When I met Jocelyn and Gabriel for the first time, they told me that they were hiring me because I wasn’t Chinese.  They wanted a photographer without preconceived notions about how a Chinese wedding was to be photographed.  Since I had never shot a Chinese wedding before, they were right, I had no idea how a Chinese wedding was ‘supposed’ to be photographed.

With this being my first Chinese wedding, there were some things that I had never experienced before, like the games before the wedding and the tea ceremony for instance.  The number of family photos was quite large compared to most of the weddings I had photographed before as well, certainly good to know for my next one.

So a little about the wedding; I got to Gabriel’s parents house for 8:00am for some photos with the guys and I must say, I loved the light at that hour, I wish people got married in the morning for that light.  From there I went to Jocelyn’s where the girls were getting ready.  The guys came over after not too long and the games began.  I won’t go into too much detail, but essentially, Gabriel had to prove himself worthy to be able to get to Jocelyn.  It was tough, but he managed to prove himself (with lots of help from his groomsmen and laughter along the way).

The ceremony was at the Civic Centre in Markham in a tiny little chapel.  It was certainly an intimate affair.  After the ceremony ended we had planned on going outside for photos at Main Street Unionville.  The problem was, it was raining, and not just rain, but that sideways rain with high winds.  We decided to go anyways and see what we could do.  The rain didn’t really let up, so we had to find some dry areas.  I think it worked out pretty well.  As we were finishing up, we stopped at Starbucks for a few photos too, another first for me.

The reception was at the Dragon Dynasty Restaurant and it was packed with guests.  The dinner was impressive, so much food, some of which I had never heard of before and everyone enjoyed it.  The slideshow of images was a nice touch as was Gabriel getting on stage and singing a song for Jocelyn.  It’s these little details that make each wedding unique.  It was well worth the drive from Halifax for the wedding.

Here are a few photos from Jocelyn and Gabriel’s wedding:

Enjoy!!!

www.DustinHallPhotography.ca I wonder what her results were just moments before the ceremony?Alright, we’re all set, get your coats off, smile and say ‘freeze’  I mean ‘cheese’In this game, they both have one of each of their shoes.  The MC makes a statement and they hold up the shoe of the person they think the statement applies to.  In this case, both Jocelyn and Gabriel thought it applied to both of them which got a good laugh out of all the guests.