Ajeet and Jasmin’s wedding holds a special place in my heart. It was an Indian Sikh wedding that I photographed in a Gurdwara, which is a place of worship and upholds the many traditions within a Sikh wedding. I’d like to say a big thank you to our neighbour and close friend Mona who brought over her wedding video beforehand to explain what the Sikh traditions are and why they’re important to her culture. She even shared tips with me on how to wrap my head in the traditional Sikh fashion to pay my respects to their religion.

Jasmin and her family are from Montreal. Ajeet and his family from Toronto. The happy couple now resides in New York. Ajeet’s father Harjinder organized an engagement photo session and I was sent to New York for a day to take images of the lovely couple. The entire photo shoot was magical and the stars seemed to align at every corner. The signs in Times Square were used as a background and at one point, one sign changed to display an ad for a romantic broadway show. The engagement shoot was filled with romance and at the end of the day after we had taken all the pictures we wanted to take, it started to rain.

An Indian Sikh wedding is a two-day event beginning the first day with old country traditions and ceremonies in the Gurdwara, which is a place of worship. The first day was an early start at 5:00am and by 7:00am I needed to be at the groom’s house to document the tradition of wrapping the groom’s head in a turban for the upcoming ceremony. The groom’s uncle was responsible for wrapping his head while his grandmother stood to his left.

As per Sikh tradition, both families meet outside the Gurwara for the Milni, meaning introductions. At this point members of both families exchange garlands of flowers and gifts. Once the introductions are finished, the families enter the Gurdwara for the ceremony.

After the ceremony, it is custom in the Indian tradition for friends of the groom to steal one of his shoe and keep it from him. The groom then pays his friends to give him the shoe back. The men run around teasing and hiding the shoe from the groom and everyone has a good laugh! At this point the groomsmen’s negotiates with bridesmaids what will take for the bride to come with the groom ?  Once the game was finished, we were ready for the photo shoot in a nearby park, Milliken, Toronto, ON. As happened during the engagement shoot, we ended the wedding day photos with rain. Just in time for us to bring the bride home and have her mother bless her upon entering. Once inside, the bride kicks a bowl of rice on the floor for good luck.

On the second day the events are more flashy, celebratory and modern. There is entertainment, speeches and dancing during the reception. During Ajeet and Jasmin’s wedding reception everyone was much more emotional. The bride’s sister and maid of honour presented a slide show of the happy couple along with a slide show of the photos I had taken the day before. The speech was especially touching and had the guests in tears.

Photographing this wedding meant a couple of long days and a lot of hard work, but the entire time I was invigorated by the love and happiness surrounding me! I photographed a few Sikh weddings since and I am very thankful for the experience and the world of opportunity it given to me.

Dragi Andovski

My passion and biggest asset is taking the time to make every client comfortable and relaxed before I even pick up the camera. The result? Photos of you that actually look like you at your best! I can prove to you how much you can enjoy having your picture taken. Lifestyle photography is about the experience that happens to be served up along side of some great photos.

Specialties:
Family Photography for families that like to move around and enjoy their photo time, Wedding Photography for couples looking for a mixture of photojournalistic, contemporary and traditional images and Professional Corporate headshots that are far from cheesy and stiff.

www.daphotostudio.com