Nikta and Behram’s Zoroastrian Wedding

Although we are privileged to shoot a lot of multi-cultural weddings, living as we do in the Bay Area, Nikta and Behram’s wedding was a very special one for us. Nikta and Behram are both Zoroastrian, as is Meher.  You won’t see many Zoroastrian ceremonies now-a-days, especially not in the United States. Behram was born in India like Meher, and Nikta’s family came over from Iran several years ago, before she was born. They started the day at the Le Meridien Hotel with love notes to each other while getting ready separately. We then helped coordinate the “first look” at a beautiful curved staircase located within the hotel. They wanted to ensure that there would be enough time to get some cool shots in the city, so we took off with the couple to the Palace of Fine Arts, and then some more urban shots in the financial district, very close to the Julia Morgan wedding venue. The ceremony was conducted by Nikta’s grandfather, who is a Zoroastrian priest. It was a beautiful and touching ceremony, with ancient prayers blessing this couple’s future together. The reception took place in the beautiful and classic Julia Morgan Ballroom. In true Persian fashion, the reception started and ended with dancing. Nikta’s cousins even put on a choreographed dance performance for her as a surprise! We had fun working with the very talented videographers from REB6Studios, who did a killer highlight trailer of the wedding.

Shabnam and Jon’s Persian Wedding at the Westin Saint Francis

Shabnam and Jon had an elegant Persian wedding at the Westin Saint Francis hotel on Union Square in San Francisco. The ceremony took place in Victor’s Palace and the reception at Alexandra’s, both on the 32nd floor, with great views of the city.  The bride was stunning and the groom dashingly handsome. The best man made a comment about how Shabnam looks like Princess Jasmine of Disney fame — he was not far off This was a super fun wedding with a lot of Persian-style dancing, gorgeous guests, and great food. We managed to sneak the bride and groom away for some cool photos around the historic hotel after the ceremony. A special thanks to Natasha from the Westin and Niosha, the day of coordinator, both of whom helped ensure the event progressed smoothly.

Banafshe & Babak’s Persian Wedding

Banafshe and Babak got married at the Walnut Creek Marriott, a beautiful and joyful event celebrated with lots of music, laughter, food and love. The couple got ready in separate rooms and then saw each other before the ceremony to take some photos around the venue. It was a every emotional meeting with only immediate family in attendance. Once guests started arriving we hid the couple away and focused on the details of the ceremony.  We love the beauty and elegance of persian weddings, the sofreh which is an essential part of persian weddings, was put together by Banafshe and Babak’s parents. The sofreh consists of a number of items placed before the bride and groom in a spread, some food items and some symbolic, with a beautiful mirror that is placed before the couple so that they can look at each other through it, and two candelabras to shine light onto the couple. During the cocktail hour we took them to Heather Park for some outdoor portraits. Back at the reception site things went right into dancing which continued well into the night.

It was great to work with Martin Meyer (videographer) again, we can’t wait to see his final edit of the wedding.