Name: Carrot Top Photos
Price range: $$$

Big colours, bigger dancing & unique cultural traditions

Cultural weddings are LOUD, colourful, and full of rituals you won’t see anywhere else. Many of the couples I work with have a second, cultural wedding alongside the legal one, and it’s often the biggest party of the lot!

I might be pretty fly for a (very) pasty white ginger guy, but I live in a Caribbean household 🇰🇳 and I’ve been welcomed into friends’ celebrations from loads of different cultures for years. So I’m not a nervous outsider, I’m already part of the chaos. I’ve been dragged onto the dance floor, ‘lightbulb danced’ and ‘made it rain’ dollar bills more times than I can count!

Guests gathered round the dancing bride and groom as money is sprayed

Groomsmen in matching brown outfits prostrating during the traditional wedding ceremony

Veiled bride arriving with a woman in red traditional dress

Close-up of the bride's jewelled heels on a floor scattered with banknotes

Dhol drummer leading the mehndi procession along the street

Singer in a gold head tie performing with a talking drum player at a traditional wedding

Bride and groom laughing together in traditional Itsekiri dress

Hands reaching for a tray of sweets during the mehndi ceremony

Bride and groom forehead to forehead in cream traditional attire and coral beads

Bride in a red lehenga coming down the grand staircase at Addington Palace with her bridal party

Bride and groom beside their tall white and gold wedding cake

Women and a young girl carrying decorated gift baskets and trays for the mehndi procession

Bride in a red and gold lehenga seated on the floor with her skirt fanned around her

Fun Cultural Wedding Moments

Mehndi Photography

At Indian Mehndi celebrations, the couple feed each other sweet treats, usually trying to make each other as messy as possible! 😂

Itsekiri Culture Wedding

At Nigerian Itsekiri culture weddings, instead of bridesmaids, the bride’s friends act as ‘fake brides’ and walk down the aisle for the groom’s family to pay them to leave!

Featured Cultural Wedding Galleries

Dede & Steve

London

Tosin & Fola

London

Neil & Parna

London, South London

https://carrottopphotos.co.uk/galleries/weddings/traditional-cultural/

Outrageously Fun Cultural Weddings

Essex and London have a wide mix of cultures and backgrounds, so there’s a good chance you could blend yours and have a fusion wedding. It’s a brilliant chance to show everyone where you come from, and keep the parents happy at the same time! I’ll be right in the middle of it, catching all of the madness, whilst you enjoy that unique moment. 🧡

Bright outfits, fantastic headdresses, dancing like nobody’s watching, and a few traditions designed that are just PURE FUN!

Bride in a red lehenga dancing among her guests

Guests dancing together, one in an orange sari

Bride and groom dancing in purple sequinned outfits, the groom with a banknote on his forehead

Groom dancing in with his groomsmen as banknotes are thrown in the air

Bridesmaids in colourful lehengas dancing in the wood-panelled hall

Guests in patterned head ties laughing together

Red and gold bridal lehenga hanging from a chandelier in the bridal suite

Bride dancing in a pink lehenga surrounded by guests

Bride and groom dancing in the street beneath a gold canopy at their mehndi in Tooting

Close-up of the bride's hennaed hands, bangles and ring against her red lehenga

Coral bead necklace and a blue-faced watch on embroidered cream fabric

Bride in a red and gold lehenga on the dance floor at Addington Palace

meet Carrot Top

Hey, I’m Martin 👋
I’m very ADHD, full of bad jokes, and have never really understood why everyone wants to be ‘normal’, whatever the fuck that is!

I capture unique love stories

I’ve been photographing Cultural Weddings professionally for over a decade. I love photographing people the most, especially when they’re being their quirkiest selves, and having a great time with the people they love. 🧡

moments
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GINGER
photographer

Years
shooting

I'm the literal ginger giant behind Carrot Top Photos.

When I’m not working, I’m still rarely far from a camera, usually trying to find the best spot to catch the sunset, or the stars at night.

Otherwise, I’ll be driving liberally (and safely) through the country lanes of Essex; singing musical theatre anthems at full blast; or removing brand ambassador Lando, my ginger kitten from the washing basket! 🐈