For Kennesha's bridal session, we headed to Washington D.C. We first stopped by the capital to grab some shots (I was surprised by the amount of seagulls hanging out around the frozen water feature out front :-)) and then moved on to the mall to finish up with more emblematic monuments used as backdrops, including the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial (Nesha was so excited about those photos :-).) It was cold for sure that day in early January, but it was so much fun!! Thanks for playing along Nesha ... you were stunning!!
I just had to make sure and blog this wedding! I first met Kennesha (I call her Nesha) a couple of years back while photographing my friend, Brittany's wedding in Orlando, Florida. Nesha is one of Brittany's best friends (she traveled from her home state of Maryland for the wedding) and she tagged along with us for Brittany's bridal session. It was memorable for Nesha because it was the first time in her life she had ever been to the ocean! I thought it was so sweet how excited she was ... just like a child seeing it for the first time :-)! I told her when it was her time to get married to call.
Fast forward a couple of years and sure enough I got that call! I was soooo excited she remembered. Kennesha and her wonderful husband, Ben, were married at their church on January 7th, 2012 in Maryland. Afterwards we headed over to the University of Maryland Campus to take formal photos. The campus grounds were beautiful and made for a stunning backdrop. The couple also got very lucky in the way of weather! It was unseasonably warm that day and felt almost spring-like.
Thank you Nesha and Ben for having me as a part of your wedding day! It meant the world to me :-)!
Love you guys :-)!!!
The final part of Bebe and Dagogo's three day Nigerian wedding event was the White Wedding held on December 17th, 2011. It took place in Port Harcourt and it was magnificent! Bebe wore a stunning dress designed by Enzoani, shoes by Jimmy Choo and jewelry by Swarovski. Some of Nigeria's most acclaimed singers and recording artists were on hand to serenade the couple and Kings and Chiefs were among some of the approximately 1500 guests. Again, we can not express enough how amazing it was to travel to Africa for this beautiful event! Thank you both so much for having us as your wedding photographers!
Day two of Bebe and Dagogo's amazing event was reserved for the Traditional Wedding! It was held in their home city of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Africa. It was extremely interesting to see the entire day unfold. Bebe had multiple outfit changes that were required and every item that traded hands at the main table, every piece of fabric, the lanterns, jewelry, headpieces, everything had a purpose and a meaning. It was a beautiful day and Bebe's jewelry and all the outfits were stunning!
We don't even know how to describe this experience. It was an incredibly unique opportunity that we feel so blessed to have been given!
Biobele and Dagogo, otherwise known as Bebe and Dags, held their spectacular three day long wedding in Nigeria, Africa, and we were fortunate enough to be found and hired by them to travel halfway across the world to photograph it!! Dags lives in Austin, Texas, and works with a former client of ours, Tunde (of Tunde and Neha who were married in Cancun last June.) After seeing Tunde's wedding photographs, he contacted us and the rest is history. Before we knew it we were on a very, very long plane ride to Africa.
I (Tina) have been to East Africa several times and was so excited to return to this beautiful continent to experience another side of it. I do have to admit though, the more we read up on the current events happening in Nigeria, we did get a bit concerned. We were headed to the oil-rich southern region of Nigeria known as the Rivers State. The area is known for it's kidnappings of foreigners, mostly of those working for the oil companies, however anyone visiting the area is thought to be working for the oil companies so this put us at some risk.
Once there though, the fear faded and we found ourselves in the company of many very gracious people. Our base was Port Harcourt, but the first wedding day took place in Buguma City on December 9th, 2011. It celebrated the Kalabari Culture and is known as the Iya Traditional Marriage, the highest level wedding in the culture.
Due to the kidnapping danger we did not do any sightseeing during our stay, therefore most of our experiences of the area, it's people and their culture was gleaned from the wedding days. The first day, being in a smaller city where we literally paraded through the streets, gave us our best opportunities to capture images not only of the events surrounding the wedding, but the local people and street scenes as well. For that reason, this post is extra large as we have blended the wedding with the local street scenes as this was actually the way the day unfolded.
Coverage throughout this entire three day event was very photojournalistic with little in the way of posed photos (though there were some.) The pace was high energy and hectic, days were long and there was a lot to cover. In addition there were several other local photographers involved as well as several videographers, so it often felt like we were jockeying for position amongst the paparazzi :-). By far, it was one of the most challenging weddings we have ever covered and we loved every minute of it! We love cultural weddings - the colors, energy and heightened emotions are what we thrive off of - and to be able to photography a wedding like this in its country of origin is beyond words! Bebe and Dagogo, thank you for trusting enough in our vision to have us travel such a monumental distance to be your wedding photographers. We loved having a chance to experience your country and culture from an insiders perspective. It was an experience we will hold dear to us the rest of our lives ... thank you both for that!! Enjoy!
Some fun photos of us taken throughout the day :-)!
