Colorful African Clothing Brightens Wedding Ceremony in Video by Wedding Videographer Dallas TX
Kehinde and Akin – An American Wedding with African Roots at Stonegate Mansion
Amid friends and family who were dressed in a bright sea of colorful African cultural clothing, Kehinde and Akin were married under a huge tree with wide-spread limbs at Stonegate Mansion in Ft. Worth.
Kehinde looked lovely in her white satin, empire-waited, strapless gown with sweetheart neckline and corset closing. The form-fitting dress was shirred through the torso and then spread wide at the knee. The empire waist was highlighted by crystal beading and a large crystal decoration gathered the shirring to the side, just before the dress spread out. Kehinde’s elaborate up-do showed off her crystal necklace with matching earrings. She finished off her look with a crystal-edged veil and burgundy suede pumps.
To escort Kehinde down the aisle her father wore a burgundy-colored cultural costume. Kehinde’s face was obscured by a heavy veil. The setting was beautiful: bright green grass, white folding chairs, the huge tree and all the colorful outfits of the guests. Kehinde’s bridesmaids wore long red satin dresses in a variety of styles and they carried bouquets with roses of several colors accented with eucalyptus pods. In the tree was a huge basket filled with flowers.
During the ceremony, the groom and the father of the bride chanted part of the ritual in their native tongue. When the minister invited Akin to kiss his bride, the groom lifted the veil and offered an affectionate embrace. Kehinde said, “You look so handsome!” Then she was embarrassed, because she realized everyone heard the comment.
The reception began with the bride and groom’s families dancing into the room. The colorful parade preceded a similar performance by the wedding party, followed by the bride and groom. The unique multi-tiered cake had one layer decorated with diamonds of color. Others had white icing with dark filigree decoration. The top was a bright bouquet of flowers and the entire cake was surrounded with rose petals.
Dancing was an important part of the reception and whenever the bride and groom danced they were showered with dollar bills from the guests. After a while the bride and groom disappeared to change into their own cultural costumes in a deep orange hue to establish their own family color. Then the showers of bill multiplied.
Behind the scenes with LeniCam Video Productions
We love outdoor weddings – especially on a day as beautiful as Kehinde and Akin’s wedding day – even though it means some extra work for wedding videographer Dallas TX. Outdoor weddings mean greater distances to cover and a use of more different camera settings to get high quality video. The results are so stunning that we relish our labor.
Whatever effort we put into filming a wedding, we like to be invisible while we’re doing it. We use professional-grade HD videocameras because they allow us to stay at the edge of the crowd and still get wonderful close-up. Some videographers choose equipment that requires them to be next to the bride and groom to get that kind of close-up. We think that’s too invasive. The bride and groom should have the spotlight alone.
Another technical device we used for Kehinde and Akin’s wedding was lavalier microphones on the groom and minister. The purpose is to clearly record the words of the vows and we love it when we capture comments like Kehinde’s “You look so handsome.”
Because we’ve recorded so many African weddings we’re familiar with the exciting dancing that would kick off this reception, so we were ready. We had our camera on a wheeled dolly to help us follow the dancers into the room and capture their performance.
We were everywhere, capturing the sights and sounds of Kehinde and Akin’s wedding, but our technology helped keep us invisible to the guests and participants. We love it when our couples can’t believe the shots we got, because they didn’t remember seeing us there.
We Sweat the Small Stuff So You Don’t Have To
LeniCam Video Productions – Wedding Videographer Dallas TC