Tejal & Nalin's Pre-Wedding Events As most people would probably already know, Indian weddings can last days. In fact, that's one of the first thing non-Indians might say is something like "Man, they take so long!".

Umm...yeah.
.
..
...
But, the next thing they say might is "I'm sure they're so much fun though!"

Ain't it true!

Tejal & Nalin brought us down to the Pismo Beach area to cover 5 events spread across 3 days and boy, did everyone have a blast. With most people flying and driving in from all over the country, it was really like a destination wedding...even though the destination was Tejal's 'hood.

So let's start off with the pre-wedding events


With over 800 people attending various events...Tejal's mom really held it down and made sure everyone enjoyed the weekend. Of course, she had lots of help, but as photographers, we've just gotta hand it to the parents of our couples, this one especially. They always do so much to not only please their guests, but also to make their photographers welcome in their homes!





The details of pre-wedding events are always interesting and definitely less well understood than the main wedding ceremony. These are where specific family culture really varies. Even amongst Gujaratis, the order of things and the littlest details will be unique depending on which part of the state the family originates from.


One of the most fun elements of a wedding weekend is the bride's Haldi ceremony. In Gujarati culture, this is referred to as the Pithi. Starting with the aunts who are usually a bit more docile...

To the friends who make sure the haldi gets ALL over...

Ending with the bride getting her friends back for all the haldi loving attention :)


Moving onto the garba raas...it's all about the movement and the craziness of running around with sticks!





More to come soon from the rest of Tejal & Nalin's wedding weekend....stay tuned!

Labels: Garba, Grah Shanti, Haldi, Portfolio, Weddings

  Permanent Link 3:44 PM  1 Comments

  Chanden & Val's Wedding In the last post you saw some of Chanden & Val's engagement portraits. Well, here are some from their wedding & reception.

The wedding was at the Fremont Gurudwara.

Chanden chose a bit of a unique color for a Sikh ceremony, but then again, both Chanden & Val don't follow convention, now do they?



Rarely do we see an actual doli any more during weddings, so it was a bit of a surprise to see this one. Chanden had a great time being pushed by her brother and male cousins. The rain caused a bit of a problem, but, hey, as the bride, she was dry as can be....




The rain really caused a bit of havoc for portraits since we were supposed to head to the Japanese Friendship Garden. Since it was pouring by the time we reached Downtown San Jose, we took advantage of the lobby at the Fairmont. Hmm....really posh hotel with wonderful ambient light & flower centerpieces just like Chanden loves?! Yes please!



For once, we had a lot of "down time" so we had some fun with the couple, the bridesmaids and the grooms men...

Don't mess with the bride!






Moving on the reception, we were at a really unique location, The Corinthian Center which is in Downtown San Jose. It allowed for a unique entrance for the couple high above their guests on a balcony where they opened the night with their first dance...





Since we've been doing weddings for a while now, we've begun to see some once-popular trends become less common. One of those trends which used to be at EVERY reception was dance performances. We used to get at least one if not two or three at every reception. Nowadays, couples usually have a speech or two and get right into the dancing. In this case, Chanden's cousins showed off their skills with a little medley...


Here's to another lovely couple. Congrats Chanden & Val!

Labels: Portfolio, Weddings

  Permanent Link 10:24 PM  1 Comments