A beautiful part of this traditional Jewish ceremony had the bride, dressed like a starlet of a bygone era in a lace strapless gown and sleeve overlay with an elbow length veil, walk solo to meet her parents halfway down the aisle, where they both escorted her to her groom who waited before the Chuppah at the head of the aisle. Our combination of using high ISO to capture ambient light, as well as a small pop of on-camera flash to fill in the details of her dress, sets the scene for this image perfectly, with a strong woman walking to meet the man she'll marry, but asking her family to join her, as no one marries alone. The warmth of the lighting in the room contributes to the sense of familial protectiveness, and the smiling faces combined with the cameras and cell phones excitedly held up to snap an image of the arriving bride solidly positions this as a modern ceremony image. (This ceremony even had a very infirm and elderly guest from Israel joining the festivities via FaceTime on another guest’s iPad, which was a marvel of modern technology and so sweet to behold.)
B’nai Torah in Boca Raton, Florida, is the location of this spacious and very functional temple and celebration space. We were delighted that the entire wedding was to take place at one location; a small Bedeken took place prior to some time outside for portraits (though the weather kept us under cover most of the afternoon with some lucky wedding rain), followed by the signing of the Ketubah with the groom, both families, and their rabbi, which was then followed by an official bedeken ceremony, consisting of the groom and his close family singing and dancing their way to the bride, who was then veiled by her soon-to-be husband. The involvement of family in every aspect of a traditional Jewish wedding is touching and meaningful; many of these traditions can be borrowed from for meaningful moments for even a secular wedding.
Location: B'nai Torah, Boca Raton, Florida.
1/125; f/2.0; ISO 1600; 35.0 mm.