It all started two years ago in Miami, when we were approached by an Uzbek-born Miami-based bride who wanted us to photograph her wedding in Uzbekistan. After many months of planning and preparing, and getting Uzbek visas we flew over to Tashkent to shoot this fantastic affair.
The bride and groom started to get ready at the Radisson Blu Hotel Tashkent, the same place where the event took place. Very nice wedding venue, built to Western standards, yet brandishing some local Central Asian motifs, colors , and materials.
Did we mention before that we love long veils? Well, we do! There are so many things that one can do with it with respect to photography. We haven’t had much time shooting these so we improvised on the spot, and with the help of bridesmaid churned out these beauties. The dress and the veil were designed by Vera Wang for her 2011 bridal collection, and the shoes are by Badgley Mischka.
A few nervous moments in anticipation, just before the bride and the groom were set to enter the main balroom, they were interviewed for a local newspaper right on the staircase, and we were right there to snap a few anxious shots.
After all the guests walked in the main balroom and were placed at their seats, the traditional uzbek fanfares started up, at which point the groom made an entrance, walked over across the room to the center stage, a place where the bride and groom with their witnesses are to be seated – a lovely table set up on a podium at the head of the balroom. The fanfares subsided, the spotlight switched from the groom to the bride led in by her father, in silence, unsmiling, tense and emotional.
After a heartfelt exchange of hugs and kisses between the bride and her Uzbek family and the groom and his Belarusian family, all to the sound of cheering crowd, the newlyweds ventured into their first dance.
We saw the bride and groom practice this dance before on few occasions, and this being a very difficult wedding dance, they have done a marvelous job performing. Their dance started off the party.
At Uzbek weddings the tradition is to have performers to entertain the guests. Our couple hired a dozen of different entertainment acts: singers, dancers, musicians.. All were fantastic in their own right.
One of the performers was a famous Soviet era singer, Tashkent’s native Faruh Zakirov, a lead singer of a band Yalla, the most famous singing act to come out of Uzbekistan.
The cake was simply delicious but a few guests actually were able to taste it since the food throughout the wedding was just outstanding, cooked in the best Uzbek traditions. Following American traditions the bridal bouquet was tossed, a little far the first time, but perfectly on the second try, making an arch and landing in the midst of eager single ladies. The bouquet along with all the other flower arrangements was created by the talented designer-florist Ruben Saakyan, who is based in Tashkent but travels worldwide for all sorts of upscale floral assignments.
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