Snigdha & Himanshu | North Indian Hindu Wedding | Noida Golf Course, Delhi NCR

“All Good Things Take Time” - The Power of Slow is quite underrated. So is my talent for procrastination. Eight Months. Eight Long Months have I sat pondering what’d be a good start for this blogpost. Well, thanks to my lazying around, I don’t need to think for another intro to this post now, do I?!

Speaking of time, I started speaking to Snigdha about her wedding photography in late-2011. Yup! That isn’t a typo :) My Manipal senior Namrata had hired me to shoot her wedding with her fiancé Vikram. It was my first paid wedding photography assignment. I was mind-blown by the experience. And it’s there where I first met Snigdha, Namrata’s cousin who doubled up as her bridesmaid/gift collector/gift protector/shoe-stealer/overall life of the party & family. I took a few photos of Snigdha in action. So back in 2011 she told me that when she gets married, I’d be shooting her wedding. It felt good that a girl was fixing her wedding photographer before her fiancé :D

Eight years later, in July last year Snigdha pinged me saying she’s getting married in February 2019 and wanted me to shoot her wedding! I was thrilled! Not only did she remember what she’d told me, she had kept her word as well!!! Apart from getting to shoot a proper Dilli Ki Shaadi, here I was, back to where I started. Seeing the super-warm faces of Snigdha’s family once again was pure joy! Most of them remembered me. It felt so good to have them ask about my haal chaal. And to top it all - I got to see Namrata’s & Vikram’s lovely kids Ranveer and Samar :)

So yeah, coming back to the point - If a wedding’s photography takes eight years to materialize, it’s okay if its blog takes eight months to come through! Almost poetic, won’t you call it?

Photography: Elvin Jacob
MUH: Varnika Suryavanshi / Glammed by VS
Venue: Noida Golf Course, Delhi NCR
Special Thanks: Ragini Singh
Super Special Thanks: Namrata Nath <3

”Elvin captured so many beautiful moments for me at the wedding. He was able to capture people's emotions and bring them alive in the photos. When I see the pictures now, I can see the action, emotions, rituals, and relive the entire event. His ability to connect with the families and relatives make him exceptionally good at capturing the right emotion at the right time. I highly recommend him.” - Snigdha & Himanshu

Here’s Snigdha from Namrata’s & Vikram’s Wedding in 2011 :)

(L-R) 1. Snigdha had just turned 21 on this day. And was moments away from a cake being smashed on her face!
2. Snigdha smiling at someone. Pretty sure it wasn’t Himanshu! :)
3. Immediately after stealing Vikram’s shoes, Snigdha posed for this photograph and later during negotiations asked for a cool Rs 21,000 from her jiju :D

And here’s the adorable note Namrata & Vikram sent me after their wedding in 2011. It stays safe with my other certificates. It’s not less than one after all :)

Prathama & Richard | British Hindu Odia Wedding | Mayfair Lagoon, Bhubaneswar

Prathama & Richard (P&R) spoke to me sometime last year, saying they’re getting married and that too across three different continents - Asia (Odisha), Europe (Bath) & Africa (Johannesburg). I almost leapt for joy at the prospect of shooting all three weddings! The dreamer in me woke up and went to work. I pictured myself geotagging my social media posts with exotic locations like Paris (instead of Pallakad), Cape Town (instead of Kanyakumari) and Bali (instead of Bengaluru) with hashtags like #internationalweddingphotographer & #shootlife! I swear the only place where I didn’t check-in was the moon itself!

Life, Prathama and Richard however had other plans. P&R told me that they wanted me to only shoot their Odisha wedding. Sigh! My dreams, hopes, aspirations and social media strategy came down crashing that very instant. But their wedding turned out to be exactly the fun, intimate and ‘non-wedding’ wedding that I’d dreamt of attending someday. Be it the Odissi & Chhau dance performances, daily parties or Sobriety Tests (i.e. drunk people asking the sober ones to prove their sobriety by walking in a straight line. Nice try!) - It was fun! Everyone danced together on Odia classics like Rangabati among Hindi/English tracks like they knew each one of those songs! P&R were personally involved in all aspects of their wedding. Their family & friends from across the world were coming down and P&R ensured they got to see India the way many Indians haven’t. Everyone at the wedding was having a great time. And personally, I didn’t feel I was working as the vibes were such.

On Day 1, Prathama’s & Richard’s respective fathers got onto the stage to speak. I am pretty sure neither had any idea of what the other was going to say. But it was beautiful how both speeches complimented each other perfectly. Richard’s Father mentioned that he grew up during the peak of Apartheid in South Africa where fraternising with people of colour was a taboo. And that to see the very next generation in his family look beyond all these material differences was just so heartwarming! Prathama’s Father on the other hand quoted Indian Astronaut Rakesh Sharma - “People always ask me what I looked for when I first viewed Earth from orbit. Well, the thing that astronauts of other countries did was to look out for their country. And that's exactly what I did. It was a wonderful sight and when our then Prime Minister Smt Indira Gandhi asked me what India looked like, I told her: Saare Jahan Se Achchha (the best in the world). Then, slowly, you begin to realise that borders are not visible from space and then you start looking at your country as part of a whole and the whole being planet Earth itself. You come back feeling how fragile the planet is and how it needs to be protected.” Different perspectives, similar inferences!

I think I’ve said enough. So let’s see some pictures from the wedding, shall we?! :)

Photography: Elvin ‘Almost International‘ Jacob
MUH: Shubhraseema Nayak / Manu’s Midas Touch
Venue: MAYFAIR Lagoon, Bhubaneswar
Entertainment Courtesy: Pruthwiraj Panigrahi, Anashwara Radhakrishnan, Prasunna KP
Special Mention: Plasma :)

Priyanka & Paul | Arya Samaj Hindu Wedding | Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru

Bangalore Winters are cold enough for one to pull out their sweaters & cardigans. But this wedding, held over two nights in December 2015, warmed everyone up. It was the lovely coming together of two families - Priyanka's & Paul's. 

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