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!