly rely on good old Facebook and sometimes Skype to stay close. Well, her wedding meant that it was reunion time! Oh, and side note, previous bride Julie is another one of our TEC classmates and I got to photograph her wedding in 2013. ? You can check out her wedding blog post here. But, back to Jacobiene…
Jacobiene and Arjan (who I will refer to for the rest of this post as JA, which, happily enough means Yes in Dutch, and so became the unofficial theme of the day) have been together for years and are an amazing couple. They are so warm and welcoming and fun to be around. They hosted my husband Matt and I in their home during our visit and introduced us to some delicious new food as well as introduced us to their families while we all helped to decorate for the wedding. They had so many painstakingly handcrafted DIY touches in their day and if decor can accurately sum up a person, their reception was it. That may sound weird, but as soon as I saw the reception set up, even if I hadn’t known it was their wedding, I would have known because it was just so them. Also, those amazing flowers that you’re about to see? Those are Arjan’s doing. He works for a major flower wholesaler, so their reception (and wedding car) was covered with beautiful (and delicious smelling) flowers.
We began the day with the girls getting ready at the house. It was an early start, but gave me a lot of time for detail shots, including a few of my favorite dress shots. ? Once Jacobiene was ready, Arjan came to the house, bouquet in hand, to meet his bride to be and drive around in their wedding car to take their portraits. JA live in a town called Even and their home is right on the water. We took a lovely walk down a narrow peninsula just across the water from their home for their portraits, followed by a few by the town’s windmill as well as on what I can only describe as the most idilic tree lined path in the world. The light there was so perfect that it didn’t even seem real.
After portraits we arrived at the ceremony, which was held in a private field where they also had the reception. Pastel colored mismatched chairs dotted the field along with festive, colorful bunting and balloons. The atmosphere was so happy and even though I didn’t understand what was being said at the ceremony as I don’t speak Dutch, the joy and celebration was clear. Toasts and cake cutting followed the ceremony before heading to the church for the second ceremony of the day.
After both ceremonies, when JA were married in the eyes of the Dutch government and the Church, everyone returned to the reception site for an amazing dinner of made to order wood fired pizzas before moving into the tent for desserts, dancing and partying the night away. One of the highlights of the reception was a complete surprise to JA. One of Arjan’s sisters arranged for a famous Dutch folk singer to join the reception later in the night and sing for everyone. Everyone was having a blast before he arrived, and the energy just continued once he began singing. From a train to line dances, to singing along with well known favorites to lighting sparklers to throwing the bouquet and dancing with the bride and groom on their shoulders, everyone danced the night away in a fashion that surely won’t ever be forgotten. Congratulations Jacobiene and Arjan and thank you from the bottom of my heart for entrusting me to photograph your amazing wedding day!
