With wine from France (red) and Argentina (white), an English band, Indian food and Australian photographers Nisha and Carl certainly know the meaning of multiculturalism. I was fortunate to spend Friday and Saturday taking a peek into their lives with my camera as my trusty companion as I covered their civil ceremony on the Friday and the Indian ceremony (and party!) on Saturday, and it’s fair to say the days couldn’t have been more different!
The civil ceremony was held at a registry office in a town hall with family and close friends in attendance. Carl wore a suit, Nisha a white dress, and the ceremony was finished in around 15 minutes before heading out the gardens on the ground for a few photos and some socialising. By contrast the Indian ceremony was a vastly more grandiose affair full of colour, fire, mandaps and bling (according to Nisha gangster rappers have nothing on her when it comes to bling – and I agree!). I tell you what, fire during a wedding ceremony is something Western weddings should really look into, there’s something magical about the priest presiding over a fire and it opens up a world of photographic opportunities! Having never covered a Hindu wedding before (my previous Asian wedding was Muslim Bengali) I wasn’t sure what to expect, or how long the ceremony went for, turns out it was close to 8 times longer than the civil ceremony at around 2 hours so my frenetic photography at the start slowed down to a more leisurely pace by the end!
One of the things I love about shooting weddings, especially here in the UK, is experiencing new things and tasting different flavours of life. I got to see the chaos of an Indian bride’s house on the day of her wedding, meet the warm and generous family and friends of the couple and sample some delicacies that put Brick Lane to shame (including the hottest chicken tikka ever!).
Huge thanks go to the very talented Shane Lee who was second shooting with me while Danny lived it up in Italy and especially Nisha and Carl for being a great couple and running a tight ship which made my job much easier. Oh yeah, and thanks for dinner, a taste sensation.
