Buddhist Wedding
I pride myself on being very diverse when it comes to cultural wedding coverage, yet this is my first Buddhist wedding. Based on my experience with other cultures, I would say a Buddhist wedding is a cross between a traditional Hindu ceremony and a Chinese tea ceremony. The outfits are silk and very colourful. Their performance dancing and musical tastes for this culture are similar to vintage Bollywood culture. Yet the group dancing is closer to older Chinese movements. They constantly serve tea to the elders and give gifts throughout the night. Family portraits take hours as the sheer number of key family numbers is high. And it seems every action or event had cultural significance. This was a multiday event. The reception can be seen below, but don’t forget to check out the ceremony as well.
Grand Empire Banquet And Convention Centre
Convention centres are essentially empty canvases. It gives couples the opportunity to completely customize everything at the venue for themselves and their wedding. When I first arrived at the Grand Empire Banquet Hall, the assembly was still happening but I could already tell it would be a huge setup. And while the decor did have the same grand effect of most Indian weddings, the little Nepali details made it unique. The floral choices and white pillars kept a neutral look, but they did have pops of a signature colour throughout. In this case, it was green to make the bride stand out when she switched into her traditional Napali dress.
Claireville Park
The fall season is almost over with the weather report predicted freezing rain all day for this wedding. So the hour-long portrait session got reduced to 20 minutes at Claireville Park. Still enough time to make some magic. We just weren’t able to go that far out into the conservation. The last thing you want is a storm to trap you in the middle of nowhere.
This couple returned the following year for a newborn session with their daughter.
