Hi, I'm Ray.

Where the camera began.

I picked up my first camera when I was sixteen — a hand-me-down film body that taught me to be patient, to wait for the light, to trust that the moment worth keeping was rarely the one I planned for. I've been chasing that lesson ever since.

Born in Toronto, raised in two languages and two kitchens, I grew up at family weddings where the noodles were long, the tea ceremonies were sacred, and the photographer always seemed to disappear right when the real moments arrived. I started Rayis Weddings because I wanted to be the photographer who didn't disappear.

What I care about.

Real over rehearsed. Light over flash. Stillness over performance. I'd rather sit beside a grandmother as she cries during the speeches than line everyone up for one more group photo. I'd rather catch the way your father reaches for your hand on the way down the aisle than ask you to pose at the altar.

I've shot weddings in three countries and twelve cities, but the through-line is always the same: I'm looking for the moment beneath the moment. The shy laugh during the vows. The quick squeeze of a partner's hand. The corner of a room where the parents are watching their child get married and feeling everything at once.

For the traditions.

I grew up in a Vietnamese household where weddings were a full day of ceremony — the trầu cau exchange, the ancestral altar, the tea served to elders one cup at a time. Most photographers I watched as a kid treated those moments like checklist items. They ran through them quickly and saved their best work for the white dress and the dance floor.

I do the opposite. I've photographed Chinese tea ceremonies, Korean paebaek, Vietnamese ancestor offerings, Indian baraats, Filipino cord-and-coin ceremonies, and Jewish chuppahs. I learn the meaning of every ritual before your wedding day so I can photograph it with the patience and reverence it deserves — not as colour but as story.

When I'm not working.

I drink too much black coffee. I'm slowly learning to cook my mother's bún bò huế. I read fiction on planes and listen to film scores on edit days. My partner and I keep threatening to get a dog. We have not, yet, gotten a dog.