Traditional Ethiopian Wedding Photo Story

SF Bay Area multicultural wedding at the Osher Marin JCC

Traditional Ethiopian Wedding Photos

Ethiopian weddings are rich with tradition, history, and culture. When our clients Milly and Drew told us about their plans for a multiple day and multicultural wedding, we were hooked! The wedding weekend started on Saturday with a Greek Orthodox ceremony and western style reception in the East Bay. And on Sunday, Milly and Drew had a traditional Ethiopian wedding reception at the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael just north of San Francisco. The Ethiopian wedding attire, decor, food, and music made for a great party and some really fun wedding photography and visual storytelling. 

This is Part 3 in a three part series about a multicultural wedding photography story in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can go back to see Part 1, Urban Engagement Photos in San Francisco. You can also go back to see Part 2, The Wedding Day at the Claremont Hotel & Ascension Cathedral & The Berkeley City Club. See more about 

Bride gets help with her traditional ethiopian wedding dress in Marin County near San Francisco by photographer Drew Bird.

“We love the photos. The photography tells the story of our wedding weekend. This is exactly what we wanted. You captured so many funny, quirky, beautiful moments with us and our family and friends. We must have looked through the online gallery ten times and kept finding new favorites. Thank you for documenting our wedding with such love and craftsmanship.”

–  Milly & Drew | Ethiopian Wedding Reception

“Being invited to photograph Milly and Drew's traditional Ethiopian wedding ceremony was an incredible honor. As wedding photographers and we often see ourselves as part documentarians, part visual storytellers, and also part behavioral scientists. We observe and anticipate the behavior of people in order to recognize patterns that allow us see ahead of the curve so that we can be in the right place at the right time to create artistic images that are genuine, authentic, real, and beautiful. This Ethiopian wedding reception was amazing.”

–  Drew Bird, SF Bay Area & Oakland Wedding Photographer

“Our approach wedding photography is rooted in documentary style storytelling - capturing real, beautiful, unscripted moments. But it's also so much more than that. For every wedding we aim also to create the ideal balance of creative portraits, architectural images, landscapes, and artistic photos of details and decor.”

–  Drew Bird, SF Bay Area & Oakland Wedding Photographer

“Powerful storytelling always begins with planning and listening. I make a genuine effort to get to know every one of my wedding clients. Understanding their story and establishing a rapport is the only path to developing a mutual trust. Once established, this trust grants access to more intimate expressions of beauty and connection. This access leads to genuine wedding photography. In short: listen -> trust -> empathy -> access -> genuine images.”

–  Drew Bird, Oakland and San Francisco Wedding Photographer

“Drew works diligently to integrate into whatever scene he’s photographing in a way I’ve never seen before from any other wedding photographer. We were incredibly pleased to see the rapport we had felt with Drew immediately extended to our friends and family at our wedding weekend.”

–  Carmen & Barrett | Wedding Clients for Texas Destination Wedding

This is Part 3 in a three part series about a multicultural wedding photography story in the San Francisco Bay Area. This post is about a traditional Ethiopian wedding reception at the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael, California. You can go back to see Part 1, Urban Engagement Photos in San Francisco. You can also go back to see Part 2, The Wedding Day in the East Bay at the Claremont Hotel & Ascension Cathedral & The Berkeley City Club. 

Drew Bird is recognized as one of the top 20 wedding photographers in California and one of the top 100 Destination Wedding Photographers in the world by the Wedding Photojournalist Association. He is currently based in Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area. Drew and his team photograph weddings throughout the SF Bay Area, all of California, and they create destination wedding photography stories for clients world-wide. Get in touch with Drew.

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