Destination Wedding | Oahu, Hawaii | Laos, exotic, culture

This wedding was a new experience for me. These two are an international couple who planned their wedding here in Hawaii. The bride, Khambi, is from Laos, and the groom, Sebastian, is from Switzerland. Their ceremony was completely different from the western style of weddings. They planned a Laos traditional wedding, based off the bride’s culture, which I had never seen before. I loved the colorful decorations, the traditional dress, and the beautiful location. It was fun to incorporate all the pillows, dresses with texture, and small traditional drums in my detail shots. They chose to have their ceremony on the balcony, where you can see the beautiful view, including blue sky and a lot of palm trees.

Though I was nervous about the schedule the whole time (since I didn’t really know how traditional Laos weddings go), I really enjoyed the new atmosphere and culture that I saw around me. It definitely was a new experience. First, the groom and the whole company started to walk towards the bride’s house while they were singing and making noises. Then, there were many traditional symbols and negotiations that had to be made before the groom was allowed to see the bride. There were many emotional moments between the bride and groom and their family. It was beautiful to see the groom’s family respect her culture the entire day, and how bride chose to change into a white dress at the end of the wedding to also incorporate the groom’s culture. Many of the weddings that I have shot before were of international couples, and on their wedding day I loved to see their respect, and their attitudes, concerning each others differences.

It was also unique and interesting to me that they wanted pretty much every picture to be a candid shot, which I had never done before. They would rather have candids and real moments than having the traditional posed pictures. This style of wedding had so many emotional connection between people that it all turned out, and the pictures showed that real emotion. What a beautiful wedding!

Paragraph content edited by Sarah Gualberto