wedding pictures toronto

Josephine and Kwabena's wedding at the La Primavera Event Centre in Vaughan Featured on Today's Bride Magazine!

Hi Everyone! Welcome to 2023! Ahhh I cant believe I am actually saying that, 2023 wow! Time sure is moving quick!

Today I am featuring Josephine and Kwabena’s Wedding! This stunning event and cross border love story is currently featured on the latest issue of Today’s Bride Magazine (Canada’s leading Bridal Magazine!), which is now out in newsstands and stores all over the country! Thank you so much to this amazing publication for honouring us with a feature!

Karimah Gheddai Photography Feature

Josephine and Kwabena are teenage sweethearts (which is very rare to find these days) and I can’t say enough great things about these two. Just by being a part of their wedding, I could see how much love they have for each other and the people around them. I mean their wedding party consisted of eighteen people (if you include the bride and groom)! Each one of those wedding party members was willing to go above and beyond for the bride and groom that day. I mean they stood outside in the freezing cold for two hours with the utmost patience as we took their wedding portraits.

As well, the wedding guest list was over 400 people and it was a sight to see all of the guests welcome the bride and groom for their reception entrance!

I have shot at La Primavera Banquet Hall in Vaughan twice now, and I love this venue! They have a beautiful garden in the back that is absolutely gorgeous in the spring and summer, however as it was not yet spring at the time of the wedding, everything was not as green. Our initial plan was to take images at humber arboretum but after doing a quick site visit a few days before the wedding it was a total no go due to the lack of greenery and the general mushy conditions throughout the site (I highly recommend photographers do site visits to avoid having to work in unfavourable conditions). In a scramble, we needed to find a photo location nearby that was spectacular for photos. Well the location I found (after like 4 hours of searching) was sooo great and quite private which was nice for a really large bridal party and the extended family members that arrived at the portrait shoot. I was very happy with it!

I would like to give a special shoutout to my second shooter on this day; Shubila Khonga. I am truly grateful for all her assistance. We had to work with a large wedding party and she was a great help to me in keeping things moving along. I have worked with Shubila on a number of weddings and she is always motivated in her work. Please do check out her instagram and website and show some support!

One other person I would like to shout out is Loretta K. She was instrumental to the success of this wedding and the genuine love she has for the couple was so easy to see. Also I was so appreciative of the respect she afforded myself and my team, even making sure to save me some Jollof Rice at the traditional event!

Vendors:

Venue: La Primavera Event Space

Planner: Loretta Karikari, Matilda Karikari, and Josephine Adansi ; Coordinator- Vivian Amoah, Loretta Karikari and Matilda Karikari

Getting Ready Robe: Alice’s Secret @alicessecretng

M.U.A: Avaya Noelle @avaya.noelle

Josephine’s Gorgeous Dress: Amandalinas @amandalinasofficial

Cake: Cakes by Mavis @cakesbymavis

Hairstylist: Arthur Hair @arthurhairbridal

Bride's shoes: Badgley Mischka @badgleymischka

Groom's Suit: Suit Supply @suitsupply

Bridesmaids outfits: R’s Modern Fashion @r_modernfashion

Groomsmen outfits: Men’s Warehouse

Traditional outfits: Chevelle O. @chevelle__o

Decor: Luxe Soiree @luxesoiree

Florals: The Silk Gardener @thesilkgardener

M.C: Emcee Ebone @Emceeebone

DJ: DJ Shorty @djshorty6

Menu Cards: Jaleesa Reddick & Josephine Adansi

Portraits: Vaughan City Hall and Civic Centre

Bride’s MUA for Traditional Ghanaian Events: @beatbyashanti

Bride’s Hair for Traditional: @allurebyhk

Bridesmaids' Makeup: @eminentallure, @avaya.noelle, @a.onthebeat

 
 

If you would like to book me for your 2023 Wedding or Event then get in touch HERE!

Beautiful Ghanaian Canadian American wedding at the Vaughan Civic Centre - Taken by Toronto African Wedding Photographer Karimah Gheddai
Toronto Ghana Wedding African couple Orchid Bouquet and Marc Jacobs Daisy mischka badgley wedding shoesPerfume bottle - Mischka Badgley Shoes Toronto wedding African
Beautiful Ghanaian Canadian Bride in gorgeous getting ready robe captured by Toronto Eritrean African photographer Karimah Gheddai Photography.
Wedding details featuring a veil and gorgeous shoes - wedding photography by Toronto based wedding photographer Karimah Gheddai
Black Bride in Beautiful Custom getting ready robe - Ghanaian wedding
First Look at Element Hotel in Vaughan. Wedding photography by Toronto African Photographer Karimah Gheddai Photography. Ghanaian Wedding
Vaughan civic centre wedding day photo location for beautiful Ghanaian couple Josephine and Kwabena - Taken by Toronto based African photographer Karimah Gheddai
Wedding Portraits at the Vaughan Civic centre
Bride at Vaughan Civic centre for Wedding Photos
Karimah Gheddai Photography La Primavera Event Centre Toronto Mississauga African Ghana Wedding Photographer
Towering white cake at La Primavera Event Space in Vaughan
Wedding at La Primavera Banquet Hall in Vaughan. Groomsmen take a photo on the stage with the couple. Photo by African photographer Karimah Gheddai
Beautiful Ghanaian Wedding at La Primavera Banquet Hall captured by Karimah Gheddai Photography. Photo is of the bride and groom with the bridesmaids and bride on the stage
Ghanaian Wedding in Toronto
Guests joyously welcome bride and groom to the hall at La Primavera Event Space
Emotional Moment - Bride Sheds a tear as her maid of honor gives a speech

Thank you kindly for stopping by my blog and going through another one of my posts! I am always so happy and grateful to get to share my work and this wedding really was a joy to capture!

Thank you to again to Today’s Bride for showcasing this wedding on their latest issue! To know my work is now all over the country is just such an amazing thought!

Until next time have a great one!

-Karimah

If you would like to book me for your 2023 Wedding or Event then get in touch HERE!

Grace and Edward's Wedding at The Aga Khan Museum and Embassy Grand Banquet Hall

Hello everyone and welcome to my first wedding blog post of 2020! Can you believe I am posting it at the end of March! Gosh I need to get slightly better (okay a lot better) at this blogging thing. Currently the world is going through a scary and unprecedented time in history with the COVID-19 situation, which has effectively forced a lot of people to stay put at home. Well apart from our frontline heroes! Shoutout to them for their amazing work! I hope everyone is practicing social distancing and staying safe so we can alleviate the burden on our healthcare system and communities. I personally have been working from home these past two weeks and it has been crazy but I have been getting quite a lot done and now even got a bit of time to squeeze in this blogpost which I hope you will all enjoy because the photos are gorgeous!

This Ghanaian Canadian Wedding happened last year and am only now getting a chance to post it on here. It is an honour to be able to share images from the wedding of Edward and Grace who are one of the most elegant couples I have had the pleasure of photographing in my time as a wedding photographer.

This wedding was simply stylish and I am so happy to have been able to get the opportunity to capture it! I have to say Grace and Edward are probably one of the nicest couples I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I mean they even went out of their way to gift me with the most beautiful tulips after the wedding to say thanks, and I literally had tears in my eyes. Here is hoping every client I have moving forward can be as amazing as them.

The wedding day started off with getting ready shots at a hotel North of Toronto. For the creative session with the couple, we drove to the Aga Khan Museum and to our surprise the grounds were full of stunning white cherry blossom trees. How lucky were we! It was really something out of a fairytale!

The ceremony took place at the Embassy Grand Banquet Hall. The whole room was in awe when Grace started singing a beautiful song for her husband. Not a dry eye was left in that room after that.

The reception space was absolutely drop dead gorgeous. with the decor having being done by the most talented team from Dream Creations. Once the party started there was no stopping the dancing! Being a huge fan of Afro pop myself, I was so happy to hear all the amazing songs! Oh and did I mention there was a live band! Gosh this wedding was perfect! Okay I will stop writing now and move on to the photos. Enjoy!

VENDORS:

Wedding Planner: Events by Joyceln

Day of Coordinator: Champagne Events

Bride’s Make-up Artist: Martha K

Groom’s Suit: Eaden Myles

Videographer: Chris of INFT Films

Wedding Decor: Dream Creations

Second Shooter for Ceremony and Reception: Michael Gozum of LovexLens

If you would like to book me for your 2020 Wedding or Event then get in touch HERE!

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That brings me to the end of this blogpost! I hope you enjoyed looking through these stunning images as much as I enjoyed taking them. I hope that the next time I put up a blog post, our beautiful world will be returned back to a normal state. Until then stay safe!

If you would like to book me for your 2020/ 2021 Wedding or Event then get in touch HERE!

-Karimah

Details from Newal and Ibrahim's Wedding

Today I have the utmost pleasure of sharing some of the detail images from one of my favourite weddings of this past summer. This one was special as it was the wedding of a cousin of mine and everything about it was spectacular. The couple are Eritrean Canadians and so there were many elements of Eritrean culture that were featured during the wedding. I will only be sharing details due to the privacy request by the couple.

This was a cousin from the Aberra side of my family woop woop! (had to give them a shout out). If you don't know, the Aberra brothers (one of which was my grandfather on my mother's side) were the original entrepreneurs out of Eritrea, they ran one of the largest bus lines in the city of Asmara back in the day, and though those days are long gone they are forever one of my entrepreneurial inspirations!

Anyway back to this wedding... it really all was amazing from the venue, to the outfits, to the opportunity to see so many of our relatives (Aberra family members) who turned up in large numbers from all over North America and the World!  Thank you to Newal and Ibrahim for having me as your photographer to capture your special day! Congratulations!

Vendors (Click on their names to visit their social media pages/websites):

Wedding Venue: Scarborough Convention Centre

Wedding Decor: Bliss Beginnings by Baneen Abidi

Melse Venue: Thorncliffe Banquet Hall

Melse Traditional Decor: Rami Decor

Bride's Make-Up: Neo's Beauty

Bride's Bouquet: Zuhoor Designs

Videographer: Naoma Khan

If you would like to book me for your 2018 wedding or special event then get in touch HERE!

The bride's bouquet for the wedding was stunning and was created by Zuhoor Designs. It was requested by the bride for it to look like one big rose. Apparently this is called a "Glamelia" in the world of floristry. Let me say that"Glamelia" was something! I had certainly never seen anything like it in all the weddings I have covered. 

The "Bride and Groom" Champagne Glasses were super cute. P.S Of course it was non-alcoholic champagne that got served

Each of the bridesmaids at the wedding wore one of the lovely headbands shown below 

Wooo check out that rock! I love the rectangular design! Oh and those shoes again my oh my!

I incorporated the "N" and "I" letter lights from their Nikkah Party (which I photographed earlier in the year) in this detail shot below.

The 5- tier cake was certainly one of the largest I have ever seen. I liked that it was simple but had those beautiful lace details and pops of red roses.

It was beautiful to see all the women dressed up in their colourful yellow Zurias serving the food. Each group of women wore a different colour of Zuria based on their affiliations with one another.

The dancing was off the hook and apart from the Habesha and Arabic songs I have to say I will forever link French Montana's song "Unforgettable" to this wedding as it was played a couple of times at the reception and Melse (how fitting as it was an unforgettable wedding)

MELSE DETAILS

A Melse is a traditional Eritrean/Ethiopian wedding event that happens on the second day of a wedding. The Melse at this wedding featured tons of cultural touches and lots and lots of dancing!

What a colourful backdrop! The decor specialist (Rami Decor) did some great work on this traditional decor setting

Injera is usually served on a platter for the bride and groom to share with their bridal party

Hambasha is a type of sweet bread that is served with traditional coffee after a meal.

Finally since it pretty much rained all day on the actual wedding day, we simply did not have the ability to do outdoor shots so we scheduled a post wedding bridal session and I have to say I absolutely loved the images like the one below. Remember brides this is always an option if you were not able to do portraits on your wedding day for one reason or another. Getting back in to your wedding dress on a less hectic day than your actual wedding day can result in a fun shoot!

Okay so I hope you enjoyed this blog post! Watch out for a number of blog posts coming up in the following weeks! Until next time...

À bientôt !

-Karimah