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Wedding venue: Seattle Asian Art Museum

Limo: British Motor Coach

Makeup & hair: Off white

Dress: White by Vera Wang 2011

Musician: Julia Siegl

Officiant: Len Smolen http://www.weddingyourway.net/

Decorations: Rented Elegance

Florist: Jane Smith

Wedding favors: http://www.beau-coup.com/

Ronit’s day started out at Willow’s Lodge in Woodinville, then church ceremony at the Church of Resurrection in Bellevue, followed by quick stops at the UW Arboretum and Gasworks Park, before finally arriving at China Harbor restaurant for the reception.  Her wedding day make up was done by an artist from the Gene Juarez Salon in Redmond. The gorgeous bouquet is from QFC in Crossroad Mall.

Ronit’s 2 beautiful daughters and their best friend.  The three of them grew up together.

We stopped by Gregg’s Cycle in Bellevue. This is where they met right before their first date.

Dot painted this wall on the right.  She’s a really good painter!

Charlie is the doggie on the left.  Midori is the one on the right.

Their night started with a gorgeous view like this one. 

Bella Signature Design created this beautiful look for their reception site, with beautiful table decor and flowers.

I love these double duty wedding favors that also serve as table place “cards”.

The reception started with heartfelt speeches from the parents. 

Continued with a surprise performance by the cousins, complete with guitar, singing and rapping!

that prompted hard to control laughter like this:

Guests are about to burst into tears.

I was also happy to witness for the first time, a Persian kiss.  Guillaume happily obliged guests requests for one.  It starts with kissing the hand, then up the arm and ends on the lips!

First dance

The happy couple is dancing away with their guests – the night is still young!

Haleh and Guillaume, it was such an honor to have met you two, and to be part of your wedding day. I wish you the best for your marriage and a lifetime of happiness!

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!

Photographer: Black Cat White Cat Photography

Coordinator: Bella Signature Design

Caterer: Herban Feast

Dress: La Belle Elaine

Makeup: Laura Mercier at Nordstroms

Hair: Salon 7

Amelia and Brian, though I have only met you for a few short hours, I can tell how happy you are being with each other from your beautiful pictures, I wish you both a lifetime of happiness!

Groom looking sharp!

The guys:

Bride and her beautiful girls.

Amelia looks so radiant and gorgeous! 

Amelia and Brian had not seen each other before the ceremony.  This is the first time Brian caught a glimpse of her walking out towards the ceremony.

Raarrr, gorgeous couple!

I love the dramatic clouds of the Seattle skyline, perfect backdrop for this gorgeous couple and their wedding party!

This shot and the one above are straight out of camera. 

Brian’s brother Ty is one of the funniest people in the wedding party.  Not sure what inspired him to hop onto that pole …

One thing led to another, we have the bride and groom kissing across a traffic sign …

Great way to start the fun!

The workshop certainly did not disappoint, I was ecstatic to meet both Jasmine and her husband JD.  And they are both as real and fabulous as they are on the internet.  Here are some images that I captured during the group shoot that Jasmine led.  It was awesome to see how she interacts with the models and how she finds the most creamy mcDreamy light even on a harsh brightly lit day.   Oh, the models are the gorgeous Carlie and Gabriel.  They were one of Jasmine’s first couples and photographers themselves.

Jasmine, JD, and Jasmine’s mom, thank you for such a great day!  Jasmine, thank you for being an open book and sharing everything and caring for everybody’s success!  JD, thank you for all the snacks and organizing the workshop, oh, and for holding and adjusting all 21 of our cameras so that we can pose with Jasmine!   Jasmine’s mom, thank you for the warm hug at the start of the workshop and I’m sure Jasmine’s fabulousness must have come from you! I love you guys!  

Gabriel playing air guitar to its full glory!

Laura getting ready:

Mike is getting ready on the side of the venue.

Laura planned for a first look with Mike and has allocated plenty of time before the ceremony for pictures for just the two of them.  I really love it when couples do that.  The first look is as emotional as the ceremony.  In fact, it made my eyes all teary when I shot the first look.

Mike is anxiously waiting for Laura’s approach.  He could hear her greet some of the family on the way here, and the wait is almost over.

They are so happy to see each other.

 I think this is the part that got to me …  They are such a sweet and loving couple. 

This picture is taken by my very talented second shooter John from a second angle. 

Laura and Mike planned an outdoor wedding at this gorgeous venue, but Seattle weather was extremely unpredictable.  The rain came and went and came back.  Lucikly, Laura had a backup plan!  The indoor space was ready within minutes of notice.

Laura’s emotional walking down the aisle accompanied by her dad. 

Here’s the bridal party!