The day

Luke and Joanna told us early on that they were not good on camera. Almost every couple says this, and almost every couple is wrong — but it is a real worry, and the answer is not to talk them out of it. It is to film in a way that never asks them to perform in the first place.

So the morning was long lenses and distance, no direction, nothing repeated for the camera. By the middle of the afternoon something had shifted: they had stopped noticing us, and once that happens people become entirely themselves. By the evening they were, frankly, film stars. That transformation is on the film, and it is our favourite thing about it.

Liopetro had been set beautifully — the stone, the gardens, the long tables — and the food was genuinely one of the best we have been fed at a wedding, which is not a small thing when you have been filming since morning.

Then we took them out of the gates and into old Kouklia. The village is the ancient capital of Cyprus and the lanes behind the venue are lined with old stone houses, weathered doors and walls that have been there for centuries. Twenty minutes wandering through them gave us footage that looks nothing like a wedding venue — rustic, quiet, and completely theirs. If you are getting married at Liopetro, this is the single best thing you can do with your portrait time.

Back inside, a DJ who knew exactly what they wanted played nothing but songs they loved, and the dancing started early and did not really stop.