3 Ceremonies, a Stallion and a Flying Rabbi !

Wow. That's the best word I can use to describe my experience this past bank holiday weekend.

As you all know, I occasionally get contracted to work for and with other photographers. At around Easter, you will remember my trip to Rhinefield House in the New Forest (I blogged with photos of the horses LOL) - we were actually meeting up with my friend and talented photographer, Sophie Griffiths. it was at this get-together that Sophie asked if I would shoot with her at a large wedding in August - in the diary it went :)

I stayed with Sophie on Saturday night and when we went through the brief I could not believe my ears - hang on - 3 ceremonies (a civil, a Hindu and a Jewish) - groom arriving on a white stallion, Rabbi arriving in a chopper, the biggest marquee, EVER *lol* and dancing til the wee hours - ok then !

As you can imagine I took well over a thousand images on the day - that was just me, so you can at least double that !!! It was pretty difficult coming up with my favourites for this post, but here goes - I will try to add some commentary as I go ...

The temple had been built especially for the 2 outdoor ceremonies. The first ceremony was Hindu, with red chairs, flowers and decoration - very colourful !
Funky little Indian taxis were ferrying guests around - well, there were 500 to cope with :)

I had to indulge myself with this shot - the owner of the estate's really cool american car ... rrrrr

Indian music entertained the guests as they arrived and mingled on the lawns ...
The bride and her sisters waited patiently while the groom's procession made it's way down the trees ... 30 minutes to get down the hill !!!


It was definitely worth the wait - the music, the colours, the people - all loud, colourful and wonderful to behold - what an experience !

I used my fisheye lens quite a bit at this wedding ... there were a lot of cameras and video cameras around so I wanted to get myself in close and to not capture any other cameras - I was literally a couple of feet from the temple taking this shot !

The round temple was actually more difficult to shoot than we first thought - there were so many people in there ! But here I managed to capture a lovely expression on the bride's face - and the groom certainly looks very happy too :)

As you can imagine, with 500 guests, the formals were a tad challenging for Sophie - I managed to grab this shot from the side, showing the bride's family and her groom ...

Then it was all change again for the Jewish ceremony - the bride had opted for a white roses theme so all the flowers had to be replaced, including the floating petals in the little moat around the temple - there was much scurrying around by the flower ladies while the bride changed into her white dress ... to give you an idea of the scale of the wedding ... yes, that is the marquee on the right !!

I heard the helicopter overhead and knew I had to catch the Rabbi arriving - I have never been so close to one so the whole experience was pretty cool :)

Out with the fisheye lens for a shot of the ceremony - you can really get a feel for the number of guests and how intimate the temple was - that blue sky looks lovely in the photos but I did manage to get a little sunburned - we are never quite equipped for sunshine in the UK *lol*

The bride looked absolutely stunning - again - I love this image with a little burst of sunshine giving it a certain glow ...

And of course you guys know I love a little bit of detail ...
Then it was on to the walled garden for drinks ... I have never seen so many champagne glasses in one place :)

And then it was party time !!! And boy did they party !!!

This was their first dance - surrounded by hundreds of guests - it was absolutely packed full :)

Of course, no Jewish wedding is complete without a Hora ...
Then it was the turn of the Indian DJ and a drummer from the daytime celebrations joining in ... great stuff !!!
As always, I hope you enjoyed the images :)

Gill x

Note: The wedding was held in a private estate (which had been one-off sanctioned for this purpose) - I have not named names here, to protect everyone's identity - any enquiries relating to this wedding need to go through Sophie herself.