By Lauren C. Ostberg

Just before the ceremony. By Lee Kilpatrick

The words of a wedding ceremony are, for the most part, uninteresting. They’re rehearsed, formulaic, vaguely impersonal. Do you, I do. Do you? Me, too.

Contrary to cinematic interpretations, no one speaks up to offer “a reason why these two should not be wed.” Even during the toasts, you can expect sugarcoated synopses of a relationship. An eavesdropping guest would be more intrigued by the murmurs of acquaintances.

Two Somerville-based amateur wedding photographers prefer the warts-and-all candid shot to a generically-posed engagement photo. Their exhibit, called “Forever Hold Your Peace,” is on display at the Washington Street Art Center until the end of the month.

Lee Kilpatrick displayed photos of a tattooed bride smoking after a City Hall ceremony, a mother-in-law sulkily gazing out of a minivan window, a bored-looking guest on a stoop preparing for “the happiest day of someone’s life.” A software engineer by day and a digital photographer by avocation, Kilpatrick delights in capturing the everyday quality of a much-hyped rite.

Cheese nip bride. By Lee Kilpatrick

“Getting married is a fairly common event,” said Kilpatrick. “It’s not quite as universal as, say, eating or sleeping, but it’s something that a lot of people do.” Kilpatrick is not interested in altering his photos to make the ceremony look “shimmery, magic, golden”; instead, he wants to capture the reality of the experience. He snaps shots of the bride eating cheese nips, the family pounding coffee in the early morning.  After nine weddings, he’s developed a knack for capturing the underlying tenor of the event.

Gretchen Graham takes a more old-school approach. Her black and white wedding photographs were shot on film and developed in the Washington Street Art Center’s darkroom. She admires the quality of the light and the stark emotionality of black and white film, and uses it in 95 percent of her work.

While Kilpatrick aimed his lens at the mundane, in-the-moment detail, Graham zeroes in on the rituals of preparation. Her subjects are invariably grooming themselves, gazing into the mirror, smoothing a dress, or waiting for the hairdresser. One of her favorite photos shows an exhausted but still-beaming bride twelve hours after the wedding day kicked off. Her hair and makeup remain immaculate, but she’s tucked two tablecloths into the front of her dress.

“That’s my sister, to a T,” Graham said. And when Graham took the shot, she had a visceral sensation that she had captured the true-to-life image of a highly-orchestrated and energetically executed event.

30 years later. By Lee Kilpatrick

“Forever Hold Your Peace” will be on display at the Washington Street Art Center, 321 Washington Street, Somerville, until October 30, 2010.