United Armenian Congregational Church
3480 Cahuenga Blvd W
Los Angeles, CA 90068-1330
(323) 851-5265

Ararat Home
15105 Mission Hills Road
Mission Hills, CA 91345
(818) 365-3000

I had such a GREAT time photographing the Ekmekji wedding in Los Angeles. This was my first time as wedding photographer taking part in an Armenian wedding and it turned out to be a wonderful cultural experience and a grand day-long celebration filled with LOTS of cheering, dancing, drinking and joy. The day was coordinated by Alexandra Doudian of Enchanted Events and Design. The day began very early on both sides where the bride and groom were dressed by their close relatives (one of many wonderful Armenian wedding traditions that I witnessed this day). A couple pics of Aida getting made-up . . .


I am very proud of the following picture of Aida’s SUPER beautiful Lazaro dress. Backlit lace dress on lace curtains – from a photographer’s standpoint this requires some skill. I used HDR imaging technique (no flash) which I wrote about in this article on HDR Imaging for Weddings.

At the reception, Aida’s Father gave a great toast where he let everyone know about Aida’s strong affection for shoes, shoes and more shoes! I was honored to photograph her Christian Louboutin wedding shoes . . .

I love this shoe shot . . .

Behold the bride! Flowers by Magnolia Flowers of Burbank. Also wearing the beautiful matching Lazaro veil . . .

The following image was photographed with infrared light and colored in Photoshop. You can read more about this in an article I wrote on Infrared Wedding Photography.

As is my usual custom on the BLOG, I always like to show what the guys are doing while the girls are getting ready. . . hahaha . . .

Well, to be fair . . . besides mild drinking there was lots of dancing, singing and eating. So much fun. Here is one of the little ringbearers getting dressed by the groom . . .

The guys . . .

Behold the groom!

The ceremony was at the United Armenian Congregational Church in Stuidio City, Los Angeles.


The Armenian wedding ceremony was loaded with all kinds of rich and meaningful traditions including the rite of crowning (see below), which is the climax of the service. You can read more about the traditional Armenian wedding ceremony here.


Another infrared . . .

The dancing went LATE into the night and never stopped. The reception was held in the George Duekmejian Grand Ballroom at the Ararat Home in Mission Hills, Los Angeles. Day of event coordinator was by Alexandra Doudian of Enchanted Events & Design. It was really a great celebration . . .

Steve’s family comes from Lebanon and Aida’s family hails from Egypt. They are part of a VERY large Armenian community in Los Angeles. Little factoid: There are more Armenians living outside of Armenia than within the borders of Armenia! You can read tons of other very interesting things about Armenia at this link on Wikipedia. Thank you Steve and Aida for including me in your wedding day! It was a wonderful experience and a great party.