Pittsburgh Indian Wedding Photography | Sri Venkateswara Temple

So, if you're not familiar with Indian weddings then boy are you in for a treat! We recently had the absolute pleasure of photographing an Indian wedding at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Pittsburgh and the reception at the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe. W.O.W. I cannot begin to convey all the dramatic beauty of this day. The bride, Priya, could have been planning this day for 10 years and I would not have been one bit surprised. Knowing that she had the help of Katherine Shaw's wedding planning team at Trends to Traditions made me understand a little better how this all came together so beautifully (we have worked with Katherine before and her work is always divine). So I'm going to have to take my time with these posts as there are sooooooo many to come because of all the yummy delicious details...such as; a horse, professional dancers, special lighting systems, special fabrics for an Indian outdoor oasis, cuisine provided by a catering team flown in from out of state, homemade crepe station, ginormous elephant ice sculptures used as coolers as drinks were poured down the trunk and into your glass, placecards and food notes handwritten by a caligrapher, henna-decorated cupcake wedding cake...and on and on and on as I'm sure I'm forgetting so much!

So here are a few from the beginning of the day. Enjoy!

Let me introduce you to Maneesh, the groom. :) Within the Indian tradition, the groom's family gathers before the groom's procession (Barat) to place his turban on his head and also a sehra, which is a headpiece kind of a like a veil (in this case it is pearls), by his sister.

And here is a photo of one of Maneesh's hands. Just couldn't help myself...the tradition of henna is so beautiful. Just look at those patterns!

And then aalllllll the fun begins for Maneesh. He gets to ride a decorated and beautiful horse for the groom's procession where a gathering of friends and family walk the procession to deliver Maneesh to the bride's family where he will go through a few more traditions before being united with Priya inside the temple.

During Maneesh's procession a drummer and 2 other musicians played while everyone walked. It was so uplifting and fun. :) This is the drummer getting everyone ready for some fun, teaching them how to dance.

And here's our guy!

Every so often throughout the procession the drummer really kicks it up and family members will dance in celebration. Here is Maneesh's sister and other women of his family.