Hi,
I had the pleasure of photographing Adity and Parkishit’s Wedding in Agra back in Feb. What a start to the year, to be photographing overseas!!! This was an incredible experience and one I will never forget.
As you know weddings in India are sacred and very ritual. They are long ritualistic and elaborate affair with lots of pre-wedding, wedding and post wedding events. The wedding event started on Friday and ended Monday. Both the couple stay here in Australia, so no doubt the pre-wedding events would have been longer if they lived in India. The location of the events had to be the highlight of this wedding. You will see the photos soon 🙂
The aim of this wedding gig was to capture as many natural moments as possible. They already hired another local photographer to do all the group shots. So my main was to focus on capturing the un-expected, the natural smiles and photographing in a journalist type of way.
Friday: Mehandi (henna) – Girls side only.
Mehendi is applied to young girls, as its believed the mehendi will give a handsome groom. During an Indian wedding both the bride and bridegroom apply henna (also known as mehendi). It is also a symbol of love between husband and wife. The brides intricate mehendi pattern normally has the name of the groom written into it. The groom is expected to find his name in the pattern. If he cannot do so, it is said that, the bride will control the marriage. However in this case, they did not do this. She thought it was too cheesy.
More pics from friday night can be found here: Mehendi Pics
Saturday morning: Both families met at Taj Kema Hotel for a casual lunch/meet up. Notice the Taj Mahal in the background?
More pics from saturday morning can be found here: Greet and Meet
Saturday Night: Sangeet
Basically this event is mainly for the girls, where they put on some shows, sing and dance and perhaps even make jokes of the in-laws. Traditionally only the women celebrated this ceremony but nowadays the concept has changed as both men and women participate to celebrate this occasion. However what i found strange was the couple actually swapped wedding rings that night!! Perhaps a new concept that is evolving.
More pics from saturday night can be found here: Sangeet Pics
Sunday morning: Haldi
This event normally takes place a day before the wedding, but due to time restrictions it was held Sunday morning. The ceremony is considered auspicious and is meant to purify both bride and groom before the big day. Because of the medicinal properties, its like a mini-facial/body scrub the day before the wedding. Its actually fun to watch!!
More pics from sunday morning can be found here: Haldi
Sunday night: Wedding ceremony
Ok so basically the first bit is the baraat. This is where the groom and his side of the family rock up in styleOn this occasion hes on a horse with all his family dancing around him on the street. This was seriously one of the coolest experiences ever!!
After that, the brides side of the family greet them and do a little aarti (hard to explain.. basically a very small ritual). The groom then sits down and waits for his bride to arrive.
Once this is over, the actual proper wedding ceremony begins (pretty late into the night). Theres a lot of rituals that i don’t understand. But basically they are saying their vowels.
More pics from the wedding night can be found here: Wedding Photos
Monday Morning: Taj Mahal Photo shoot
Wasn’t too happy with this shoot at all. Firstly no flash was allowed or any tripods or a lot of camera equipment. They were pretty strict with what you could take in. They wouldn’t even allow my cousin to bring in a compass.
So now the next bit that didn’t help was the crowd. It was seriously packed and it was hard to get the right spots. Plus we didn’t have much time in there. I had to leave to the airport that day which was a good 4 hour taxi ride back. Also it was the wrong time to do the shoot (12ish), with harsh sun!! But none-the-less the couple were still smiling after an exhausting weekend. I’m sure they just wanted to run off to the Maldives for the honeymoon.
More pics from Mondays shoot can be found here: TajMahal Photoshoot
