This is one wedding that I was excited and nervous about as I had never had the pleasure of shooting a Muslim wedding. When I pulled up in front of the mosque in South Brunswick, NJ I was in awe of its beauty. My second shooter for the day was Daniel of Daniel Nydick Photography and I know that he was just as jazzed to shoot this wedding as I was. (see picture below of him being jazzed)
The first thing that surprised me were the colors of the Sakina’s garments. They were a bright shade of red and gold and had such intricate details that I wasn’t sure if a picture of them would even do it justice. Her hands were adorned in beautiful henna designs, as were her feet. She was surrounded by all of the woman in her family and her soon to be family as they performed a special ceremony to prepare her for marriage.
The ceremony then took place in the mosque and there were more people there than the main prayer room could hold. Guests spilled out into the hallways and anywhere else they could fit. The ladies were on one side of the room and then men were in the middle, which made it interesting to photograph. Daniel covered the men’s section and I had to stay in the women’s section. Luckily, Daniel’s a great photographer and was able to capture the ceremony perfectly.
We were then treated to a delicious dinner that was made by the families and I got to try a mango lassie for the first time. I loved it so much that I went out a week later and tried to reproduce it, with no luck. I used Greek yogurt and I probably should have used regular yogurt. It was a little chunky.
After dinner they had a private cake cutting ceremony with just family and friends. Their cake was a decadent looking chocolate cake. They both handed out thank you gifts to the special people in their lives. After dessert, the couple left and the guests filed out soon afterwards. I loved getting to see a different culture and different religious ceremony and can’t wait to find another wedding like this to shoot
