Nadia & Marcos' Hindu Wedding in Markham
Real talk for a second here friends: A big goal of ours for this year has been to better diversify our portfolio…
We want to better showcase people and families of colour, same sex couples, various religious ceremonies, etc. We want everyone who comes to view our site to see themselves in our photos, no matter their identity.
Here's how this becomes a challenge for us: Because we haven't had the opportunity to photograph certain things people will divert to other photographers who have, which, of course is understandable. But because we haven't had anyone take a chance on us, we don't have the content to share, and not having the content to share means not being hired, and not being hired to shoot means no content, and it continues in a circle.
When we got an email from Nadia saying her and Marcos were planning a last minute (our speciality ;)) Hindu ceremony and she wanted us to photograph it, we were over the moon excited! But when she asked if we had ever done it before, we were nervous. We explained to her that we hadn't but that diversity is so important to us and we are incredibly eager to photograph and learn more about different religions and traditions. Then she said yes.
So we went to Markham... We asked Nadia and her family probably 100 questions about what to expect, what'll be happening, who does what and goes where, just so we were as prepared as we possibly could be. Getting ready in the morning was easily one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen; there was so much life, incredible jewellery, and colour! So. Much. Colour.
See more photos down below. click to browse and enlarge
We went from Nadia’s mom’s house to the Markham Convention Centre
And we were so blown away by the beautiful ceremony set up they had in their hall and even more so all of the tradition that we were witnessing! From being fed, being blessed, being tied together, taking your first steps together, the incredible live entrance music... it felt majestic and the absolute right way to celebrate a marriage! What was a little reassuring was that Nadia and Marcos haven't done this before either which meant that things were going to be a little slower as they'd be learning on the fly too!
We didn’t have much one-on-one time with Nadia & Marcos after the ceremony
But of the little time we had together, we learnt so much about them; they're funny, they're relaxed, they're crazy about each other, they were hungry (who isn't after their ceremony?!), and they like to laugh. They were so easy to photograph because they were always smiling, they were so happy to finally have a minute to themselves after their ceremony and taking a photos with their guests. If they weren't famished I would have told them to stay outside and to say that they were taking photos so they could be alone just a minute longer.
