A visual wedding story

Reanna & Hawkeye

Riverside on the Potomac · Leesburg, Virginia · June twenty-first

Reanna & Hawkeye

A day as light as the two of them.

The wedding invitation suite thrown up against a blue sky, cards and envelope caught mid air

Chapter I

The First Look

Riverside on the Potomac · Leesburg, Virginia

He waited on the lawn with his back turned. She crossed the grass and folded his collar back, and there was their date, stitched inside it in blue thread. He had put it there and told nobody.

The groom waiting on the lawn with his back turned, two friends standing with him

The bride walking across the lawn in her gown, a guest in green beside her

The bride and groom facing each other on the lawn at the first look, the groom laughing

The groom doubled over laughing on the lawn after seeing the stitched date

Close on the bride's hands folding back the groom's jacket collar, where he had had their wedding date embroidered in blue thread

06.21.2026, stitched inside the collar

The bride and groom holding each other on the lawn after the first look

Black and white, the bride held in a long embrace by two men in dark suits and sunglasses

The bride's gown and train trailing across the gravel drive

The hem of the bride's gown and her shoe on the gravel

Chapter II

The Two of Them

Gardens, then the gate, then the long grass at the top of the property with the whole valley behind it. The sky did most of the work that afternoon.

The garden seen through dark leaves, the bride alone on the stone balcony above the field

A tall floral arrangement of peach, coral and cream blooms

The bride and groom standing together in front of a large tree

The bride and groom kissing on the lawn beneath a huge summer tree

Black and white, the bride and groom close together with the trees behind them

The bride's veil blowing across the couple as they kiss against a bank of clouds

The groom lifting the bride off her feet in the long grass at the top of the property

The bride and groom pressed together laughing, the valley behind them

The bride sitting in the grass with her gown spread out around her

Chapter III

The Ceremony

Chairs on the grass above the water, programmes on every seat, and one chair left empty with flowers on it for the people who could not be there. They said their vows with the river behind them and walked back up the aisle into everybody at once.

Rows of white ceremony chairs with a programme laid on each seat

The aisle looking down toward the water before the ceremony

The ceremony from above, guests seated on the grass and the couple at the front with the river behind them

Black and white, a single empty chair with flowers laid on it, kept for the people who could not be there

For the ones who could not be there

The bride and groom exchanging rings during the ceremony

Flowers in the foreground with the couple soft behind them at the altar

The bride and groom kissing under the floral arch with the pond behind them

Black and white, the couple coming back up the aisle into the crowd

The couple kissing at the altar as the guests get to their feet

The bride and groom walking back down the aisle together

The couple climbing the stone steps up from the ceremony lawn

Chapter IV

The Barn

You go in low, through an opening in the side of the barn. Cocktail hour happens down there among the stables, cigars going, drinks out on the balcony while the light held, and in June the light held past eight. Dinner is the floor above, so everyone walks back out that same door and up the hill again to reach it, which is the best walk of the evening. The drinks came inside when dinner started, and the floor filled early and never really emptied again.

Black and white, the dark barn interior looking out through the opening to the trees

Guests gathered along the barn's long covered passage

The bride and groom framed in the barn doorway with the daylight behind them

The barn dining room laid with round tables under string lights, the couple dancing in the middle of it

The groom dipping the bride on the barn's wooden floor, a timber post in the foreground

The bride spinning on the barn floor, her gown flying out

The bride and groom dancing against the slatted barn wall, daylight coming through the boards

Wildflowers on the table in near darkness with guests behind them

The couple dancing, blurred, under the string lights

Chapter V

The Table

Oysters coming out of the kitchen in trays, flowers along the bar, and the two of them taken off to a quiet room with stone walls to eat before anybody could ask them for anything.

A tray of hot appetisers coming out of the kitchen

A tray of oysters on ice held up in the dark

The bride and groom eating together alone in a stone walled room

Ten minutes, just the two of them

A coupe glass raised over trays of oysters on a dark wooden table

A hand lettered welcome sign on an easel beside the barn window

Wildflower arrangements running down a long dark table

The bar in the barn, bottles lit by lamplight

The empty barn floor at night, a single arrangement of flowers on a stool in the light

Chapter VI

The Cake

One tier, hand lettered, and good enough that it was gone almost as soon as it was cut.

The single tier cake on its wooden stand, hand lettered across the top

Hands cutting into the single tier wedding cake beside a bowl of flowers

The bride and groom laughing over their plates of cake

Chapter VII

After Dark

Cigars went round outside, somebody's white dinner jacket caught every light in the place, and the hugging did not really stop until the lawn emptied.