Kristine and Lars were married at Utne church on one of the warmest days of July. It was around thirty degrees, the fjord lay still as glass, and Hardanger showed itself the way travel brochures describe it — only without the staging.
This was a shorter assignment than a typical wedding. Three hours, maybe four. I followed the preparations, the ceremony in the church, and the congratulations afterwards. As the procession set off towards the reception tent, I sent up the drone and caught the wedding car rolling along the fjord — the kind of frame you can’t get from the ground. Once they had arrived at the reception, my work was done.
It’s a way of working I like for weddings where the heart of the day is the ceremony and the departure. The day isn’t documented less — it’s documented in a way that fits what the couple actually wanted.
Utne church is one of the loveliest wooden churches on Norway’s west coast, and Hardanger that day was everything you hope for when you plan a summer wedding. Sometimes a story doesn’t need to be longer than that.