Pooja - Kamal Wedding @Ritz Carlton

December 11th & 12th 2008

Few days before the day, Darwin (my housemate) received a call from Deep( previously organized a fashion show talent contest, in which me and four other friends had participated as photographer contestants) asking him to do a wedding job for Shanghai-based Indian couple.

Somehow he was so enthusiastic to hear this, I would have been too if it had been in my case. Then I was invited to assist him to do the job. There is no way I would reject such an opportunity. Since this was my first wedding shoot, nervous and excitement mixed into one feeling. Another photographer, Vinna, the winner of the talent contest, was coming along to assist us.

How I should say in regards of the wedding, Indian wedding is really unique and is none other like the common Western weddings. The wedding took place for two days. There were plenty of ritual ceremonies, both morning and evening for both days too. These are really important. They wanted us to have as much coverage as we could.

Anyway, some photos to start with...

The first ritual ceremony was held inside the groom's hotel room. The groom is on the right, and guess who is next to him? Bride? Wrong answer. Apparently, she is the sister. I wonder why the ritual I was in, either the bride or the groom has always been separated.

Another shot of the groom from different angle. The following photos will be the ritual for the bride, not long after the groom had finished.

Bride's hands holding a rose. As typical Indian weddings, the bride's hands are painted with this traditional art, called Mehandi, also known as Henna. Family and close friends may be allowed to have this tattooed on their hands. Now the next following pictures were taken during the evening.

So... What do ladies call this particular thing? Clutch? Purse? I'd just say this as a wedding accessory. Once I've got a sight on this thing, I quickly snapped couple of shots. Loved the reflection.

Because I was left alone by Darwin in the bride's room, apparently he was busy either with the groom or taking shots of the ballroom, I had been chatting a lot with the bride. Thankfully she is a really nice person. She is certainly a coffee lover, planned to go to Bali for honeymoon in January 2009. Indian born, moved to China at the age of 3. It is weird that I do not have any idea in regards of the groom :D.

It says 'Wedding Party'. I have absolutely no idea why there would be two occasions of these. Heard from my friends there would usually be at least three. Shocked me, of course, yet it was a really fun night.

Bride and Groom, Pooja and Kamal are finally together. As they entered the main door of the ballroom, happiness seemed to be on their faces. Note: Pooja's daddy is in the background.

Ice sculpture decorated, nicely positioned mini candles forming love shape, was put nearby the food table. Some of you might be wondering, what kind of event this day was. Mainly as they entered in the ballroom, nothing was really special. Headed to the stage, sat on the couch, both parties were relaxed. Dining in, cocktail night, dancing here and there, and then, this next part was interesting. There were plenty of games. Let me show you few nice photos :D~.

This Chinese guy is really hilarious. He was crazy to take off the shirt in front of everyone. The purpose was because the Event Master had been asking for shirt. When he offered his, cloth was worn, then MC asked him to take it off. He did it within 2 seconds. Incredible? Sure he was. The action put everyone in the ballroom into joy and laughter.

As the game went by, now the MC had asked for any leather belt. Out of nowhere, came this guy, again! If he had posed some other way, it could not have been this funny. Unfortunately, someone else had come quicker and won the game instead. There were still plenty of other funny games filling the night. I could only say it was really entertaining to be part of the people.

Later that night, most people were just slow-dancing, chit-chatting, and sitting around. The party finished at around 11.30ish. Then Darwin, Vinna and I went to visit Nick's farewell (sorta) party at Laris (3 on the Bund). Met Misyel, Michelle, Ronald and lots of unknown guys and girls there. Stayed there for only half an hour, mainly due to exhausted, then headed home to prepare for the second day.

On the second day, was really sleepy in the morning. Headed straight to the hotel, went to 28th floor, where the groom was residing, knocked on the door, waited for a good 20-30 seconds, then door was opened. Groom had just woke up and told us to just go to 45th floor, where the bride was staying, to cover more ritual ceremony being held soon. Couple of pictures to start with...

So, shall we begin? Not long after we reached the penthouse room, the ritual began soon enough. While they were preparing things for it, I snapped more quick shots.

Evidently, the head of the ritual wrote something on a note with red marking on it. I had no idea what that was. Heard it was cow's blood. Not so sure where they got it from. Anyway, it is just my joke. Clearly it was not blood :D.

The bride wearing yellow clothing, her mother is at the background. Now that I am onto it, Indian wedding usually gets you an idea of how colorful a wedding could be.

Still in the ritual, in this part the bride was asked to rotate a thing in the center, not so sure what the purpose is.

Now is the interesting part. Apparently, the bride was supposed to be sat down on the floor, and everyone (girls only) was to get this yellow lotion or whatever it was, and applied it on the face, hands and legs. Even Vinna was asked to help doing this. Loved the expression of the bride in this picture. Not long after this, we had a break.

In the evening, we went to the groom's room straight away to cover more ritual ceremony. This was a ceremony to get the groom dressed up in such a Indian traditional way. Few pictures are in the following.

As you could see in the pictures, there were quite lots of people in the room. Being squeezed inside such a small room, me and Darwin were supposed to cover some important part of the ritual ceremony.

A picture of the sister and relatives watching over the ceremony. Look at how serious they are. By judging at the photo, I was located in the corner of the left side of the room, facing the doorway.

Not long after this, I was asked to get to the bride's room. Arrived there, she had almost finished getting dressed up. Wish I had more time to take more photos of the accessories such as shoes, rings, or jeweleries etc. More shots anyway...

Somehow the bride looks stunning in this way. The circle thing in between her eyebrows was special too. Look at the nose ring. I had been watching her mother helped putting that thing on in her nose. Actually, they had few sets of those and kept changing in the beginning till they were satisfied with the last one.

Once the bride had been ready for the wedding ceremony, we headed down. Managed to capture few photos in the ballroom.

As you can see, the card says 'Wedding Ceremony', instead of 'Wedding Party' on the previous day. The decoration was much different too. Especially they had this special seats and table on the stage, apparently it was for another ritual ceremony.

Then it was the time for the bride to get into the ballroom. Accompanied by two brides' maids and relatives. Obviously, she and the groom did not come together. The bride had patiently waited for the groom, until relatives did another ritual entrance for the groom. Covered the door with white clothing to separate the bride, that had been already inside, and the groom which were outside. Before they could see each other, they needed to do certain ritual step by step, instructed by the ceremony master.

The bride's expression again impressed me. As she had just finished the small ritual for the groom to enter the room, they had to head to the stage for another ceremony.

Not a good angle of a photo since you could see the cameraman, however the ceremony master was into something at this point :). More pictures of the bride and groom are in the following.

This particular photo seems to deliver such an emotion to me, emptiness or sadness of something. But, I believe she was not unhappy, especially by looking at the next photo...

While in the middle of the ceremony, smile on both faces was spotted. Quickly I snapped couple of frames. I just simply love it. Look at how hard they were holding hand. It was not as if they wanted to be holding hand on the ceremony. They were instructed to hold something together.

When there are a good thing, there would always be another good thing surrounds it. The expression of relatives near the stage, watching over the ceremony, were priceless too.

Finally, the ceremony was over. Time for champagne toast. Groom was actually the one who poured the champagne into the arranged glasses. The photo on the right is bride and groom were waiting to toast with the rest of the people inside the ballroom.

Not long after that, then it was time for dinner. Guess everyone has got hungry at this point of time. Some more pictures of the bride and groom while having dinner. I wonder how I could missed the small blue light at the groom's back.

Not the best picture of the dancing couple. However, the addition of red light in this particular photo gave me the mood of the romantic feeling between the couple. Moreover, the smile on the bride's face is more than enough for me to post this photo.

Anyway, that is all for the wedding from me. Thanks for reading. Comments and critiques are always appreciated.