This past weekend, I didn’t shoot a wedding.  InsteadI joined a lovely Quinceañera for her Quinceaños.  Don’t know what a "Quinceaños" is?  Click here for Wikipedia’s explanation or just continue reading for mine. Quinceaños is a Latin American celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday.  Similar to a Sweet 16, it represents the transition from being a girl to becoming a woman.

 

Stephanie’s mom Lilia asked me to come a week before to take some portraits of Stephanie and her sister Meghan.  They wanted to have a photo of Stephanie to use at the party as a signing board.  I spent about three hours working with the two sisters.  By work, I mean having a lot of fun taking pictures of two incredibly photogenic girls. 

We started indoors in a make-shift studio and then headed to the back yard to see what we could find.  The back of the house provided some great textures and the trampoline gave us some incredible action shots!  We then went back into the house for some photos in the girls’ "suite".  The orange walls made for an incredibly bold background and gave us the opportunity to do some fun composite shots.  Their cats, Smoky and Bobo even got in on the action a few times.

 Returning to the house a week later, I found everyone running around getting ready.  Knowing Lilia had family in from Puerto Rico with whom she wanted family portraits, I quickly set up the "studio" in their family room and got to work.  We took all kinds of family and friends pictures and then headed to the Medway VFW for the evening’s festivities.  

The entrance to the VFW was filled with balloons, name cards and two poster-sized photos of Stephanie.  The hall itself was a blast of color!  Centerpieces of pink and green balloons, paper swirls and M&Ms, along with a beautiful cake, brought the room to life.  It wasn’t long until Stephanie and her family were announced to the cheers and applause of friends and family.  

The celebration started with a first dance with Stephanie and her "Papa" Steve.  She then danced with her "Abuelo" followed by a final formal dance with her godfather.  

Following the formal dancing, dinner was served.  Stephanie then ceremonially lit her 15 candles, each dedicated to a specific person or group that had impacted her first 15 years.  

Nothing left to do but dance and dance they all did.  The celebrants were all given brightly colored hats, sunglasses and beaded necklaces to wear for the rest of the night.  Harry Potter look-a-likes quickly appeared as some creative partiers popped the shaded lenses from the black-framed sunglasses.  

Thanks for allowing me to be a part of such a special time in your family’s history.  I’m looking forward to Meghan’s Quinceaños already!!