HANDFASTING ENGAGEMENT CEREMONY

It is a Polish tradition!

I love to tell love stories with my photography, and every love story is different.  When I found out that Lynette is studying Polish so she can converse with her future in-laws, I knew that the Polish heritage would always be an important part of Lynette and Kamil's love story.  

So I began my study of Polish wedding traditions.    

In one tradition, Polish couples become officially engaged to be married through a beautiful handfasting ritual.   An archived feature article in the Chicago Bride Magazine provides an excellent description of this Polish tradition and its significance:  

The engagement period:  Zareczyny or Zrekowiny.  The main event on the night of the engagement was the tying together of the hands of the couple to be married.  There were numerous variations on this custom, but in whatever form it appeared, the central elements were an uncut loaf of bread and a white towel or scarf.  Because engagement was as binding as the marriage itself, it was always done in a public act in front of family and friends who acted as witnesses.  Starosta (an intermediary) joined the right hands of the couple above the bread, tied them together with white cloth, and made the sign of the cross over their joined hands representing "the joined endeavors of the man and woman to prepare the bread" that they always have bread beneath their hands.  [Loretta Sawyer, Polish Wedding Customs & Traditions]

In addition to my customary 'American' engagement photography session, I wanted to celebrate Lynette and Kamil's engagement with an in-studio portrait inspired by the Polish handfasting ceremony.  Intrigued, Lynette and Kamil happily agreed.  

I love the result.

The flowers, the rustic loaf of bread, and the delicate floral backdrop make a wonderfully romantic setting for the portrait.  And, with their hands tied softly together in white lace, Lynette and Kamil look absolutely radiant.  A true picture of love!  

Lynette and Kamil, I wish you a wonderful life together.  May you always have bread beneath your hands!