A hilarious chase after bridal veil wins 2023 International Wedding photographer of the Year

The International Wedding Photographer of the Year Awards (IWP) has just announced the winners of its 6th annual contest. Even if you’re not really into this genre (and I admit I am not), photos from this contest will prove that wedding photography can be incredibly fun, creative, and artistic.

This year’s winner is Deanne (Dee) Kampe from Melbourne, Australia. Her photo shows a candid, unplanned moment of a chase after a bridal veil carried by the wind. It captures such pure joy that you just can’t help smiling while looking at it! And of course, there are plenty more impressive photos in this year’s selection, and we bring you some of them in this article.

The 2022 contest saw more than 1,700 images from over 330 wedding photographers worldwide. Other than Dee, who has been proclaimed the 6th International Wedding Photographer of the Year, there are ten more category winners, plus runner-ups.

“After a year of being in and out of Melbourne’s notorious Covid-19 lockdowns, Liana and Jono’s wedding was my first wedding post-lockdown and this image is all the more sentimental to me for that reason,” Dee says about her winning photo, which also brought her the first place in the Couple Portrait category.

“We were setting up for portraits when a strong gust of wind unexpectedly took off with Liana’s veil. While Jono went racing after it, Liana, amused by the whole debacle laughed and embraced the situation for what it was. I instinctively began photographing and this frame was captured a few seconds into the veil’s escape.

Did they get the veil back? Yes they did. After lifting some 50 meters into the air we assumed it was long gone, but it had come to rest half-way up a telephone pole on the opposite side of the street. But that’s another story”

The Runner-Up was Matteo Lomonte from Italy with his capture of a young boy in the backseat of a wedding car. He was just enjoying the view of the celebrations while the newlyweds behind are peppered with confetti and rice as they leave the church as a married couple. While his image was the runner-up in the overall contest, it brought him the first place in the Black and White category.

Take a look at all the category winners below, along with some runner-ups that I personally loved most- You’ll find all of the category winners and the top 15 placing finalist images within each category on the IWP’s website.