Quinceañera Velie Alexi Williams: Traditional Celebration of “15 Años” in Belize

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Olivera Rusu

“Quinceañera sometimes called fiesta de quince años, fiesta de quinceañera, quince años or simply quince, is the celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday in parts of Latin America. This birthday is celebrated differently from any other birthday, as it marks the transition from childhood to young womanhood.”

Paz family was the first one that accept me and my family around them and they make us consider ourselfs part of their family. So, this event was very closed to my heart as I know the entire family and around them I feel HOME!

Velie Alexi Williams, her 15th Birthday was traditionally celebrated with immediate family (a huge family). All I can say is “WOW”, amazing party details and Alexi is a pure belizean beauty!

The church was all dressed up for ceremony, the family spirit and happiness and emotions was the mood of the day.

Here are first photos from last night:

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Velie Alexi Williams 15 Años, Church Ceremony

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Velie Alexi Williams 15 Años, Church Ceremony

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Velie Alexi Williams 15 Años, Church Ceremony

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Quinceanera – Velie Alexi Williams

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Catholic Church Ceremony

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Catholic Church from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize

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Velie Alexi Williams 15 Años, Church Ceremony

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Church Ceremony moment

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Sister & Brother

Sister & Brother

Family Portrait

Father & daughter

Happiness & emotions

Daddy’s little girl…

Mother & daughter, portrait

Mother & daughter

Grandparents

Grandparents

Family

Family

Family Portrait

15 Years old, Portrait

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Velie Alexi Williams

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a close relationship with God

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On our way to the party

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Quinceanera portrait!

Photos with guests will be posted sometimes in January.

Church, Beach & Honeymoon. All in one day

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Olivera Rusu

Esmeralda & Guillermo came to see me fee months ago. When I heard about their wedding I was “waaw, this IS different”. “Our wedding is very short and is about God, family and few portraits… all in 1 hour. From photoshoot, we run home, change and leave in our honeymooon, in Mexico City. Our airplane leave at 1 pm, so by 12:30 we need to be finish.” So, I told them “No problem”. Went at church for last 15 minutes of ceremony, we had about 15-20 minutes guests portraits inside the church and run outside for about 20 minutes. I photographed just outside the church , on the beach. Their happyness was contagious and I just captured their happyness.

Enjoy their first photos :)

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Church Ceremony

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Breeze Beach Bridal Portrait

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@ Central Park, San Pedro, Belize

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Beach Spin :)

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their happiness was contagious

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Bridal Portrait, Esmeralda & Guillermo

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Bridal Portrait, San Pedro beach

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Honeymoon, here we come!!!

My First Hindu Wedding in Belize: at Las Terrazas, north Ambergris Caye

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Olivera Rusu

This is my first Hindu wedding I photographed and the excitement for this wedding was there days before the event.

I will start with a quick description of the place, Las Terrazas resort, north Ambergris Caye, Belize.

I said it before and with the risk to repeat myself I’ll have to say it again. Las Terrazas is the perfection of a resort, the perfect escape from an ordinary life, the place where you live a dream. Having your wedding here is giving you the experience of a fairytale. The green of the palm trees and the white of the buildings, the quiet of the place… everything around you at Las Terrazas make you dream with your eyes open. This is making me proud to be part of their team.

Usually, my pre-wedding meeting with bride&groom are in San Pedro town, but this time, I wanted to be involved in this wedding from the very beginning. Being a long ceremony, we needed to make sure we’ll have time for everything.

So, few days before wedding, I went at Las Terrazas and we (the entire team) chat about all the wedding details. I felt part of the “family” while we were synchronizing the Wedding Timeline. I absolutely love that moment because then is when I have a full vision of the wedding day and the excitement of bride&groom is visible. :)

The Ceremony is much longer than our regular beach ceremonies (2-3 hours) and extremely elaborated. Details from a regular hindu wedding were replaced to fit their location, luxurious beach resort Las Terrazas (Belize) and the results were “low stress & family fun” dream wedding. The Wedding dress was completely different than everything I saw or photographed and their happiness & love, was something that everyone must have in their wedding day.

The Wedding Ceremony was traditional Hindu in a beautiful decorated tent with a lot of white and pink orchids. They brought a Hindu Priest from the US to perform the Ceremony.

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Hindu WeddingCeremony- details

I just have to say few more words about Hindu ceremony. Is very different and interesting. First, is longer, much longer than our Caribbean beach ceremony (2 hours vs 15 minutes) and very sophisticated. I did not understand 1 word from everything the priest said, but I kind of figure it out. Something different is happening every other minute… I really enjoyed the taste of another culture. My favourite part was the blessing. At the end of the ceremony, everyone present at the ceremony blessed the new husband and wife… they had flowers used in the ritual and place the petals over the head of the bride and groom… I really liked the happiness of the guests and the emotions of bride & groom.

The bride had amazing traditional outfit and was beyond my words can describe! “Just” gorgeous! Every little detail from this wedding give a romance feel to this special day.

After ceremony we went, of course, for a bridal photoshoot around the resort.

The reception, this time, was on the Restaurant Roof. I absolutely loved the setting and view is taking your breath away!

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Reception, Restaurant Top Roof, Las Terrazas

At Las Terrazas, all weddings are detailed directly personally by the Director of Sales, Carolyn, directly from her office in the US. She have an amazing team and everyone is extremely coordinated (literally by the minute). I am working with Las Terrazas from a good while now and I always had an amazing experience in working with them. I’m never worried about the team. Actually, I love them all and I love going back to this place! :)

Here are few pages from how I saw their album while I was photographing them:

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Wedding rings and Belize Beach Shells

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02. Moments before ceremony: the groom

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Moments before ceremony: father & son

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Moments before ceremony: the bride

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The Indian Wedding Dress & Bridal Portraits

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Moments before ceremony: Bridal Portraits

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The Ceremony tenth
Hindu Wedding Ceremony in Belize

Traditional Hindu Beach Wedding Ceremony in Belize

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Beach Wedding Ceremony in Belize
Traditional Hindu Wedding Ceremony at Las Terrazas

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Ceremony Moments
Traditional Hindu Wedding Ceremony at Las Terrazas

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Hindu Ceremony Details

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The Blessings & First Kiss
Traditional Hindu Wedding Ceremony at Las Terrazas

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Ajitha & Sandeep, bridal portraits

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Ajitha, bridal portraits

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Ajitha & Sandeep, sunset at Las Terrazas
Sunset Wedding Photo

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Bridal Portraits
Remember Belize

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Ajitha & Sandeep, close up portrait

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Love

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Their Wedding Sunset

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@ Las Terrazas, Belize, Roof Reception

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Cozy Reception on roof at Las Terrazas

Another phenomenal wedding at Las Terrazas and an amazing experience! Thank you!

“Dress to impress”: Traditional Belizean Wedding

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Olivera Rusu

I would start to present this wedding with an unusual Wedding Invitation “…Jessica Eiley & Jaime Manzano request the honour of your presence as we exchange Wedding vows. On May nineteenth two thousand and twelve at 4:00 pm San Pedro Roman Catholic Church. Reception will immediately follow at the Caribbean Depot Compound. Dress to Impress“. and a note…
“Please find within this note information just for you with some rules and regulations that we both insist you do
the first, you must come and if you’re to be our guest you must eat and drink a lot, or do your very best
the second one, is an order, so, don’t bring two left feet, as when the night comes around, you must dance to the beat…”

Here is how were their Wedding Invitations and a really neat design. Their wedding colours were gold & blue…

I loved the Wedding Details you’ll see when I’ll display their album…The ceremony was full of emotions, at Catholic Church here in San Pedro, our bridal photoshoot had the length of a blink, but we loved it and we had… we had to run to the party where everyone bring both “right legs and dance until morning! The Wedding Cake was one of the most phenomenal I ever saw… with soo many details! I was “now, that’s a humongous cake”, but loved the design. A huge cake was a must as the number of their guests were around 400…the tenth was really nice decorated (soon I’ll find out by who), the music, OH, THE MUSIC was soo good that everyone was dancing! Was impossible to sit with that music! Good food, lots of drinks, laughter and happiness… I can say that was the wedding of their dreams!

Thank you for making me the honour to photograph your wedding!

P.S. As about “dress to impress”, at this wedding, guests wore fabulous outfits. Here are only few of them:

15 Años, beginning of a new chapter in life. (at Casa Tortuga)

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Olivera Rusu

“Quinceañera (lit. meaning One (f.) who is fifteen), sometimes called “Fiesta de quince años”, “Fiesta de Quinceañera”, “Quince años” or simply “quince”, is the celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities of people from Latin America. This birthday is celebrated differently from any other birthday, as it marks the transition from childhood to young womanhood. The celebration, however, varies significantly across countries, with celebrations in some countries taking on, for example, more religious overtones than in others…” (source: Wikipedia).

Her mom told me that she will like a proper album for her daughter and when I heard that I will choose the location and will be only us, I was excited! Took me 3 weeks until I figure it the perfect location for this. I asked the color of the dress and I knew will be traditional and in same time fabulous and when I saw it, I was “WOW”. I aimed for classic photos, with a classic background and Casa Tortuga from Ambergris Caye, Belize was the perfect fit.

Photoshoot was done prior her party.

Here is the design I did for the album from this photoshoot.