We love to photograph weddings in Toronto and over the past 10 years we have photographed over 250 weddings many of which have been cultural or traditional ones. Some of our favourite weddings to take pictures at are Jewish weddings. These day long swanky affairs are laden with tradition and events which makes for a beautiful and fun day.
We love the Ketubah and think it is one of the most beautiful marriage documents in the world. These highly personalized and custom designed pieces of paper which are a Jewish legal document signed by the bride, groom, rabbi, and the two people selected by the married couple to represent the covenant with the Old Testament God who sanctioned the marriage are stunning. Some have custom art work depicting the bride and groom, others are gold lined and ornately embellished and will soon hang on the walls of the home framed in a beautiful frame. They are written in Aramaic as a sign of their past roots. Other areas that are unique to the traditional wedding are the
Chuppah which is also a piece of fabric lifted over the couple as they are saying their vows and personal touches from each part of the family are added to give personal meaning to each one, the wedding canopy, the breaking of the glass, the kiddushin, the erusin, and the nissuin are all portions of the presenting and revealing of the bride to the groom before they are married. After the ceremony they will have a Yichud where historically they would consummate the marriage in a time apart in a room together.
The Badeken is one of our favourite parts as the bride is presented to the groom historically to make sure she is the one he intends to marry, which carries significance from when Jacob married the wrong sister when he meant to marry Rebekah. During the ceremony there are also 7 blessings given by the parents and the Rabbi.
Once the ceremony is finished and everyone has entered the reception hall the bride and groom enter and the family and friends all rush to the dance floor to hold the bride and groom up on two chairs as they hold a white piece of fabric between them and they are paraded around the dance floor and bounced up and down while loud dance music is playing. The Jewish tradition is the only one which has such an involved entrance dance and it is one of our favourite to photograph. We will get right in there with the party and hold our cameras up high to capture beautiful and moving moments of the family all together celebrating this new life together.
Some of the favourite venues for Luxury Jewish Weddings in Vancouver are the Fairmont Royal York, Palais Royale, Graydon Hall Manor, Westin Prince, Le Jardin, Grand Luxe Event Boutique, King Edward Hotel, One King West, the Carlu, Ritz-Carlton and the Trump International Toronto. These fantastic venues host large enough guest lists to handle lots of family from each side and are committed to customer service.
As Toronto Wedding Photographers we love to shoot Jewish weddings throughout the city and are ready for each different time of the day and are experienced capturing everything from the Ketubah to the Horah. This image is taken during the Horah with the bride and groom up on chairs.
Location: Toronto, On.
1/200; f/4.5; ISO 1600; 24.0 mm.