Studio Gabriel is a wedding photography and film studio working across Cyprus. We cover Paphos, Limassol, Larnaca, Ayia Napa and Protaras and Nicosia, and we travel to villages and mountain venues anywhere on the island.
The way we photograph a wedding
I work as a documentary photographer. That means I photograph what is actually happening rather than staging a version of it, and it is a decision about the whole day rather than a style applied to it afterwards.
The pictures worth having are almost never the ones anyone asked for. They are the half-second before someone realises they are about to cry, the grandmother watching from the side of the room, the two people who have not stopped laughing since the church.
None of that survives being arranged. So I stay out of the way, I do not run the day to a shot list, and I would rather be the person you forget is in the room than the one repositioning you for the fourth time. When couples tell us afterwards that they barely noticed us, that is the job done properly. There are moments where standing back is the wrong answer, and we step in for those — light has to be managed, and family group photographs go faster and hurt less when somebody takes charge of them, and taking charge of them is our job, not your uncle’s. Beyond that, the day belongs to you.
Knowing the day before it happens
Most of what actually matters about photographing a wedding in Cyprus is specific to Cyprus, and it is not the kind of thing you can learn on the morning.
A traditional day runs to its own shape. The zomata happen at each of your homes, with the families around you and very little room to move. Then the church. Then the xeretisi, the receiving line, which absorbs a part of the evening that couples almost never budget for.
There is the heat, which decides where portraits can happen between June and September, and there is the light, which is the difference between a photograph taken at the right hour and the same photograph taken ninety minutes too early. Knowing all of that in advance is the difference between a photographer who is standing in the right place and one who is finding out as it happens. It is also why we would rather talk properly about your timeline before the day than hand you a package and wish you luck.
Photography and film, from one studio
We offer both photography and film, and we would rather cover both than have you coordinate two teams who have never worked together.
When one studio handles both, the day is planned around a single timeline instead of two suppliers quietly competing for the same corner of the church, and the photographs and the film end up telling the same story rather than two slightly different ones.
What you receive
Every photograph is edited individually rather than run through a batch preset, and that care is the reason full galleries take three to four months.
You receive a private online gallery at full resolution and without watermarks, everything delivered on USB, and printed wedding albums designed with you rather than dropped into a template. The gallery is yours to share and to download from directly, and nothing appears anywhere publicly unless you are happy for it to.
Recognition
Work from Studio Gabriel has been published by Photobug Community in 2018 and 2019, featured by LooksLikeFilm, and published in Cyprus Weddings Magazine.
Talk to us
If you are deciding who to book, the simplest next step is to tell us your date and your venue and we will let you know whether we are free.
Our FAQ answers most of what couples ask us first, and if you are planning from abroad, our guide to getting married in Cyprus from the UK covers the seasons, the airports and the paperwork.
Get in touch — we answer every enquiry ourselves.