Couple standing behind the ketubah table under a wooden pergola, the groom wearing a tallit

Jewish wedding ceremony · Los Angeles

Chuppah Ceremony:
Meaning, Traditions & Photography

Four poles, both sets of parents, seven blessings and a glass — the most concentrated twenty minutes of a Jewish wedding day.

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The canopy

A symbol of a new home

A chuppah is the canopy under which a Jewish wedding ceremony takes place. Open on all four sides and held aloft by four poles, it represents the home the couple will build together — a space with no walls, echoing the open-sided tent of Abraham and Sarah, who welcomed travellers without hesitation.

That spirit carries through to how couples treat the canopy itself. Some ask close family or friends to hold the poles by hand as a gesture of honour. Many chuppahs are adorned with flowers, flowing fabric, or a family heirloom such as a tallit passed down through generations — which is why we photograph the chuppah empty, before the processional, while the detail is still clean.

What Happens Under the Chuppah

Every officiant and family brings their own touches, but most chuppah services follow a familiar arc: the processional and the couple’s arrival beneath the canopy, the blessings and vows, the ring exchange, and the breaking of the glass that sends the room into applause. For a photographer it is a compact, concentrated stretch where nearly every frame carries meaning.

The processional. Both sets of parents walk their children in. We shoot it long so the aisle and the canopy are in the same frame.
Under the canopy. The couple faces away from guests for most of the service. We work from angles that keep the canopy intact and still show faces.
The seven blessings. Often read by seven different people — we cover the readers as well as the couple, because families want both.
The glass. Once, fast, and everyone shouts. We pre-focus on the foot and hold the frame through the cheer that follows.

Two witnesses and the rabbi watching as the groom signs the ketubah before the chuppah ceremony

A groom walking down the aisle between both of his parents at a Los Angeles Jewish wedding

Bride and groom seated on opposite sides of the ketubah looking at each other before the ceremony

Guests lifting the couple on chairs during the hora after the chuppah ceremony

Wedding party gathered outdoors around the signing table while a guest in a tallit reads the text

Reception celebration photographed at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles

Photographing a Structure You Cannot Move

The chuppah is the hardest ceremony structure in weddings to photograph well, because it is fixed, four-sided, and usually placed with the guests in mind rather than the camera. Outdoors it casts hard shadows across faces at exactly the wrong hour; indoors it is often the darkest object in the room.

We scout the canopy position before guests are seated, agree our two working positions with the officiant, and shoot with fast glass rather than flash where the rabbi asks for none. Two photographers matter here more than anywhere else in the day: one holds the wide frame with both families in it, the other stays tight on faces.

Chuppah photography — questions we are asked

When should the chuppah be photographed empty?

Before guests are seated, and ideally before the florals are finished being fussed with. Once the room fills, a clean frame of the canopy no longer exists. If the chuppah incorporates a family tallit or heirloom fabric, we photograph that separately as a detail.

Will you use flash during the ceremony?

Only where your rabbi and venue allow it. Many do not. We ask directly rather than assuming, and we plan lenses and positions so an unlit ceremony is still properly exposed.

Can family hold the poles and still be in the photographs?

Yes, and it is worth planning for. Pole-holders end up in every wide frame of the ceremony, so we set our angles to include their faces rather than their backs.