It’s been a little while since I posted wedding photos. Well, I’d like to share a lovely outdoor ceremony from last month. For this post, I’m focusing on just the details and decoration so you won’t see the usual examples of emotions that I normally include. Thanks to Khoa Tran for his outstanding second shooting!

The couple started their afternoon with a Hindu ceremony outdoors followed by a tea ceremony. The outdoor reception was held directly afterwards. It was such a warm evening that I think it worked out perfectly!

It’s always nice to see my work “out there”. Whether it’s seeing wedding photos that I’ve taken hanging on my clients’ walls or posted on facebook, it’s a sign that someone really loves my work! Well, photos from a recent wedding I photographed are featured in the upcoming issue of South Asian Bride Magazine!

Pick up the new copy at a news stand near you soon or buy the digital copy right now at Zinio. Here’s more info on how to get yourself a copy of this great resource for South Asian Brides!

Here’s a quick grab of the feature about decoration ideas on page 66 of the upcoming issue…

Thanks to Sadaf over at SA Bride for the feature!

If you want to see more from Sheena & Ganesh’s wedding, you can look at my previous posts here and here

Following up on the previous posting about Sheena & Ganesh’s pre-wedding festivities, I wanted to share some of the moments from the big day. The activities moved from Milbrae over to San Mateo Marriott for the wedding and then to the Burlingame SFO Marriott for the reception. You may recall seeing Molly & Vid’s wedding photos from the San Mateo Marriott as well and it’s indeed a wonderful courtyard location for an afternoon wedding ceremony.

And I can’t proceed further without a thanks to AK Sandhu for second shooting with me!

And another call-out to Sheena’s aunt, Indra who actually served as the wedding planner/coordinator!

Sheena had this amazing custom designed wedding outfit brought over from India…by a designer not to be named here

As you can see here, Ganesh had a blast during his baraat! Once Sheena’s family welcomed him into the hotel, some of the Fiji specific traditions began, like the Dwaar pooja where you notice Ganesh and Sheena’s father sitting across from one another.

And let’s not forget that Ganesh’s family is Tamil so there was also an Oonjal ceremony before the start of the main wedding ceremony. I actually really liked how the families meshed their unique traditions into a single event.

As the evening approached, I took Sheena & Ganesh out for their portraits in their reception outfits. Purples were the highlight color for the evening!

Now before proceeding further, I’ve gotta comment on the decor. As you can see in some of the photos, there were flower elephants, peacocks, and an amazing array of other decorations. None of it seemed over-the-top, but the families clearly spent a lot of time ensuring these elements made a lasting impression. Those charger plates with the peacocks on them were actually custom designed favors which the guests got to take home with them. Oh, and if you’re wondering why there’s a Cabbage Patch Doll on the sweetheart table…well, Sheena’s cousins actually arranged to have Sheena’s “lost” Cabbage Patch Doll flown to India and outfitted in an outfit identical to the one that Sheena wore for the reception. Pretty cool and thoughtful!

And finally…who could forget that cake! WOW! The cake actually took well over 30 mins just to assemble on-site and it was worth the effort. The peacock menagerie, as I like to call it, had so much detail in it and the colors really popped. I noticed guests coming over to look at it most of the night!

And, of course, what’s a wedding without a little dancing?! Since Ganesh is a lawyer and Sheena will be a doctor, the party started off with a little MD/JD dance-off. Thanks to DJ Bitsy for keeping the crowd jumping all night.

A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of photographing Sheena & Ganesh’s wedding weekend. With multiple events and traditions spanning 3 days, there was a lot going on. Here are just a few highlights from the weekend.

I had known both Sheena & Ganesh through previous clients who are friends of their’s and since I had also photographed their engagement portraits, when I arrived at Sheena’s house on Thursday night, it was great just catching up with them. Meeting the rest of the family was also great since that helps to put all of the traditions in context. In this case, Sheena’s family is Fijian Hindu and Ganesh’s is Tamil Hindu so there were a variety of elements combined into a weekend of fun.

If you’ve ever been to Fijian Hindu events, you’ll notice that while many of the rites seem familiar, there’s just a bit of a difference as compared to, say North Indian Hindu traditions. Yes, there’s a fire, there’s flowers, turmeric, and coconuts, but have a look at the photos below and you’ll see some of the unique elements!

Many thanks to the talented AK Sandhu for second shooting with me!

Check back in for highlights from their wedding day!

Okay, so this post won’t be full of every deep, dark secret of mine, but the title is very appropriate since I want to share a posting from another website called Neo Indian which is about the “confessions of a newly returned Indian”. My friend Seshu shared a link this morning on twitter to this article (along with a few others as I noticed throughout the day)

Have a quick look at the posting, it’s not too long, but I find it quite hilarious: A foreigner’s guide to traditional Hindu weddings

There are so many little jokes that I could quote from the post (Vuvuzela’s, anyone!?), but I wanted to provide you a bit of my take on attending Hindu weddings both professionally as the photographer, but also as a guest…

Now, if you’ve ever been to a Hindu wedding, I’m sure you found it chaotic, but in the end, a crazy-hectic-fun affair full of every emotion under the sun. As a wedding photographer who covers a boatload of Hindu weddings, I can attest to the truthiness of neoIndian’s description of Hindu weddings. To be honest, if a Hindu wedding isn’t crazy and hectic, I feel like bride, groom, and their families missed out on the fun. That’s not to say such weddings aren’t well-planned, but the cultural elements surrounding these weddings are as much a part of the tradition as the religious rites. Let’s face it, a lot of the things that happen during Indian weddings are kind of strange and nobody can easily answer why they’re done. But seeing the fun, hilarious, and ridiculous aspects of these traditions are part of what makes Indian weddings so much fun to be a part of!

Yeah, there’s the fun of stealing the groom’s shoes (not just a Hindu tradition, mind you) and dancing during the groom’s procession, but there’s so many side things going on. Whether I’m hired to cover the event or attending as a guest, I’ve lost track of the aunties who whisper that the priest is “doing it wrong”…meaning he’s not following the family’s tradition when it comes to weddings. Or the mother-of-the-bride who has to keep asking someone else about what they’re supposed to do next. Or what about the complaints that the priest is dragging the ceremony on too long? Especially on a hot summer afternoon, everyone finds it a bit difficult to listen to un-ending Sanskrit prayers. Sure, many priests try to liven it up by telling jokes or just by explaining the rites in common English, but the truth is that Hindu weddings are just as much about family & friends getting together for a long-weekend of fun & laughter as it is about a man and woman beginning their married lives together.

Ask most elders at a Hindu wedding about why certain rites are to be performed and you’ll receive one of two answers: The long answer will hark back to centuries old tradition carried on by many generations (half of which is ad-libbed). The short answer will be “I’m not sure beta, but isn’t it so wonderful?!” followed quickly by “So what do you do? Are you a doctor?” Since I’ve been to so many weddings in my life, I can probably explain the origins or details of most types of Indian wedding traditions, but the bottom line for me is that the weddings we all have a love/hate affair with are about enjoying the time with family & friends. And now that we live far from most of our family, my wife and I can attest to the fact that weddings are a time to catch up and re-connect with our loved ones and strengthen those bonds. To be honest, if it weren’t for weddings, I don’t think we’d ever see some of our family members. That alone is a great reason to attend. That alone is a reason to enjoy the wedding in the context of a larger family.

So if you’re attending an Indian wedding…don’t worry that you can’t follow or understand every rite being performed on the mandap…don’t worry that you might be standing some where inappropriate…and don’t get intimidated by all the people wearing such expensive wedding attire…each one of them is there to celebrate the vows of the couple getting married, but each one is also there to celebrate their family & friends sitting in the audience with them!

Following up on the previous post about Shefali & Hitesh’s Pre-Wedding events, here are some highlights from their wedding day which was at Ruby Hills Winery in Pleasanton.

If you’ve ever attended an Indian wedding ceremony (whether it’s a Hindu ceremony or not), you’re probably familiar with the baraat (groom’s procession) and the milni (meeting of the two families) before the ceremony itself. As usual, it’s a madhouse during these moments, but it’s really a perfect example of how much fun these events can be. Along with the religious traditions that the families follow, there are a lot of fun traditions that the guests follow and that includes games the groom and his mother-in-law play during the milni.Most ceremonies at the Ruby Hills Winery are done in the courtyard out back, but in this case, Shefali & Hitesh wanted to change things up so they had their ceremony in the barrel room instead. I thought it worked out really well with the chandeliers and focused lighting on the wedding mandap (stage).One of my favorite moments of a Hindu ceremony is the “first look”. Now, a lot of couples do their first look photos beforehand and as photographers we get to capture the emotions as the bride & groom first see each other in their wedding attire. Regardless of whether we’ve done that, I just love the emotions on the mandap itself and the antharpath (that’s the sheet separating the bride and groom on the stage) is lowered and the couple see each other just as the ceremony is to begin. Shefali’s smile says it all to me!After the afternoon ceremony, everyone reconvened in the evening for the couple’s reception. Again, Shefali & Hitesh mixed things up by adding some fun to their first dance…in addition to a slow dance, they kicked off the fun with a dance to “Jai Ho”Shefali & Hitesh, congrats again!

Last summer, we had the opportunity to capture a fun-filled extended weekend at Shefali & Hitesh’s Wedding. You might recall their engagement portraits which we shared earlier on the blog. The festivities got started well before the wedding day with the mendhi (henna) night, then proceeded with a Gujarati prayer ceremony at home called the the Grah Shanti the next morning. The pre-wedding events finished off with Gujarati folk dancing during their Garba-Raas night.

Here are some highlights from the mendhi night. For people not familiar with such parties, henna is used to decorate the hands of the bride and her guests. I like to think of these nights as sort of like rehearsal dinners with just the closest family & friends attending and having a wonderful time in the backyard with henna painting, singing, and dancing.

The next morning, the family had a Grah Shanti prayer ceremony at home. This is actually a string of different traditions tied together basically ensuring the bride has a wonderful wedding day and a happy married life. As with most Hindu traditions, it includes a lot of prayers, a lot of laughter, and a lot of participation from everyone.

And finally, before the wedding day could begin, both families joined together for a night of Gujarati folk dancing. Garba & Raas are actually two different types of dances, but are usually enjoyed on the same night, in the same venue. Raas is the “stick dancing” that you might be familiar with.

Stay tuned for highlights from the wedding day itself!

Wow, what a long break for updates on weddings we’ve photographed! Well, I’ve got a lot of catch up to do so here we go!

Last summer, Molly & Vid invited us to photograph their wedding events in San Mateo. Here are some favorite highlights from the day. Starting from when Molly & Vid were getting ready in their hotel rooms all the way through the end of the dancing. Enjoy!

Molly & Vid, it’s been a pleasure working with the two of you. You’ve shown an immense appreciation for our work!

One of my favorite things about photography is sharing my work with clients. And a part of that is giving little teasers to whet their appetite for more once the full set of photos is complete. I just had to share these few photos with Molly & Vid earlier this week and I figure blog readers would love to see these too….so here’s just a very few from their big day. Many more to come….

You might recall a previous post on Mayuri & Kunaal’s portraits. Well, the couple had their engagement ceremony back in May to make it all official. Yes, their engagement was more elaborate than many weddings, but I’m sure a lot of Indians will relate to the importance of the engagement ceremony.

Everyone joined the couple at the Sunol Valley Golf Club for breakfast, the ceremony itself, and a lunch reception afterwards. Without further ado, onto the photos!

Kunaal even got down on one knee to put the engagement ring on Mayuri’s finger!


Check out that bouquet! And don’t forget about the groom in the background




The lunch reception started immediately after the ceremony ended. And since the clouds and winds had hung around all morning, people were happy to head indoors!

Mayuri and her friends had a sweet Bollywood dance for Kunaal.



Congrats you two! Can’t wait to hear about your wedding plans in Seattle!

Finishing up on Pallavi & Neil’s wedding weekend, here are some highlights from their reception….Enjoy!

They had a cute fuschia & orange theme going on…

I love the texture on the fondant on this cake!


Neil’s cousins had a lot of fun with some dances they did for the audience.









And, of course, everyone spent the rest of the night dancing away…



The sweetest thing at the end of the night was when Neil & Pallavi’s friends conspired with the DJ to play their First Dance song while all their closest friends & family did a nice big group hug to end the dancing. I must say, in all the weddings I’ve photographed, this was about the sweetest way to finish the night!

Congrats Neil & Pallavi. Thanks for having us at your wedding!

Following up on the previous post about Pallavi & Neil’s truly multi-cultural wedding, here are some highlights from the wedding ceremony itself. The wedding & reception were held at the Canyon View Dining Hall in San Ramon. It’s a beautiful venue with a view out on the hills in the back. The ceremony itself was held outdoors so the light was just amazing especially as the sun was setting.

For folks not accustomed to Indian weddings, the fact that the ceremony was held outdoors is a bit of novelty since it’s actually pretty tough to find a nice outdoor location that can hold the large number of people that are usually invited to such affairs. Safe to say, we photographers are so happy when we get such amazing light

Onto the photos!

The ceremony was split into 2 halves. Following her Tamil tradition, Pallavi changed her sari half way through the ceremony. Amongst other tradtions, the second half included the mangala darna where Neil ties the traditional Tamil Thali around Pallavi’s neck as she sits in her father lap. This is different than the North Indian tradition which usually involves a small Mangal Sutra and the bride doesn’t sit in her father’s lap.

I just absolutely LOVE the look in Pallavi’s eyes here! Can ya guess she’s happy?!

And as with most Hindu ceremonies, it can get chaotic on the mandap. In this case, numerous people had to help Neil tie the thali since it was actually difficult for him to see around all the flowers, etc. It’s actually pretty fun to watch & document the little things going on like this. It’s not something which the audience sees since it’s usually hidden behind a bunch of people on stage who are all trying to help. So many times, I feel blessed at the chance I get to capture these little moments between family members like this one where Pallavi’s aunt is explaining to Neil’s sister just how the knots should be tied.


Just one more post to go for Pallavi & Neil’s wedding! Watch out for the highlights from their reception coming shortly!

As we mentioned in the previous post, Pallavi & Neil had an action packed wedding weekend with elements of both Gujarati & Tamil wedding cultures mixed in. There was a traditional North India baraat, Tamil oonjal, and lots of other tidbits pulled from the variety that is Indian Hindu culture.

So let’s start off with the events leading up the actual wedding…

Of course, a beautiful blushing bride starts her day with her sisters and mother in the hotel room

These are actually Pallavi’s sister’s saris…dontcha love the colors?!

Everyone wants a sneak peek at the bride!

If you’re wondering why that umbrella’s there, it’s not because of rain, it’s part of the tradition of a Tamil groom going to Kashi for his education. The tradition goes that the groom doesn’t really want to get married and would rather further his religious education. Before he meets the bride, the priest and families must convince him to get married for the good of both families. Here, Neil’s coming back to the wedding milni with his grandfather who convinced him to return to his wedding ceremony

A little Gujarati tradition with Pallavi coming out so that they can both garland each other. It may not look like it here, but their both on the shoulders of their relatives. The game it to prevent the other from getting the garland on. As usual, a wedding day is filled with lots of little games to keep it fun!

And just to clarify, even though Neil is following the Tamil traditions and Pallavi is following the Gujarati traditions, it’s actually Neil who’s Gujarati and Pallavi who’s Tamil. Basically, the whole family ensured that everyone participated in the various traditions and made the entire weekend a load of fun. Some people say that a marriage isn’t just about two people getting married, but actually about two families coming together. That may be a cheesy line during many speeches, but I truly believe that to be the case for multi-cultural weddings.

And moving onto more Tamil traditions, Neil & Pallavi had a Oonjal (swing) ceremony…

And to finish this post off, an afternoon portrait of the bride, groom, and groomsmen. Love it!

Look out for more from their wedding day soon!

We had the pleasure of covering Pallavi & Neil’s wedding weekend and since it combined both Tamil & Gujarati traditions, it was a wonderful mish-mash of cultures & events.

Here are some highlights from their garba which was held at the San Ramon Community Center. Since it’s a semi-circular hall with a half-dome, I always feel like it’s the perfect place for garba!

We’re used to capturing all the action & movement at garba-raas, but this time, let’s start with some of the details. Neil’s family added some cute little touches throughout the hall to make sure people know this was a Gujarati affair

And the unique Ganesh statue’s they had were just wonderful! These were true works of art and I couldn’t help but spend some extra time getting some interesting angles on these statues.

Onto the dancing!







Watch out for more from Pallavi & Neil’s wedding weekend coming up on the blog shortly!

In our last post, I mentioned the custom designed album we made of Sai’s Arangetram. The main objective of the album was to tell a story on every spread about a particular course during the Arangetram performance. This is sort of like doing a wedding album, but since Sai is essentially telling a story with her dance, we have to ensure we relay that story with a relatively small number of photos. Here are a few of the album spreads we included in her album.

While designing albums we think about & try to incorporate into our spreads are things like textures & embellishments as well as detailed photos for use in the background (in this case, Sai’s bells, hands, etc). As you can see from the examples below, we try to take a few moments captured in our photos and tell a dramatic story.

We’d love to show some of these albums to you in person, so please schedule a consultation time with us so we can talk to you in greater detail!

As an example of laying out each spread such that it tells a story, the above spread is all about receiving blessings from Sai’s Guru and family. Mixed use of color and b+w images in the spread helps to bring attention to the main picture without creating any clutter.

Designing unique layouts for each album really gets our creative juices flowing. We know this album is way for Sai’s family to treasure their daughter’s arangetram for years to come and compliments like “The album looks INCREDIBLE.” from Sai’s father inspires us to keep innovating with our album designs!

Last year, we got an excellent opportunity to photograph the portraits and Arangetram coverage of Bharathanatyam performance by beautiful and talented Sai Radhakrishnan. Bharathanatyam is a classic dance that originated in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.

The amazing hand gestures as means of communication and the delicate neck and eye movements by Sai showed many years of her practice in perfecting this dance form. This first set of photos taken in advance of her recital for use in her invitations, program booklet as well as for the custom sign-in book which we designed for Sai. You’ll notice all of the colors in these advance portraits are intense against a deep black background. This helps to create a really stunning set of visuals for everything we design and print.

Following the portrait session in April, we covered the amazing performance by Sai for her Arangetram in August. Arangetram in Tamil means “ascending the stage”. The 2-3 hours debut performance was filled with high energy and amazing display of delicate dance movements. The beautiful background images along with colorful stage lighting created the perfect ambience for capturing this dance form on the stage.

As with all staged performances, we don’t use any flash so what you see here highlights all of the intense colors as intended for the audience in the auditorium.

This very dramatic lighting with additional shadows is something we look out for since the lighting is part of the story.

As mentioned up above, we designed a guest sign-in book for the Arangetram which was available for all of Sai’s guest to view & leave messages on the day of her Arangetram. We also created a custom designed album of Arangetram recital itself. We will be posting the blog for the layouts of the albums soon so check back!

Congratulations Sai for an incredible performance!

Following up on the previous post, Reena & Kedar held their reception on a warm summer afternoon…the relaxed atmosphere just seemed to fit them so well…

I mentioned before that Kedar’s music was the doorway into his soul. Well, he actually performed at his reception and he definitely rocked the house!

Hmm…should we be worried about competing photographers?!

Rather than heading straight to dancing to DJ music, everyone started off with some garba-raas.
No photoshop here! Just having some fun with camera technique.

Reena & Kedar, thanks for having us at your wedding! Congrats!

Her eyes are the window into her heart.

His music is the doorway into his soul.

Reena & Kedar showed us so much of their personalities throughout their wedding days. As you’ll see in these photos, Reena has just about the most expressive eyes I’ve ever seen. And Kedar is so talented with his guitar. Both of them were so Zen throughout the day and it made this summertime wedding all the more enjoyable. They were married at the San Jose Holiday Inn near downtown. They have this lovely courtyard in the middle of the hotel so it made for a really nice outdoor wedding in the gazebo.

On to the photos!

Reena and her bridesmaids got ready in her hotel room.


The next two photos probably say all I need to about Reena’s expressive-ness. That smile and those eyes are the sign of a happy bride!



As I mentioned, these two were so zen throughout the day so we were able to spend a good deal of time taking couples portraits before the wedding. We had a bit of fun by playing some games between the more serious portraits.


Reena’s bridesmaids wore coordinated saris. And they were just as ready for a great day as Reena!

Mid-summer baraat in the sun? No problem for Kedar’s family…they were ready to dance!




Here’s a few moments from the afternoon…













Stay tuned for more photos from Reena & Kedar’s reception…

You saw their engagement portraits in the last blog posting. Well, here’s Kalpana & Ramesh’s wedding ceremony. They had a very traditional Telugu ceremony at the Livermore Hindu Temple.

The temple is always so wonderful on a clear summer morning. I love the stark colors, especially against the deep blue sky.

As I mentioned, the couple had a traditional Telugu ceremony, so Kalpana started with a Gauri Pooja.

And if you’ve never attended a Telugu ceremony, you’re really missing out! Kalpana and I spent some time before her wedding going over the little details & traditions that were really for her and her family. And sure enough, we had some fun capturing these little moments. From the jaggery on the heads, to the oodles & oodles of rice & flowers, I’ve gotta say, the Telugu traditions are so unique to Hindu ceremonies.

The next couple of shots are of people you don’t usually see at weddings – the children of the bride and groom! This first shot is Ramesh’s son, who just had a blast throughout the ceremony. He clearly had learned about all of the details of the wedding and kept asking his dad about the little things going on.

The other thing I loved about this was that Kalpana’s daughter and Ramesh’s son were spending the ceremony enjoying the traditions together. Both were clearly elated to have a new sibling. Gotta say, cute & precious isn’t normally used for kids this age, but that’s exactly what describes them.




Kalpan & Ramesh, it was a pleasure photographing your wedding. Thank you for giving me the privilege!

Finishing up the posts on Gurj & Jess’s wedding weekend, the couple had their reception in Woodland near Jess’s home. And since the wedding day was so jam packed, they held the reception the next day. This made for something where everybody just couldn’t wait to party up.

We had some time for portraits so we actually went to nearby UC Davis and had a relaxed photoshoot amongst the trees & by the water. It’s always great when the schedule allows for all these extra moments!

And of course the hot color of burnt orange…everyone seems to comment on how great it looks at Indian functions, and I couldn’t agree more…













And the dancing! What Punjabi wedding would be complete without lots and lots of dancing! Can’t ya tell that Gurj had been itching to get onto the dance floor?



Jess’ brother was having a lot of fun crowd surfing…



Congrats you two! We had a pleasure photographing your special weekend. Can’t wait to make your album!