Colors. Rich, Amazing Colors.
That’s about all Asad and I could say upon first looking through the photos from this wedding. It was the first Sikh wedding we had done in a while and the first one in Sacramento. It was so hot out there my main flash failed at 11am from the heat! And that was just after the milni! Thankfully we always have back ups though 
Not to mention that it was such a wonderful day and so much natural light streamed in that flash-less shots were so much easier than with the usual hotel banquet hall wedding.
Anyways, onto some photos…
The colors that the couple chose were rather different than what’s we’ve seen, especially during a Sikh wedding. Obviously though, this unique pink went so well with the gold.
You know what I love the most about this shot? Parveen’s cousin looking through the window. Doing weddings, people are almost always aware there’s a photographer with a big camera around or they’re completely trying to ignore the guy with the big black camera. So it’s hard to get a shot which is some where in between that “Take a photo of me!” and “Oh, pretend like he’s not taking a photo”. Anyways, this time, I feel like we got one of those rare in betweens.
During one of my first Sikh weddings I took a shot similar to this and it’s still one of my faves for it’s meaning. In Hindu culture, the bride and groom have their dupattas tied to each other. In Sikh tradition, the couple hold their ends of the dupatta. Actively holding the dupatta throughout the ceremony just seems to hold so much meaning where the couple if confirming that they are indeed entering their marriage of their own accord.
And regardless of the meaning, I just love the shallow depth of field
Another big difference with Sikh tradition is that the couple does their darndest to keep looking down and not smile throughout the entire Anand Karaj. No matter how much in love they are, it’s so rare to see the couple smile. Very different than most Hindu ceremonies where the couple is smiling & talking while on the mandap.
The Guru Granth Sahib is such a work of art. Something about the Punjabi script in this format just looks great.
And besides, I love the shallow depth of field…again
The West Sacramento Gurdwara was so large and spacious that it offered wonderful opportunities to get really interesting angles. And again, the mish-mash of colors really just adds to the depth. These are gonna look great in a nice big wedding album!
Though more sparsely decorated than the Fremont Gurdwara, this location, again, offered so many cool angles.
And the reception. Man, what details. Though it was definitely over the top, the decorations were just so…amazing to look at? Monograms are nothing new for couples nowadays, but in this case, they were interspersed throughout the hall and looked really nice.
Not to mention the custom made cookies
Note for people planning their wedding decorations: Really colorful floodlights shining up on the walls look awesome. In this case, the gold lights really added wonderful accents to the red which both the bride & groom wore that evening. A little extra ambient backlight lead to these deeply colorful shots.
And so…with the end of the summer season, we’re still catching up on posting to the blog, but we’ll continue to provide tidbits into the work we’re doing. Thanks everyone for continuing to read. And please post comments! We’d love to hear more about your thoughts on our work.
Can you believe Baker Beach was packed with sunbathers and kids playing in the water? We still found a few angles where we had a clear view all the way to Golden Gate Bridge. Beautiful day!
