Rupel & Adam’s Hindu Wedding: Part One

In 1989, 4 years after picking up my first camera, I used my Nikon 8008S as a tool to get me into a world right down the street from me, but far far away.  These transsexual prostitutes and their clients had fascinated me for quite some time. This is THE project responsible for taking a dormant passion instilled at birth and fueling the desire to make documentary photography a job: To learn more about people different than myself.

After spending 12 years photographing in-depth documentary projects and working for newspapers around the country, my intentions are no different now than that day in the late 80s.

Hindu weddings.  It is a love/hate relationship.  Any upper-middle class Western boy armed with a camera can't deny his passion for something a tad different than white-folk attending some golf gathering at the country club on Sunday.

The generosity of the people (Mrs. Dedhia was constantly making sure I ate and would not allow me to continue photographing until I had done so), the kindness, their unique way of celebrating their traditions, how EVERYONE dances (even the elderly), passion and just being out of my every-day norm is enough to make my artistic bum very happy.  

However.

The feet. The back. The arms. The shoulders. The over-all artistic, emotional and physical exhaustion is unexplainable.  But it is nothing compared to what you feel when you wake up the following day.  A hangover without even consuming alcohol!

I photographed enough Hindu weddings to know exactly what to expect in terms of the latter.  Truly, it isn't really the physical aspect that challenges me as much it is the emotional.  And the emotional exhaustion, I believe, is what taxes my physical.  

While I call myself a Wedding Photojournalist, there are a zillion reasons why my job is nothing similar to the days I worked at newspapers.  However, Hindu weddings bring me back to that feeling and approach more so than any other cultural wedding. Why?  From the minute you walk in, the artistic demand is high. And unlike a majority of weddings where there are several points throughout the day which you can find time to "refuel," Hindu weddings do not allow for that. I am blessed to have a solid journalism background and can still dig deep enough to find a few of those editors screaming and demanding "more more more, harder harder harder!" I am also blessed to have such incredible training in long-term documentary projects that helps me set aside my artistic exhaustion and bulldoze forward at the party's pace.  

Because Hindu weddings are much more than the average 8-hour Western wedding, and filled with so many detailed customs, I will be posting Rupel & Adam's wedding at the Palmer House over the course of three days.  And while my picture selection for each post will be more extensive than my normal, I do find it impossible to tell their story limiting their selects.

The following selections are from their engagement session, the Mehndi and the Sangeet.

Enjoy.

Rupel Dedhia and Adam Yanke

May (6th and 7th) 8, 2010
Ceremony: Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton
Reception: Grand Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton

Ceremony: Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton
Reception: Grand Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton
Caterer: Palmer House and India House
DJ: Tabla Dhol
Florist: Greenleaf Florist
Makeup artist: Sonia Sandhu of MAC Cosmetics
Officiant: Joshi (Hindu) Marco (Jesuit)
Videographer: Well Spun
Invitations: Indian wedding cards
Programs: Spilled Ink
Menus: Palmer House Hilton
Bride's dress: Hand made in India over 6 months
Groom's suit: Hand made in India over 2 months

Second Shooter: Chadd Foy