Truly a sight to behold and a dream come true.
Buckle up folks, this is going to be the biggest blog post yet! About a month ago, I had the extreme honor of capturing Amisha and Deepan's Nepali Hindu wedding. Amisha had reached out and when she told me it was a Hindi wedding, I nearly cried. You see, since I've had my hands on a camera, I had always DREAMED of photographing a Hindi wedding! I am just totally enamored by the colors, life, and beautiful traditions these weddings have. So, I of course said yes and began researching straight away! For those who don't know, Hindi weddings are quite the event! They typically span over 3 days; the first day typically being an extremely intimate celebration with family, the second day is the wedding ceremony, and the third and final day is the reception! I got to cover the second and third day of their wedding and wow, was I in love! Though I had done some research to make sure I covered all the big and significant events, I still needed a bit of direction to ensure I didn't miss anything. Amisha & Deepan's family and friends were SO kind to explain the various traditions, translate, and help me be at the right place at the right time! ( Thank you all for being so wonderful! ) So let me walk you through the day!
First thing's first: we get everyone all dolled up and prettied for the ceremony! Amisha had her best girls help adorn her with all of her beautiful jewelry, veil, and saree. Deepan's sister helped get ready and made sure ask of his accessories were just so! The groom then enters in with his family, groomsmen, and friends in a procession called "Janti." After all the family and friend's are gathered, the bride enters under an umbrella of sorts carried (typically by the bride's brothers) by the groomsmen. The bride then circles her husband-to-be sprinkling water and then the two exchange a grass "Mala" (garland) made with a vibrant green grass that represents a long happy marriage!
"Pooja" is the ceremony filled with worship where the bride and groom, and members of their families make offerings to different gods and elements of nature. There many little bowls filled with various items like fruit, money, water, flower petals, sindoor powder, and rice being offered up. One of the most touching moments is when the bride and groom's hands are joined together by the bride's parents and then poured with water out of a silver jug. This is when the parents give away their daughter to her groom and they become one ( peep Amisha's tear ). Then the moment we've all been waiting for, the Sindoor! The groom applies an orange powder called "Sindoor" to the bride's part in her hair and this the equivalent of saying "I do!"
And just like that, they're married! There were a couple of other fun traditions that took place; one of which determines who will wear the pants in the relationship ( any guesses on who won that? (; ) and another that decide's who's side of the family is better, and the last one being a betting war to let the bride enter her new home with her husband! Gifts are exchanged between both sides of the family as they are joined together, so sweet how the whole family is incorporated into the wedding! The day ended with a lot of fun and a lot of emotion as Amisha and Deepan were finally husband and wife, but the next day was party time!
If you thought the ceremony day was fun, the reception was even better! Filled with delicious food, beautiful music and dance; there's no way you can't have fun! One thing that was really neat to see is along with the bride and groom, members of the family and bride party perform songs and dances for the newly weds. It was so fun watching everyone give their best performance and dance the night away!
Congratulations to Amisha & Deepan, they are surely surrounded but so much love and support!
