Its come time to add another creature to the endangered species list.
Bridezillas have been steadily disappearing in the wild, with recent sightings fodder only for spurious reality TV shows and tabloid magazines.
Yet everyone has a story: known to assume the form of an average, mild-mannered woman, somewhere between Will you? and I do, the Bridezilla appears a delicate yet fierce creature prone to outbursts and best handled by people she trusts.
Photographers Cole Roberts and Jakob Granqvist have been capturing women in their wedding habitats for years. The should-be Bridezilla experts admit, though, that they have never once encountered the magnificent beast in their years of work.
The local wedding community is taking it as a sign that perhaps yet another cliché has been hunted to near extinction.
It was during this very scientific study, however, that WE discovered an equally rare animal that we christened the all-male wedding photography duo. The first of its kind documented in Vancouver (that we know of), it is made up ofCole Roberts and Jakob Granqvist.
Husband-and-wife teams are common in the industry, but two dudes who work weddings together? Not so much.
The two friends present such an interesting case, that in addition to their anecdotal evidence on whether girls really go cray cray during weddings, we wanted them to be the subject of Part 2 of our Fall wedding feature.
Cole Roberts (left and Jakob Ganqvist (right) of Nordica Photography
They met at business school in Sweden while studying marketing. In 2007, Granqvist took a job that involved journalistic photography and photoblogged on the side. Roberts moved to Vancouver in 2008 and started photoblogging as well, getting his first break when Rebecca Bollwitt of Miss604 fame invited him to be a photoblogger at the Canadian Country Music Awards.
Granqvist made the move to Vancouver in late 2009, and by May of the next year they had shot their first wedding together, going on to shoot close to 20 over the next 12 months.
Their business, Nordica Photography, is now active around the world, shooting 50 weddings a year on average, and the two have built a reputation for taking on weddings in adventurous locations.
They chose weddings for the opportunity to tell the story of the most important day in the lives of many. Drawn to documentation, when they discovered that storytelling could be applied to weddings, they found the niche a natural fit, developing a photojournalistic style that results in spectacular wedding photos for their happy customers.
H-A-P-P-Y, not rage-fueled she-monsters.
The entire industry has been painted with a cliché, which is really unfortunate, Roberts says. We always get asked about what its like to deal with Bridezillas, but in reality we never have.
When we say were wedding photographers, he adds, people roll their eyes because of the immediate assumption weddings are [full of] heart-shaped hands and princess brides but thats not our experience at all.
Their experience, instead, embraces honesty.
The best themes have been ones that were genuine and meaningful for the couple. No gimmicks, no hopping on the trend bandwagon because of what they saw on a blog just being real and themselves.
When they arent shooting weddings in Iceland, Kenya, France or the Domincan Republic, they love to shoot in East Vancouver and Ladner, saying the two local locations are like giant playgrounds of photography awesomeness.
Granqvist is moving home shortly, and Roberts is getting married. Theyll continue to pack their camera bags and hop on the planes together, but what of Roberts own wedding photos?
Our plans have only started to take shape. What I will say, he smiles, is Jakob is incredible after hes had a few beers, and seeing as hell be at the wedding in one form or another, hes a logical choice to multitask the partying with the shooting. But if Jakob wasnt an option, Fer Juaristi and Jonas Peterson both have a lot of potential.
As far as shooting a friends wedding, we have done it and there have been no problems. Its all about communication and laying out all the expectations beforehand. So, if you can find some common ground, then of course its a great idea. (He says confidently)
After all, there is a reason the term Groomzilla doesnt exist.
