Today I am pleased to bring you a post that is filled with firsts for me. A while back, my friend Faisal said that one of his close friends and neighbors, Davina, was looking around for a wedding photographer. I met with Davina and her fiance Ty, and we all clicked right away. They loved my pictures, and when I heard the details of their wedding, I was super excited about working together. I was excited because this was going to be my very first mixed wedding. It wasn’t just any normal mixed wedding. Davina has a Chinese background, while Ty has a Sudanese background, so it was one giant melting pot of goodness. Another first for this wedding, it was on a Thursday! Ty is in the Navy and could take off only during certain times, so Thursday was the only time that things were working out. The fact that I got a weekend off in the summer was a good enough reason for me to book this. Another first was the fact that they had a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. I always wanted to shoot a tea ceremony, so I was thrilled to get an opportunity to photograph it. This was also the first wedding I did where the ceremony took place in Davina’s backyard. I love this aspect of the wedding, and feel that more weddings should start incorporating this method. Having a wedding at home or somewhere outdoors is much more personal, typically better for photography, and lets family really immerse themselves in the experience. So to all of you future brides, give outdoor wedding a chance (but never in direct sunlight)!  Lastly, this was also the first time where I shot outdoors, and the temperature was around 100° with super high humidity! Everybody was sweating up a storm, except maybe the bride.  Luckily, the ceremony was short and sweet, and I didn’t melt into the earth after 🙂 Despite the crazy heat, I had a awesome time with these two and their families. The wedding was such a blast, and I had such a good time with them, that I decided to make a slideshow of the wedding… one of the longest I’ve ever made. So without further ado, enjoy the slideshow. If you’re a bit lazy and don’t want to wait for it to load, simply scroll down to see all the awesomeness.

Le Pictures

Congratulations Again Ty & Davina!

Special Thanks to Aamir for helping me second shoot this one.

Also, thanks to Faisal for referring me to the lovely couple and coming out to be a test dummy the day before.

Remember that epic E-session in the mountains I posted for my friends Aarti & Kedar a while back? If you don’t, you need to click on this link immediately. I present you today with some of the highlights from their wedding that I shot 3 weekends ago. The wedding took place at the beautiful Aloft hotel in Cherry Hill New Jersey. Now I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of NJ. The traffic is usually horrible, there’s NO U-turns, you can’t pump your own gas, and there’s not a whole lot of greenery or scenic areas around. Regardless, the wedding itself was really awesome, and we all rocked it out. I could sit here and talk about how great the wedding was, but instead, I’ll just post the images below for you all to enjoy.

Reception

Special Thanks to Mr. Chuck Anerino for helping me out

Here is part two of Mehul & Sejal’s mega wedding. This session is one of my most colorful sessions to date. There was a traditional hindu wedding ceremony in the morning, and the evening was followed up with a beautiful reception. The morning ceremony was full of flowers, fun, and a lot of emotional moments, and I had a lot of fun covering all these remarkable aspects. The reception was one of the most beautiful Indian wedding receptions that I’ve ever witnessed, so you may notice a lot of details shots in this post. Hope you all enjoy the set!