Set in a beautiful, tropical location and steeped in rich, cultural traditions, this Persian celebration from Island Style Weddings is a sheer delight from beginning to end! Blue Glass Photography was on hand to capture the best kind of party there is – one packed with glamorous details, joyful revelry and lots of love!
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From Island Style Weddings: A wedding celebration is a wonderful way to share your cultural beliefs and heritage with all your friends and family. Amanda and Ashkan celebrated their marriage using both Persian and American traditions that were as meaningful as they were beautiful. Their sunset wedding ceremony took place at Trunk Bay, St. John; a magical beach with stunning views as their romantic backdrop.
A Persian wedding ceremony also known as the aghd, has tremendous history and symbolism which is displayed on the sofreh. The sofreh aghd is carefully arranged at the alter with the bride and groom seated facing the sofreh. Because their guests were both American and Iranian, the ceremony was performed in English, with one of their readings shared in both English and Farsi.
The symbolism on the sofreh is was a gorgeous focal point at Amanda and Ashkan’s ceremony. A mirror was used to reflect what was before and to bring brightness to their future together. Candles were placed around the sofreh to bring passion and energy to their relationship. A lovely part of their ceremony was when all the ladies attending joined Amanda and Ashkan holding a fine cloth over their heads while grinding sugar cones; this tradition adds more sweetness to their lives together.
A humorous part of their ceremony took place when the officiant asked Amanda if she will marry Ashkan; Amanda followed the lovely tradition to ignore the question the first time, the second time she was asked her sister yelled out, “She went to get flowers”. Then finally the third time she was asked, Amanda agreed and said yes!
The sweets and candies displayed on the sofreh are for sweetness in life and were offered to the guests after the ceremony. Fertility was represented using nuts in their shells while the gold and silver accents are for prosperity. Amanda and Ashkan had stunning white flowers for her bouquet that symbolize beauty in their lives together. Their touching ceremony was complete after they each dipped a finger in the bowl of honey and offer it to each other to again bring a sweet life together.
Once the ceremony celebrations were completed on the beach, safari taxi’s took the guests to the reception at The Waterfront Bistro restaurant. Music and dancing is a huge part of Persian weddings and DJ Adonis kept all the guests on their feet dancing to both Persian and American music. The restaurant was decorated with lush white tall flower arrangements, accents of turquoise and silver with candles throughout.
One of my favorite parts of a Persian reception, also known as the aroosi is the knife dance. Once Amanda and Ashkan were ready to cut their cake, the knife was gone…taken by one of their guests. The knife was passed on from lady to lady while they danced a traditional Persian dance. Ashkan offered money to each of the dancers trying to convince them to give them the knife…but it wasn’t an easy task. I just love the playfulness of some of these Persian traditions! After the ladies were done dancing with the knife, they kindly passed it onto the happy couple for their cake cutting.
Amanda and Ashkan are as beautiful on the outside as they are on the inside, such a sweet couple that are loved so much by their family and friends. Persian weddings are celebrated with the hope of representing health, wealth, long life, fertility, and happiness!
