A Wedding Party in San Miguel de Allende

As part of Mexico’s bicentennial celebrations and to commemorate the town’s role in independence, San Miguel de Allende has a sound and light show every weekend that’s focussed on the beautiful Parroquia church on the main square.

I have to admit that seeing a sound and light show on the list of photos I had to shoot when I was a travel photographer working on guide books saw me raiding the mini-bar… before going on the shoot.

A Wedding Party in San Miguel de Allende is Much More Fun than the Sound and Light Show

The photos I had to shoot of the obligatory sights used to bore me – and to be fair, local photographers would always have better photos than me anyway – as they could wait for just the right light on the perfect day to make a great photo.

While this one was fine (the church is beautiful and doesn’t need make-up to look pretty!), what was more fun was a celebration of a different kind… afterwards a wedding party passed through the square.

This is what I like photographing – the unexpected things that you see when you travel. Those days when you arrive at a town to unexpectedly see the annual march through town or a parade or a religious spectacle that you know the locals have been preparing for all year – these things make travel photography worthwhile.

The wedding guests were easily identifiable. They wore red kerchiefs to signify that they were entitled to drinks from the donkey-drawn ‘bars’ that accompanied them en route around this beautiful old colonial town.

After around fifteen minutes of drinking, singing and dancing, and just generally making everyone else not participating in the celebrations envious, the wedding party moved on to their next stop.

That was way more fun that watching photos projected on a cathedral! Or, well, actually any wedding I’ve ever been to. These kids know how to have fun.