Jewish Wedding | Ute and Adam

The great things about wedding photography in Perth, Australia is that you get to meet such a diverse group of people from various part of the world.  We were fortunately enough to have photographed brides and grooms from various backgrounds such as mainland Chinese, Kenyans, Muslim  Indians, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Germans, South African and the predominately the good ole Aussies. But there’s one traditional wedding that we’re always fond of, and that is the Jewish Wedding perhaps because  it’s steep in tradition where as Australian we are progressively moving away from the traditional celebration.

What’s interesting was that time line is slightly different from your standard wedding, the signing of the marriage contract, the “ketubah” was signed by the bride and the groom prior to the formal ceremony  in the presence of the Rabbi. After the signing Adam arrived at the “chuppah” or wedding canopy there he waits for Ute. I think they stand under the chuppah to symbolise that this is their new home as husband and wife.

As Ute arrived at the chuppah  where she circled Adam a few times, I can’t remember  exactly how many times because I was too busy concentrating on the photography :) In turn Adam circled Ute a few times. From this point on the rest ceremony is very similar to a Catholic wedding, where there were  readings, blessings and the presentation of the rings between Ute and Adam.

The final part is the breaking of the glass with the groom’s right foot, which I’ve also observed  took place with a Muslim wedding we covered recently.  It’s interesting to see the similarity between some of the traditions.

Once the ceremony is completed, Ute and Adam retreated to a private room with the Rabbi for a “yichud” which is a brief reflection period for 10-20 minutes.  Before they appeared for a photography session with friends and family.  That’s my recollection of the formal ceremony with the help of Ute’s notes that was given to me :)

We then went to East Perth to take a few photos of the bridal party before heading back to Mount Lawley Golf  Club where the boys displayed their golfing prowess that eventually turned into a game of snooker on the greens because they were hopeless at golf :).

We then went back to rest for a few minutes before the bridal party entrance which was the beginning  the most amazing sequence of event that lasted for about 10 minutes.  People were dancing with such exuberant  and so much energy,  the bride  and groom  would dance in their own group before being  lifted on their chairs as they waltz above the guests’ head. Men dancing with each other with such passion and little inhibition it’s a scene that’s rarely seen. But sometimes they would do some dangerously crazy things, such as a group would lie on the ground and one would jump over before lying down joining the increasing line. I certainly wouldn’t  want to be one of the last guys in the line :) All in all it was so fun and I’ve been fortunate to document the day.

Lastly a special thank to Matt from Allora Photography for assisting while Jen is away for three months in China.