All stories

Venice, Italy

Letters in Venice

Sofia and Daniel came to Venice with two handwritten letters and no guest list. One unhurried day, from a quiet morning by the window to their vows at dusk on the lagoon.

The couple sitting close together in a gondola on the water in front of the Doge's Palace and the Campanile of St Mark's, a gondolier rowing behind them

A sample story, illustrated with stock photographs by Micah & Sammie Chaffin. It stands in until the first weddings are published here.

Sofia had written her letter weeks earlier and rewritten it the night before. In the morning she sat at the old desk in their room and read it once more, slowly, while the canal outside woke up.

The bride in her wedding dress sitting at an antique wooden desk in a softly lit room, writing, with daylight coming through tall windows behind her
Black-and-white photograph of the bride seen from behind, standing at an open window with long curtains, looking out over the rooftops

There was no aisle and no audience. They met on a small bridge over a side canal, letters in hand, and read them to each other with the water moving underneath. A few people walking past slowed down. Most of them didn't notice, which suited both of them.

Close-up of the couple's hands touching lightly, her sleeve embroidered with tiny beads, a blurred painting of Venice behind them
The groom in a black suit reading from a folded letter to the bride on a bridge, the sunlit canal and houses behind them

Afterwards we let the city carry us: a gondola from the Piazzetta, past the Doge's Palace, then into the narrow canals, where everything slows down to the rhythm of a single oar.

The couple smiling in a gondola gliding along a narrow canal between pale stone buildings, a gondolier rowing behind them

By evening the light over the lagoon had gone soft and pale. Across the water the dome of the Salute caught the last of it, and they read their letters one more time, now for no one but each other.

The bride and groom facing each other at sunset, he reading from a letter, the dome of Santa Maria della Salute across the water behind them
The bride's hand resting in the groom's above the water of the lagoon, her lace sleeve catching the evening light
Close embrace of the couple, her hand with a wedding ring on his cheek, their foreheads touching
Silhouettes of the couple facing each other at dusk, the domes of the Salute and the Venetian skyline behind them

I like days like this: no schedule to keep, nothing to announce, only a few words written by hand and a city that takes its time.

The couple embracing at the edge of the lagoon at blue hour, the lights of the city low on the horizon

Photographs: Micah & Sammie Chaffin on Unsplash, used under the Unsplash License.