Guillaume and Haleh – Portraits and Ceremony

On one of the hottest days in July, Haleh and Guillaume, together with their family and friends, joined hands in a traditional Persian wedding ceremony.  I have the absolute honor to document their intimate ceremony.  They are such a fun couple to be around with, never leaving a chance to be playful and to laugh together.  The same goes for their family, their French-English bilingual ceremony brought many smiles to the crowd.  

Many thanks go to Bella Signature Design for making the event so beautiful, to Haleh’s cousins for hosting a great party, and for Herban Feast for their very yummy food and great service.

After their first look, Haleh and Guillaume spent a few minutes getting some relaxed portraits done.  I think this is the best way to arrange the day!  They told me later in the night that they were so glad to have done so. They are less nervous seeing each other during the ceremony and can enjoy the rest of the time with their family and friends, all of them have travelled far from all over the world.

It’s almost 5 o’clock and the ceremony is about to start.  Per Persian traditions, the groom will be accompanied by his male friends and family to greet the bride.  Here they are starting their walk, down the stairs.

You can see the line building down towards the waterfront, the men are clapping as they walked down.

Here’s the crowd anticipating Haleh’s arrival.

There comes the gorgeous bride with her parents down from the tram, quite a grand and unique entrance!

Helah’s twin cousins officiated the ceremony.  It was really personal and filled with sense of humor.  We all enjoyed listening to their Paris love story retold.

You can see the couple is sitting in front of a table, it’s called a Sofreh.  I copied these text from wikipedia to explain items on the Sofreh.

The Seven Herbs: Khashkhash (poppy seeds), Berenj(kind of wild rice), Sabzi Khoshk (Angelica), Salt , Raziyane(Nigella seeds), Cha’i (black tea) and Frankincense (Kondor). Halva. Mohammadan flower). This is to perfume the air.
The Sacred Text is placed on the centre of the cloth. For Muslim couples, it would be the Qur’an,for Zorastians Avesta, for Christians Bible, for Jews the Torah. Some families also add a poetry book such as Hafez Divan or Rumi Divan. Salat), the prayer carpet also includes a small cube of clay with prayers written on it (Mohr) and a rosary (Tasbih). Non-Muslim families may or may not omit the prayer kit.

The Seven Pastries: Noghl(confetti), Baklava, Tout, Nane Bereneji, Nane Badumi, Sohan, and

Mirror of Fate and two candelabras, symbols of light and fire. When the bride enters the room she has her veil covering her face. Once the bride sits beside the bridegroom she removes her veil and the first thing that the bridegroom sees in the mirror should be the reflection of his wife-to-be.

The Blessed Bread: A specially baked bread with calligraphy written on it.

Symbols of Fertility eggs, almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts.

The Heavenly Fruits: pomegranates, grapes, apples.

Persian Rose: A cup of rose-water and a rose extracted from the Gole-Mohammad (

Shakh-e-Nabat: A bowl made out of crystallized sugar(sugarplum, rock candy). Also a cup of honey should be on the cloth. Immediately after the couple is married they each should dip one pinky finger in the cup of honey and feed it to the other one.

Esphand: A brazier holding burning coals sprinkled with wild rue, a popular incense. Wild rue is used in many ceremonies, rituals and purification rites. It is believed to keep the evil eye away.
Coins: A bowl of gold coins representing wealth and prosperity (in modern-day weddings, normal coins are even used)

Prayer Carpet: “Ja-ye-Namaz” spread open in the Aghd-cloth to remind the couple of importance of ritual prayer(

This is the time when Guillaume says yes to the question of whether to take Haleh to be his wife.

The bride, on the other hand, per Persian traditions, has to remain silent the first two times when asked to take the groom as her husband.  They have slightly modified the tradition to explain that Haleh went to send an email and to update her facebook status.

Honey indicates sweetness in their marriage.

Reception and dancing to follow tomorrow!