An American-Hindu Wedding....HELP

rteest42

Okay, as a favor to a co-worker, I am going to be shooting her daughters wedding two weeks from now. I have shot weddings before, it's not my 'thing' but for certain people...

Anyway. I am looking for portfolios to view and possibly some advice as to what to expect during a Hindu ceremony. (most especially shots to not miss, the pace of the ceremony etc)

The situation is thus---the grooms parents arrived from India 10 days ago, with a complete wedding ensemble for just about the whole wedding party and then the groom proposed to the bride. As his parents are returning to India in a few weeks, the wedding is NOW, or not till next August when she can travel to India (and of course, then HER family can't attend)

She was born in India but adopted by a Caucasian family, who are not at all familiar with Indian traditions or the Hindu religion, so her mom (my co-worker) is beyond useless in assisting.

The groom and his family are off playing tourist up and down the east coast, and so they are really of little assistance.

The bride is off in lala land, just yessing her future in-laws to death on every aspect.

They are all aware that I have no experience in this particular situation, so I am not so much worried they won't like what I shoot, but more that I won't know WHAT I am looking for, as my understanding is everything happening will NOT be in English....

The reception is a few days later, but I get the feeling that there may be things I might want to be on the lookout for there, too???

I greatly appreciate any links and assistance!~

ARKreations

A local colleague did a series of blog posts covering an Indian wedding that she shot. It might be of some help:
Introduction
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Sam

How about finding a local Hindu temple and seeking their advice?

Sam

rteest42

Sam wrote: »

How about finding a local Hindu temple and seeking their advice?

Sam

Its one of the things I am working on, but Hindu temples are not a dime a dozen around here .... I am working with another co-worker for a bunch of info--- she's in a mixed marriage, and had a Hindu ceremony years ago, in India

....the bigger issue is of course, I work full time at something else entirely and am doing it all as a favor... and we are at 13 days till... So, I am doing a crash course on Hindu AND mostly want to see some pretty pictures~~~~~~:ivar

E Colby

Google is your friend. A quick look revealed lots of info on Hindu weddings. Also there were listings for You Tube of various Hindu weddings.
Good luck.
Cheers,
Colby

Art Scott

I just did a google of Hindu temples in Chesterfield and got this info:

Gurdwara Sahib of the Sikh Association of Central Virginia
4500 Mary Blvd.
Chesterfield, VA 23234
Phone: (804) 271-1771

Give them a call to find the particulars...also go to the rehearsal............


we will want to see your pix :-}}

Awais Yaqub

Art Scott wrote: »

I just did a google of Hindu temples in Chesterfield and got this info:

Gurdwara Sahib of the Sikh Association of Central Virginia
4500 Mary Blvd.
Chesterfield, VA 23234
Phone: (804) 271-1771

Give them a call to find the particulars...also go to the rehearsal............


we will want to see your pix :-}}

Hindu and sikh are different and Gurdwara is worship place of Sikhs not Hindus.

Weddings in India or Pakistan region no matter christen, Hindu or Muslim have one thing in common and it is chaos and crowd! you may have to yell a lot, background is always full of children and ladies don't want to move away from stage even you are finished taking their photos with bride and groom, and almost in every wedding there is an old man telling everyone to hurry up. But as this wedding is in USA things could be little slow.

Dancing, singing, lots of glaring colors and emotions.

Reception, lots of small rituals and departure of bride groom are important events to cover like any other wedding.

There are lots of Youtube clips about hindu weddings i recommend you to go through them, usually rituals can vary depending on where they live in India and also vary according to family traditions.

And wedding celebrations may start few days before actual wedding day Check mehndi celebrations

Also there are events after wedding day.

Art Scott

Awais Yaqub wrote: »

Hindu and sikh are different and Gurdwara is worship place of Sikhs not Hindus.

Thank you....as i said I googled Hindu Temples in Chesterfield Va and that was the only temple in Chesterfield..........So my thoughts were wrong....I thought Sikh's were a TYPE of Hindu......Like Baptist and Episcopalian are types of Christian..........
Thank You for educating and enlightening me...............I greatly appreciate it.

Nikonic1

Here is a link to the photographer's blog who I've hired for my wedding next summer. They have recently done an Indian wedding ( in the link) but I'm not sure how close what you see will be to what you're going to be dealing with. Just thought it might help.

Enjoy: http://photopinkblog.com/?p=1134

Stephaniespix

Good luck, there will be a lot of beautiful color everywhere, flowers will be plentiful, you will certainly get portfolio images but be prepared for long days.

Have fun!

Matthew Saville

rteest42 wrote: »

....the bigger issue is of course, I work full time at something else entirely and am doing it all as a favor... and we are at 13 days till... So, I am doing a crash course on Hindu AND mostly want to see some pretty pictures~~~~~~:ivar

...The BIGGER issue, of course, will be whether or not you're doing this for free. Please tell me you're charging a decent fee for this?

The only advice I can offer is to bring a CRAPLOAD of memory cards and batteries, and be ready for anything. Expect lots of color, lots of action, and lots of low-light maybe.

=Matt=

Surfdog

I had just spoken a week ago to an aquaintance who is Indian and he was telling me that he & his wife had separate shoots over a period of several days, wherein photos were taken from his perspective and then separately from hers. (He said the ceremony actually lasts for several days.) They actually received 2 wedding albums afterwards - his album and her album. He talked like this was common practice for Hindu ceremonies.

My point is, be sure you know ahead of time specifically what he and his family will be expecting. Good luck!

rteest42

I'm back!

http://rteest42.smugmug.com/PortfolioImages-To-Own/Melody-and-Pankaj/13341310_wgMYy#967421705_NasxC

Here is a link to an assortment of images....
I am exhausted, lol

The night before, I finally convinced the bride she might want images of the henna being done. Good thing, because they exchanged rings!
Yeeesh.

The day of....the dressing, etc. The bride never had a dry run with the sari ...yeesh again!

The wedding. The priest was more concerned with getting us out of there on time because there was another event...the entire thing was of course, in Hindi, but there was NO pomp and circumstance...I was adjusting a lens, getting situated and the next thing I knew? The wedding had started!

He on occasion broke into English to tell us the significance of WHAT JUST HAPPENED, not what was GOING to happen. Need I say, YEESH???

But he did stop to invite me onto the altar to take photos during the toe ring bit...

Because the wedding was a modified Hindu event it was very truncated, and a lot of the info I had come up with was not particularly useful, but I did recognize some things.

The reception venue was FAR darker than it had ever been before and I know truly that my next investment needs to be serious lighting if I plan to do this ever again.... I am NOT a wedding photographer, but do on occasion shoot a wedding under certain circumstances...
So, be gentle with my images, please. The bride and groom are happy...


Thanks everyone for your advice!

rteest42

Matthew Saville wrote: »

...The BIGGER issue, of course, will be whether or not you're doing this for free. Please tell me you're charging a decent fee for this?

The only advice I can offer is to bring a CRAPLOAD of memory cards and batteries, and be ready for anything. Expect lots of color, lots of action, and lots of low-light maybe.

=Matt=

Of course I didn't charge enough! This was the gift to the bride and groom, the Mother of the bride is a co worker of mine at my day job and totally was blindsided by the entirety of the idea of a wedding in 3 weeks....

I do for pleasure, for learning, for experience... ( I got some great Indian food cooked and served and explained for me!!) I shoot weddings RARELY and only if the person understands what I am giving them...

Some day, I may attempt to do for more than a pittance...

nicoleshilliday

I shot my first Hindu wedding last year. It actually was a mix between Methodist and Hindu.

My advice is to talk to the bride and groom on what they expect from you. I had no idea that they expected me to be right up in the thick of things. Literally right next to them, in front of them, behind them etc. Un like Christian weddings, where the photographer is asked to stay back and not get in the way.

May times I had to stand my ground, bc of the guests trying to get in front of me to take a photo with their PandS.

Here is the link to my gallery. He actually got to ride in on a horse...very cool. One of the best weddings i ever shot. so much fun!

http://proofs.shillidayphotography.com/Wedding-Goel-Daniel

also, read about the different ceremony rituals, it helped me in knowing what was important, but really, everything is important, so just snap snap snap!

Shima

I just shot my first Hindu wedding yesterday for a British couple (the bride's family was Hindu). Not sure how your experience was, but neither the bride or groom had been to or seen a Hindu wedding before, so they were just going w/ the flow. It was quite a load of fun though and everything was very laid back so I had great access for the photos. Will post some in a couple weeks, I'm still on vacation in London this week.

rteest42

Shima wrote: »

I just shot my first Hindu wedding yesterday for a British couple (the bride's family was Hindu). Not sure how your experience was, but neither the bride or groom had been to or seen a Hindu wedding before, so they were just going w/ the flow. It was quite a load of fun though and everything was very laid back so I had great access for the photos. Will post some in a couple weeks, I'm still on vacation in London this week.

Shima...
I too had little info, as my bride didn't have a clue...and well, I think it's possible had I wanted to roam about on the altar I could have?!?!?!!

I didn't... but I am happy and so are the bride and groom!!

I am leaving on Vacation on Thurs but will look forward to seeing your images too!!

Shima

rteest42 wrote: »

Shima...
I too had little info, as my bride didn't have a clue...and well, I think it's possible had I wanted to roam about on the altar I could have?!?!?!!

I didn't... but I am happy and so are the bride and groom!!

I am leaving on Vacation on Thurs but will look forward to seeing your images too!!

Yeah if yours was anything like ours, it was so laid back you could walk around all you liked, but I much preferred sitting directly in front of the action since that was the best view!

Debashis_A_ghosh

For anyone looking to for examples on hindu weddings you need to know that there are different kinds of hindu weddings based on the the part of India the grrom/bride come from.

The wedding rituals in northen India - Punjabi hindu wedding are differnt (http://www.creativeclicks.com.my/blog/?tag=kl-hilton-wedding)
The Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, North eastern hindu weddings are similar and all of these are different form other regions of India.
Gujarati and Rajasthani hindu weddings are different from Maharashtrian hindu weddings.
The 4 southern states Tamil Nadu, Andhrapradesh, BKarnataka and Kerala have different rituals as compared to the other parts of India.

Common shots across all hindu weddings would be:
Gifts excahnged between the bride and grom are displayed to the wedding guests.
The moment the grom gets off from the car/chariot/horse/mare....he is welcomed by the bride's family.
The moment when the bride is bring brought to the wedding stage / holy fire.
The point at which they exhange their garlands.
The wedding ceremony itself with offerings being made to all the deities.
The teary eyed bride leaving her family and walking away with the groom.
Images of everyone who attended the wedding.
Images of the food that was served and few shots of the guests eating food.