Punam Bean Photography (observations)

In case anyone is having trouble downloading the giant slideshow – here’s a recap, with a little extra love. Enjoy!

We are going straight to a show of slides here, because there are just SO MANY images from this wedding I want to share, and I will do a follow up post soon.

Halleh and her family are all from Iran. They are Baha’i, an oppressed people in that country. Halleh shared with me stories about how she was not allowed to go to school in Iran, she was not allowed a passport or a job, and when the Islamic Government took over they fired all the Baha’i people and asked for all their wages back. Finally in the 1990′s, Halleh was able to get a passport and leave the country. Her sisters smuggled themselves across the border years before that with the blessing of their mother, who didn’t know whether or not they would ever see each other again. And the amazing thing is, that they all were able to get out and they live here now, after not seeing each other for many many years. And Halleh met Geoffrey, from Milwaukee, and he’s learning Farsi for her. They married on the roof of their Condo, which turned out to be awesome, and right in downtown DC with a view of the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. This wedding had everything I love about weddings in it. There was rain, there was lots of dancing, there were cultures colliding, sincere support and love, family all around, the weather was warm, the sky was hazy and cloudy, we could see rain clouds in the distance, it was windy and it rained, she wore my two favorite kinds of veils (a birdcage for the ceremony and a long one that flapped around in the wind all evening). There was Persian music, and American music, and everyone was dancing all the time under orange night time clouds. There were lots of kids, a cute baby, and everyone was having a grand old time. And we ended the night with a Thunderstorm. Outside. On the roof. AMAZING. Halleh threw caution to the wind and spun around in circles in her wedding dress. I threw caution to the wind and took way too many pictures. This is a LONG slideshow (almost 8 minutes). Again, if impatience rules you, feel free to look in the gallery – press the little arrow button. But I did put together a rather nice Sam Cooke Medley. So it’s up to you.