The day began with an outdoor Persian wedding ceremony that took place at Brookside Gardens.
The beautiful table spread called, Sofreh Aghd was prepared by Arash’s mother and a few other family members.

Before I go any further, here are some facts about Persian weddings. I had to do some research on my own prior to the wedding to get familiar.

The spread contains many items, and all symbolize different qualities that the couple would hope to bring into their new life together.

_One Large Mirror: To bring light & brightness into the future
_Two Candelabras: Fire and energy
_Bread: Prosperity for the feasts and the couple’s life
_Decorated Eggs, Walnuts, Almonds: Fertility
_Pomegranates/Apples: For a joyous future, pomegranates are fruits of the heaven and apples symbolize the divine creation of mankind
_Crystallized Sugar: To sweeten life for the newly weds
_Gold Coins: Wealth & Prosperity
_Honey: Consumed right after the ceremony to ensure sweetness in their lives.
_Incense/”Esphand”: To guard against the evil eye
_Two Large Sugar Cones: sweetness & happiness
_Sweets & Pastries: To be shared with the guests after the ceremony

During the ceremony, relatives and friends of the couple hold a silk white cloth over the couple’s head. Two pieces of crystallized sugar called “Kalleh Ghand”, shaped like cones, are rubbed together. This symbolic act is meant to sweeten the couple’s life.

Here are some other details about their wedding that made it special.

Holly’s father did the sweetest thing and blessed Holly with handmade jade necklaces for all the bridesmaids, and Holly wore a special necklace her mother had given her.

Arash’s father is a renowned Iranian wrestler from back in the day, who won gold medals in the Olympics and became a national hero. So the country of Iran honored him by giving him a medal, and during the ceremony he gave that medal to Arash. It was an emotional moment.

I loved how every aspect of the wedding was so intentional and intimate!

After the ceremony we took the limo down to DC for some photos in front of the Capitol building, then headed to the beautiful Westwood Country Club for the reception. Holly and Arash’s friends and family knew how to party, which was a lot of fun! It was also fun witnessing the Persian knife dance where different ladies take turns dancing with the cake knife and the couple has to somehow retrieve that knife from the last dancing woman in order to cut the cake. Arash had to pull out some cash and his credit cards to finally get the knife;)

One of the reasons why I love my job is getting to know different couples and learning about different cultures. Every wedding is unique in its own way, and I love capturing the essence of that!

Holly and Arash, it was truly a pleasure being your wedding photographer! You two are terrific! And thank you to all the friends and family whom I got to meet at the wedding as well! You were all super nice! Hope you enjoy the photos and be sure to check out the slideshow at the end which includes some extra photos as well!

I love this moment. Holly’s father is such a sweet man and very funny!

Here’s Arash’s mother grinding the sugar cones called, Kalleh Ghand on the silk scarf above their head. The sprinkling of the sugar symbolizes sweetness and happiness.

Part of the tradition is to feed each other honey with their pinky to ensure sweetness in their lives.

I love this part where Arash’s father is putting the medal on Arash’s neck.

Arash’s father wiping his tears…

Here’s Holly’s super cute Junior bridesmaid wearing the jade necklace Holly’s father made! Awesome right?

To view the rest of the photos please visit: http://pictage.com/834743

Here’s the slideshow with some extra photos from the wedding.
You may also click here to view the slideshow on youtube.

Ceremony: Brookside Gardens

Reception: Westwood Country Club

DJ/MC: Jiman from Elite Events rocked the party!

Video: Halaja Productions

Limo Services: Lenwood from Chariots for Hire was great!

And special thanks to Julie Lim for assisting me! She’s super talented so be sure to check out her blog for more photos from the wedding!

_Visit www.peterbang.com

_View more wedding photos by Peter Bang

_View engagement photos by Peter Bang

You can view the full wedding post on the blog here.

Grace & Danny : Wedding from Peter Bang on Vimeo.

Related posts: More weddings photographed by Peter Bang

I was so grateful to have my friends Megan Beth and Paul Barrios come shoot with me.

There are a lot of images I wanted to share with you so I’m including a slideshow with extra photos. A crazy fun picture of YOU dancing might be in the slideshow so check it out

Congratulations Stella and Nelson! Love you guys!

Stella & Nelson : Wedding Slideshow from Peter Bang on Vimeo.

Here’s Stella’s dog looking all sweet but she almost bit me here

Yup, he cried first!

Stella’s parents are great and her dad was had a lot of fun on the dance floor, haha!

Related post:

Stella & Nelson’s Engagement

Bo & Kevin : Wedding from Peter Bang on Vimeo.