Glenville Resort - Uttrakhand - 19th & 20th October 2020
PROLOGUE
At the foothills of nature, we had the opportunity to capture the beautiful memories of this wonderful couple’s wedding. Varun and Sneha’s wedding stood for what we call a true show emotion and colour. The highlight of Varun and Sneha’s wedding was that being a contemporary couple they kept the tradition and culture of their roots alive throughout their wedding. The blend of modernisation with tradition was one of the most beautiful aspects of their wedding what we could capture. The wedding location which was sitting amidst nature was Glenville Resort. The resort helped in setting the mood for this hill station wedding and providing us with some awe worthy frames for bringing out the best in Varun and Sneha’s Wedding.
MEHENDI
The first of the rituals and event was that of Mehendi. In our culture Mehendi, which is applying henna on the hands of the bride in the most beautiful and vibrant designs play a key role in starting off with the wedding rituals and ceremonies.
As Varun and Sneha deck up in their best traditional attires for their Mehendi ceremony, Sneha is accompanied by her beautiful mother to the Venue looking like a gem in her emerald green Lehenga, her mother’s happiness shown in their shadows
Varun stands tall in a matching outfit to look the best for their wedding as the fun is just getting started
The henna designs were chosen by Sneha and other females but the most beautiful moment during the Mehendi ceremony was when Varun stepped in to get henna designs done on his palm too. The joy of companionship can be seen in both their eyes when Varun is getting the henna done and Sneha is stealing glances of him, she couldn’t stop smiling!
One of the most beautiful moments that we were lucky to witness during this ceremony is when Sneha’s father carefully looking at his daughtered henna painted hands. The raw emotion of realization that his daughter is getting married and is soon leaving for her in laws is not only imbedding happiness but also a sea of memories floods his eyes.
But as we see how when Sneha’s hands get tired from holding them up for too long Varun comes to her rescue and holds them up for her and soon Sneha’s sisters and friends follow. The reassurance and support that Sneha gets from her soulmate as well as her mates is reflected in the joy that is shown in Sneha’s parent’s eyes as they watch her enjoy her Mehendi ceremony to the fullest, her smile and laughter lighting the whole venue up.
SANGEET
Sangeet is one of the most events of a wedding where everyone gets to the dance floor to bring out their best selves and step to the beats.
This ceremony was one of the most entertaining and joy filled events of Varun and Sneha’s wedding too where everyone with the dried henna looking their best came to the dance floor. Beautiful wedding songs were played during Varun and Sneha’s sangeet and the most unexpected people grooved to the upbeat music. The dance floor became vibrant with colours as the bride stepped on the dance floor and impressed everyone her grooving skills. Soon, accompanied by other females on the dance floor while heart pumping music played in the background the venue got filled with the tunes of laughter and feet tapping against the wooden flooring. The apple of everyone’s eye, Sneha brought the wedding to life with her beautiful performance during the Sangeet ceremony which stands for the music of marriage and Sneha does know how to hum to it very well!
THE ENGAGEMENT
The engagement ceremony is one of the most emotional but auspicious events of a wedding.
Varun and Sneha’s love for each other found a new name when they exchanged rings
Sneha dressed in Chiffon white saree and a traditional neckpiece looking like a million dollars while Varun dressed up in a Black Tuxedo complementing Sneha’s white like he complements her in every aspect of life. As they slowly dance to the romantic tunes their eyes tell a story of understanding, compassion and love before the engagement ceremony takes place.
As Varun leads Sneha to the engagement ceremony, they not only exchange two beautiful rings but also a promise to stand by each other throughout life and all its hardships. The bond between the two is reflected as they held hands and looked into each other’s moist eyes.
Every elder present there showered their blessings on the beautiful couple as they stepped into a new chapter of life together, held strong by their engagement rings; a symbol of their everlasting love! Following the ring exchange ceremony was the ritual of Roka, where a traditional scarf, the ‘chunri’ is put on Sneha’s wedding as she looks at Varun. The couple is blessed with all rituals but their loved ones and their ceremony completes the event with their tilak ritual. After that, promising forever togetherness the couple starts preparing for their wedding as they collect everyone’s well wishes.
HALDI
On the auspicious day of Haldi, the colour yellow represents happiness and adds glow to the face of bride and groom. But what makes it more beautiful is the happiness and blessings of family and friends who paint the bride and groom with Haldi (Turmeric Paste). This day represented the aura of fun and emotional connection between the loved ones and the bride groom.
Haldi's event started with the wedding rituals where it not only set the pace of the changing emotions, it also shows a vivid range of emotions mixed with the colour of glee; yellow. Varun and Sneha dressed up in simple yellow clothes to get splashed in Haldi and love from all their loved ones. The ritual started with Varun’s haldi where the groom was splattered in turmeric paste to get ready for the wedding truly as they prepare to tie the knots. On the other hand Sneha’s haldi has started after receiving the ‘shagan’ from Varun’s side. The fun event became more exciting with the help of family members taking advantage of the ritual to paint both bride and the groom with haldi. It can be seen in the eyes of the parents that it was finally time to them to shower all their love on the bride and groom and carefully bless them with the haldi ceremony. With tears of joy in Sneha’s eyes we got a glimpse of what happiness mixed with nostalgia feels like. Sneha’s was smiling with moist eyes as her sister applies haldi on her face, Sneha embraced her new life with joy and a hint of memories of her childhood spent with her parents. While Varun’s family and friends covered our groom in haldi as he finally stands ready for the big event.
The most important part and the major ceremony where our beautiful couple ties the knot was finally getting started. Starting with the traditional Uttarakhandi rituals, Sneha is decked up in her traditional Odhni where her parents sit both the groom and bride and bless them in the presence of their loved ones.
After the rituals are over, Varun and Sneha excitedly pose for pictures looking lovely in their traditional attires. The allure of the moment was in how these two made the mix of their modern and contemporary poses with that of their traditional attires.
THE WEDDING
Trial of the wedding attires
The lovely couple now were to engage in dressing up for their final wedding and we were mesmerised by how beautiful their wedding attires looked. While Sneha started to try on her wedding Lehenga and the makeup artists started working on her, she looked ravishing in her wedding look. The colour red combined with her neutral makeup brought out the best of Sneha’s beauty and we couldn’t wait for Varun to see his bride. As ethereal as it looks, Sneha absolutely looks gorgeous in her red wedding lehenga. The emotion of glee mixed with surprise in seen in Sneha's eyes as she completes her entire session with very subtle but promising bridal makeup and flaming Lehenga.
The most exciting faces are of Sneha’s would be mother in law as she looks at Sneha walking down the halls in her wedding attire. This showed us the beauty of every wedding lies in the people partaking it and Sneha’s mother in law is absolutely awestruck with the beauty of her would be daughter in law. There is true love and admiration in her eyes.
On the other hand, our groom Varun looks like a king in his Sherwani
Varun's lighter choice of colour complements Sneha’s bright colour choice in attire as they would in their lives. The bonding and love is evident as Varun leads the way to the venue meanwhile Sneha is getting her portraits clicked & this beautiful shot came into being.
The wedding rituals
As the ceremony begins, Varun walks to the stage in his white wedding attire looking like a true king. Our groom is accompanied to the stage by parents and in a glance we captured the wide smiles of Varun's parents which says they are very proud and happy to see their son ready to take his wedding vows. As Varun waits on the stage, Sneha's bride entry takes place and all eyes are fixed on our beautiful bride who looks like a million dollars in red. Her eyes meets Varun's as she walks to the stage accompanied by her brothers and sisters. Varun and Sneha's eyes meet and they smile cheek to cheek unable to control their true happiness as Varun extends his hand to help Sneha climb up the stage. As both of them take in the true moment of beauty on the stage, their 'jaimala', which is the garland of pious flowers is brought to the stage and they exchange their jaimala under the beautiful moonlit sky with the blessings of all their loved ones on this precious day.
Soon, it’s time for the pheras and the final rituals of tying the knot as Varun leads the way for Sneha and soon Sneha does the same around the holy fire of marriage. Their hands entangled as they circle the fire one by one and tears of joy fill Sneha’s eyes.
Next Varun fills Sneha’s forehead with Vermilion also known as the ritual of Sindoor daan, to complete the marriage ceremony by exchanging garlands of fresh flowers. After the Kanyadaan, which is one of the most beautiful yet emotional ritual where the bride’s parents officially hand her over to Varun, Sneha is now Varun's wedding wife; completing the wedding.
Vidai
This is by far the most emotional of all rituals where a bride who spent her entire childhood and youth with her parents finally bids her farewell and leaves for her Sasural, the home of her in laws. As Vidai being the last of all rituals and Sneha now being Varun’s wife all her relatives gather around the couple to lead her to her husband’s home.. Every moist eye shows the attachment and love they have for Sneha and how hard it is for them to see her leave for her in laws, but we also witnessed blessings in the truest form as everyone cling to the couple and shower them with kisses. Varun, being the kindest and sweetest groom there is, wipes away Sneha’s tears and assures her parents that he will always be by her side and she will never be alone in this journey of life that they are both going to travel together now.
Content Written by - Srijita Chakraborty