We just adore featuring cultural weddings here at Bridal Musings and seeing how different communities celebrate love. And today's wedding is particularly special.
This morning we gave you a sneak peak of Luwam and Delyet's unique traditional Eritrean wedding in British Columbia, with an epic film by Tomasz Wagner Photography & Film.
And now we're back with the full, all-singing, all-dancing, all-gorgeous day, in all its pictorial glory!
And it's pretty sensational…
1000 guests (yep!), several outfit changes, drumming, singing, dancing and some Eritrean tipples; this community celebration is spectacular, romantic, and beautiful.
And with atmospheric images captured by the wonderful Tomasz Wagner Photography, we think you'll agree…
The Wedding
In three words, our wedding was romantic, large, and traditional.
I was going for a romantic theme. But that is hard to do when the event is so large. I had a purple and grey palette with white and silver accents.
The ceremony was a traditional Coptic Orthodox church ceremony held at St. George Egyptian Orthodox Church in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
The Photography
I had seen Tomasz Wagner’s photos from a friend’s wedding and loved his style.
In my search for videography, Tomasz recommended his newly assembled video team and I thought I'd give them a shot. They did a beautiful job!
The Flowers
For the bridal bouquet we had dark purple lisianthus with small amounts of dark green foliage, finished with a violet ribbon cuff and jewels
The bridesmaids had petite balls of cream and white roses with accents of purple tipped white lisianthus, finished with lilac ribbon.
And for the boutonniere pins we chose white spray roses with purple accent flowers .
The centrepieces were compact round design using purple blooms (lisianthus, orchids, and hydrangea with small accents of white flowers and a collar of salal, finished with a leaf wrap).
The Decor
The challenge with the decoration was making the massive banquet hall with 1000 seats feel cozy and elegant, but Soirée Planners did a fantastic job decorating with a layered colour palette with textured pieces in the hall.
My favorite pieces were the hanging lanterns throughout the hall and the crystal curtain backdrop at the head table/stage.
Olla Flowers' use of floral accents in less expected areas such as throughout the buffet, bar and receiving table also added to the atmosphere.
Due to the size of the wedding we alternated with three centerpiece designs (floral, candle, candelabra).
The Refreshments
The wedding cake was a three tiered cake: one layer was traditional vanilla cake, another layer was chocolate, and the third was red velvet.
It was frosted in cream cheese icing with simple floral accents. In addition to bar drinks, guests were served homemade Eritrean honey wine (M'es) and Eritrean beer (Suwa).
The Music
The music was mostly traditional Eritrean music but our first dance was to Etta James’ “At Last” and it was sung live by a good friend of mine, Erin Truong.
Favourite Moments
My favourite moments: 1) The overwhelming feeling I had when I first walked down the aisle, 2) Our grand entrance into the reception and, 3) Our first dance!
Having a traditional Eritrean wedding made it hard to put many personal touches but having my friend Erin sing for our first dance made my wedding something no one could replicate.
Advice to Other Couples
Mostly I'd just advise future brides to try to let go and allow others to help – it makes life so much easier. And of
course look for EVERYTHING online – so much money can be saved buying wholesale. Our favours were a fraction of the price because I purchased the bags and ribbon wholesale online and assembled them DIY.
Pretty epic, right?
I just love how such a large wedding can come together as such a loving celebration. Even the food was self-catered by the Eritrean community in Vancouver – how incredible is that?
Don't forget to take a look at the wedding film by Tomasz Wagner Photography, it's just glorious.
And thanks so much to Luwam and Delyet for sharing their spectacular traditional wedding with us.
For more one-of-a-kind real weddings, see Unique Weddings + Cultural Weddings.
