When my dear journalist and writer friend Aslı Pelit texted me from New York and asked if I was available to take wedding day photos, I can say that I was overjoyed. Both the happiness of Asli and Jonathan and the pleasure of taking pictures in New York would come together. You can find the complete story of “A Jewish and Turkish wedding in New York USA“ at the bottom of the page…
I met Aslı years ago in Rio De Jenerio. She prepared and presented the Latin American Football program “The Continent of the 10s”, which she made on TRT (Turkish Television) at that time. She fascinated everyone with her knowledge of football, sympathy, and mastery of Spanish and Portuguese languages. I was preparing two separate contents about Brazil for Atlas magazine. Then I met with Aslı in Rio , who was traveling between Argentina and Brazil. After a short conversation and a dinner, she said to me: If I get married one day, I want you to photograph my wedding.
Exactly 9 years after this meeting, Aslı sent me a message on LinkedIn one day. She had left South America and returned to New York, where she studied journalism. She had started his career in New York and met Jonathan. In a nutshell, she was asking me if I could come to New York to take the wedding photos. At that moment, we both thought of the sentence that started with “do you remember” and wrote it. We talked about this 9 years ago 🙂 I didn’t even think about the answer “of course I’m coming”.
Wedding Day
On the morning of the wedding, when I went to Aslı and Jonathan’s house in Brooklyn where they lived with their golden retriever, they greeted me very calmly and without a hurry. Mako, who will do the hair and make-up, and Aslı’s friend, after clarifying where Aslı will sit, we spent a morning together with her friends and mother.
When Asli and Jonathan were ready, we were outside for the couple photo session. There was quite enough time, about 2 hours, for the outdoor shoot. First, we went to Dumbo, famous for its iconic Manhattan Bridge view. This is one of the symbolic places of New York, where tourists take pictures with the view of the bridge rising between two red brick buildings. They both had so much fun that during the whole shoot, this resulted in fun photos. Then we went to Bridge Park and Pebble Beach, which overlooks the entire Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge. I had discovered the points here in the previous days. So we were very fast and we had the chance to go to an additional location. We shot our last shoot on the streets of Brooklyn, where there are houses with doors with stairs, which we see in movies several times before.
Wedding Ceremony
The wedding ceremony, wedding dinner, and party would be held at the Turks Inn in Brooklyn. This is a place decorated with both modern and classical Turkish details. First, we did group shots on the colorful wall right next to the building. Then we went to the terrace of Turks Inn for the wedding ceremony. A wonderful Jewish wedding took place here. I love the enthusiastic ceremonies and sense of entertainment of the Jews. This ceremony was a good example of that. I can say that one of the things that I am most happy about photography is that I was able to take the glass breaking ceremony. Which is difficult to catch in Jewish ceremonies, from the opposite direction 🙂
After the wedding and dinner, we went to the club part of the place. Here, dancing and conversations gave way to wilder dances after a while. One of the most special parts of the wedding was that almost all the vendors were friends of the couple. Like me, hair make-up artist, florist, DJ. We both worked and had fun until 22:30 in the evening.
I love New York
Thanks to this photoshoot; I was able to spend about a week in New York. As a result I can say that I did all the activities that a tourist could do. I went everywhere, from the Statue of Liberty to 5th Avenue, from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park. Even I got to attend the Brooklyn Nets and Charlotte Hornets NBA season game and watch Durant and Hyden play live. Also I had the opportunity to meet up with some old friends including a visit to B&H. Overall, I had a full tour of New York. Additionally, we had a wonderful family photoshoot with one of my former clients who lived there.
New York is a city that really makes you feel like you are in the center of the world. It’s a really interesting feeling. There have been many wonderful cities I’ve seen so far. But anyway I have to say that New York is not one of those that I would be okay with not seeing again. I will be there again as soon as possible. Dear Asli and Jonathan, you have made a wonderful couple. I am very happy for you. I wish you endless happiness. Thanks a lot.
A Jewish and Turkish wedding in New York USA by Ufuk Sarisen
