Most couples choose one place to celebrate a wedding. Cheetah Platt and Rhiann Woodyard turned the question into a journey, bringing wedding clothes and their acrobatic skills to a series of very different settings.

Their project attracted attention in 2015, when they set out with a plan for 38 celebrations over 83 days. The photographs combine travel, performance and a repeated personal ritual, giving the journey a recognisable thread even as the surroundings change.

Cheetah Platt and Rhiann Woodyard posing in wedding clothes near the pyramids in Egypt
Cheetah Platt and Rhiann Woodyard posing in wedding clothes near the pyramids in Egypt.

A wedding story told across several places

The archive includes scenes captioned in Egypt, Ireland, India, Thailand, Kenya and other destinations. The repeated clothing helps connect them, while local architecture and landscapes make each chapter look different.

The couple in wedding clothes within the landscape at Boleycarrigeen stone circle in Ireland
The couple in wedding clothes within the landscape at Boleycarrigeen stone circle in Ireland.

The acrobatic poses add another layer: Platt and Woodyard were trained performers, and their physical partnership became part of the visual story. A pose that looks effortless in a finished photograph can involve substantial practice and careful positioning.

Enjoy those images as performances by the people who made them, rather than instructions to reproduce a lift on a cliff, monument or unfamiliar surface.

The headline counted celebrations

Contemporary reporting described a sequence of personal wedding ceremonies, not evidence of 38 separate legally registered marriages. A March 2015 account explained the symbolic nature of the celebrations and the couple’s plan to handle marriage paperwork separately in California.

The 38-in-83-days figure was the reported project plan at that stage. It should not be treated as independently verified documentation of every completed ceremony or as advice about marriage law in the countries pictured.

For anyone planning their own destination wedding, the practical paperwork belongs in a separate conversation with the relevant authorities and providers.

What makes the photographs work

A repeated element gives a series coherence. Here, the wedding clothes establish the theme immediately, so the viewer can concentrate on how each new setting changes the scene.

The wide Ireland photograph, for example, gives the landscape plenty of space around the couple. The Egypt image uses a very different visual backdrop. Together they show how one personal idea can travel without requiring every photograph to look the same.

You can borrow that storytelling principle without borrowing the acrobatics. A handwritten date, a favourite jacket or a shared gesture can connect a small set of travel photographs.

Make a celebration fit the people having it

Ask what you want to remember: a meal with family, a place meaningful to you both, a quiet promise or a larger gathering. Then choose a plan that makes room for that experience.

The number of locations does not measure the quality of the celebration. A single afternoon can be as personal as a long itinerary, and a slower trip may leave more time for the people you are travelling with.

Agree on a budget, photography time and moments when the camera will be put away. Our couples travel guide offers useful questions for making those decisions together.

Keep the inspiration personal

This is a historical story about one couple’s creative project. Its most useful idea is the freedom to shape a celebration around shared interests. For a different approach to a photographic journey, explore How Far From Home. Both projects show the storytelling power of a simple idea carried from place to place.