This was such a beautiful wedding! I found out about this wedding about a month before I was going to photograph it. A lady from our church emailed my husband in a bit of a panic asking if I still did wedding photography. Her daughter’s wedding photographer had backed out (not sure why, but I am glad they did! 
. I have wanted to photograph a hindu wedding for a LOOOOOOOONG time so this was one of those dream come true moments! Well let me get to the juicy part… the pictures!…..
This is Radha Madhav Dham the hindu temple where the wedding took place. The wedding was on the grounds of the temple. They don’t allow photography inside the temple so I would imagine that is why they choose to have it outdoors.
This is where the ceremony took place, gorgeous right!?
I LOVED these little pedestal toppers!!!
This statue was on a table in front of the ceremony site. The groom told me the following about this sculpture… Ganesha (Elephant idol) is the Lord of beginnings (Removes all obstacles). Any Hindu holy ritual starts with an offering to Lord Ganesha.
The beautiful bride getting ready with the help of her bridesmaids.
Close up shot of one of the murals on the temple, STUNNING!
About to go down the aisle!
Nikhil’s sweeeeet shoes! I love how they are so shiny there is a glare on them and it is in the shape of a star.
The Bride walking down the aisle and the father giving the bride away.
The mother of the bride pours something into the hands of the father of the bride, the groom, and the bride while the mother catches what remains in a dish.
This is a part of the ceremony where they wrap string around the couple several times then the priest ties it and cuts it and they tie the string onto each other’s wrist.
They do a special ceremony where they put rose petals on each other’s head. In the image below the wind was blowing so much that Kristen cupped her hands to keep the wind
from blowing the petals away!
The priest starts a Holy Fire where they offered ceremonial molten butter and rice. Like I said before it was a windy day so it took some effort to get the fire started.
It reminded me of my wedding it was so windy that Daniel and I could hardly light the unity candle. BUT they were able to get the fire going!
Kristen’s brother gave them the rice they offered to the Holy Fire.
Then they walked around the Holy Fire.
Then they offered molten butter.
Then they gave the wedding party a snack and some special drink.
Then the Groom gave the bride a necklace and the Mother of the Groom and Aunt gave her toe rings.
Then some friends recited prayers to bless the couple and after the prayers the congregation shouted and threw rose petals at the couple.
There are a couple more ceremonies that they did but I will be sharing those with the couple, this is just a preview 
.
First kiss
Congratulations you two!!
Elephant tiles? AWESOME!!!
More kisses
I know right!? STUNNING!
I love that you can see the thread that he tied onto her hand in this picture!
Thank you Nikhil and Kristen for allowing me to document your journey into marriage!
There are MANY more photos to come I could barely narrow it down to these to share with you all! I hope you enjoy these while waiting for the rest
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