Last Wednesday was a beautiful day for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance and co. to put on the first Farmer’s Market of the year in City Plaza! I was there to photograph the event for them and had a great time, as usual. :) So many great vendors and people there! It’s held every Wednesday from 10am-2pm in City Plaza through October. The vendors come from all over North Carolina and not only have vegetables and fruit, but also fish, flowers, jewelry, crafts, cookies and cakes. :) Check it out!
Mayor Meeker ringing the Farmer’s Market opening bell of the year. The mayor recently announced that he will not be running for re-election, which made me pretty sad as I’ve been photographing him in various locations doing all sorts of things for a while now. He’s always polite, kind, and has done incredible things for the city of Raleigh.
Shaw University was holding an awards ceremony for its athletes which had to be held inside the Marriot lobby due to the brief rain we experienced. Shaw University was badly damaged during the tornadoes a few weeks ago, with them having to cancel classes for the rest of the year and their student union destroyed. They are holding strong and receiving donations from the community to help rebuild, with this ceremony discussing their hopes and plans for the future.
Guys, these are cupcakes!! Adorable cupcakes! Tammy Calaway of Sweet-T cakery made these little guys in honor of opening day at the market. And if I could eat gluten, I’d totally have eaten like ten of these. The peas in the pod are my favorite.
Reverend Kayelily Middleton was the ceremony officiant and did a beautiful job. She was very calm, serene, and tied this ceremony’s Hindu and Christian aspects together perfectly. Reshma’s family is of the Hindu faith, while Darren’s is Christian, so they decided on a fusion wedding ceremony incorporating parts of each other’s traditions. Reshma’s daughter (now Darren’s lovely daughter as well!) served as the beautiful flowergirl. :)
Reshma was walked down the aisle by both her father, (Dr!) Babu and her brother, (Dr!) Sheel. Not a bad deal at all! ;)
The couple had a unity candle and performed the Mangal Phera – circling around the holy fire symbolizing the walk of life. They walked clockwise around the circular table four times with Reshma leading the first three, and Darren leading the last.
They then performed the Saptapati – the seven steps of marriage vows. The couple would speak their vows while taking small steps around the table.
Last, Darren ties a sacred necklace around the bride’s neck. This is known as the Mangal Sutra. The necklace symbolizes a married woman.
They did incorporate the “you may kiss the bride” into the ceremony. Her mother Meena, who is hilarious and adorable and also lived in Pittsburgh (!), leaned over during the rehearsal to tell me, “They are doing the kissing thing. We told them it was okay, but with weddings in our culture we normally say no… no kissing!” :) This, as well as a unity sand ceremony they performed with Selena, was part of the incorporation of a traditional Christian ceremony along with several prayers from both the Christian faith and the Hindu faith.
So for those of you who’ve been to the Streets of Southpoint, where Maggiano’s is located in Durham, it’s basically an upscale outdoor mall type of area. So what better background to shoot with than the Anthropologie wall?! :)
Me: Reshma, wait! I like this mural on the wall!
She is so so so so pretty. :)
LADIES – DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THE FLUFFY DRESSES. THEY MAKE FOR BEAUTIFUL PICTURES. Her dress was gooorgeous. And this ring shot, although very simple, is probably my favorite one to date.
The father-daughter dance was very emotional. I typically do not cry at weddings. When I’m happy, I’m happy – not crying. But this got me a little choked up and I think made all girls in the room miss their dads.
Tim, the DJ, did a great job during the ceremony and the reception. DJs are surprisingly one of the people the photographer interacts with the most at the wedding, and it’s always fun when you get along and can work in sync!
