sneha and eric: sikh ceremony

in december of last year, i had the pleasure of photographing sneha and eric’s hindu ceremony which was held in atlanta, ga. on april 10th, 2010, they had their sikh ceremony (anand karaj), and I again had the privilege of documenting this special day for them. the sikh ceremony was held at the embassy suites north charleston hotel and convention center in north charleston, sc. as with the hindu ceremony, sneha’s mom had crafted beautiful floral garlands which were used throughout the ceremony, and she put together a great ganesha table which was used in the reception ballroom. not to be outdone, during the reception, sneha’s dad took the stage and serenaded the couple with a few some songs, and wow, his singing voice was amazing! he didn’t stop there though, as a little later, he brought his wife on stage and sang a song for her. and as a result raised the bar for the rest of the husbands in the room there were a series of great speeches, and in particular, eric’s sister, natasha, who gave a very touching tribute to her brother showing just how much of an impact he has had in her life and the strong bond they share.

i was assisted by katie stivers of kathleen amelia photography who was attending/shooting an indian wedding for the first time. she was of great help to me and it was a sincere pleasure working with her, thanks katie!  i do have to share this story. so katie and i arrived at the hotel prior to the start of the cocktail hour to get set up shots of the ballroom. we entered the ballroom, unpacked our gear, and started shooting. some things didn’t appear as i had thought they were supposed to be from what i had been told earlier, but continued anyway. in fact, there was a live band set up, and sneha and eric were having live singers as well. so, naturally, i thought this was it. after about 20mins of shooting, the event coordinator from the embassy suites approached me (we had met earlier that morning) and kindly informed me that, (yup, you guessed it) we were in the wrong ballroom!  no harm done, however, as we had plenty of time to move next door to the right ballroom and get the shots we needed – plus we got some great shots of the other ballroom

everything went off beautifully, and sneha and eric’s families did a tremendous job with all the arrangements. congratualtions to the pai and singh families and thank you for allowing us to be a part of your big day!