I love shooting fusion weddings, as the mixture of styles, colours and traditions makes for great storytelling opportunities. So much goes on during a typical day, as each couple adds their little mixtures of their culture to different parts of their wedding day. For this wedding it was a fusion of Indian and Western cultures.
Oratory Birmingham Wedding
For the Western traditions, The Oratory, or to give it’s full name The Oratory of St Philip Neri, Birmingham was chosen by Kay and Martin as the backdrop for the wedding ceremony. Although the number of guests had to be severely limited due to Covid restrictions, the uniqueness of the venue certainly made up for the smaller attendance numbers.
To simply say the Oratory is unique though is a massive understatement, if you’ve never been there before. It’s hard to believe that, situated less than a mile from the city centre on a bustling main Hagley Road, this unassuming building on the outside hides such an impressive Baroque style interior of impressive proportions and grandeur, to add to the tone of any wedding celebration.
Fusion Wedding Celebration
As usual, the day started for me with the bridal preparations at home for Kay and her family, where they were later coming back after the wedding ceremony, for an evening celebration in a marquee in their garden in both English and Indian styles.
To reflect their fusion of traditions, for the ceremony firstly they both dressed in traditional western wedding clothes, after which they had their wedding breakfast and speeches in the marquee.
As you can see, the speeches were full of surprises, sad memories and embarrassing stories.
Later on in the evening they then changed to clothes that reflected Kay’s Indian heritage and started to party Indian style.
I must say, when it comes to dancing, a bhangra beat is so infectious, hard to resist and it always gets everyone on the dancefloor. Naturally this wedding was again no exception.
I’m always impressed with the energy guests show on the dance floor and how everyone gets involved, both young and old.
Everyone had a great time dancing the night away and it was again a privilege to be able to document it all for the couple.
If you’re planning your fusion wedding, get in touch and tell me all about it. No matter where it’s being held, as I travel all over the UK and abroad for weddings. I’d love to photograph yours too.
