Blog

Sacramento African Cultural Wedding & Celebration

Wedding

February 6, 2020

The day of Walberta and Wilmot’s wedding started a little stressful for me.  I had a team booked for this wedding, which included two videographers (Dave and Mike), myself and a second photographer (Tessa).  That morning I got a call from Dave to let me know that his pregnant wife was going into labor and he would not be able to make the wedding.  Of course I understood, but it led to a scramble to find a backup.  Luckily I have a vast network of videographers and photographers I can call upon.  After calling around, I landed on Denis who I know through church, as he works as a videographer at Center of Praise Ministries.  He was available, and was able to fill-in, which was awesome and saved the day!

The wedding day started at the bride’s mother’s house where the bridal party got ready, and an AirBNB rented for the groomsmen to get ready at.  After getting some fun shots of each of the groups, my team headed to the church to set up for the ceremony.  They had a packed house for their ceremony and looking out into the crowd I could tell it was an African wedding by the bright colors and intricate hats worn by the women. These weddings always make me feel at home.

After the ceremony, we went to downtown Sacramento to get some posed video footage and some portraits of the couple and they bridal party.  Their reception location was close by at The Grand on J Street.  In true African style, every single person who entered the reception hall did so by dancing with a pre-selected song, with the bride and groom’s family and bridal party being the final entrants.  Their wedding included some of the traditional components of an American style wedding such as cake and special dances, but also included traditional African dancing and two outfit changes to African style clothing.

I won’t say too much about their story, because it’s told in their video above, but I’ll just give you a preview that these two met when they were toddlers in Sierra Leone where the groom’s grandmother used to babysit both kids.  Truly an inspiring and fated love story!

The day of Walberta and Wilmot’s wedding started a little stressful for me.  I had a team booked for this wedding, which included two videographers (Dave and Mike), myself and a second photographer (Tessa).  That morning I got a call from Dave to let me know that his pregnant wife was going into labor and he would not be able to make the wedding.  Of course I understood, but it led to a scramble to find a backup.  

Luckily I have a vast network of videographers and photographers I can call upon.  After calling around, I landed on Denis who I know through church, as he works as a videographer at Center of Praise Ministries.  He was available, and was able to fill-in, which was awesome and saved the day!