Navin and Faika’s wedding trilogy ended with a big bang on the 3rd day…their actual wedding day. As usual, Faika looked stunning in her wedding dress. As with most Bangladeshi weddings I have photographed, their decorations are always very elaborate. The venue where their wedding was held could cater for a few events at once. The entire palace setting on the stage was constructed on the wedding day itself. The highlight of the day was when Navin and Faika looked at each other through the mirror as husband and wife for the first time.
You’ve seen their Singaporean Chinese wedding ceremony and pre-wedding photos, now, presenting part 2 of their wedding celebration held in KL. The wedding celebration carried on in KL with a sangeet, a prayer & oil ceremony called the santh, and culminated with a colourful Hindu wedding ceremony at Shree Lakshmi temple in KL. This wedding video highlight is one of my favourites this year – I enjoy hearing their stories and seeing two different cultures combine through marriage. With the world becoming more connected globally, inter-racial marriages are the norm.
This wedding is unique for me, because in one day, I get to witness:
A Hindu wedding ceremony that resembles a Punjabi wedding
A Chinese tea ceremony where most of the people being served tea are not Chinese
Families speaking Mandarin in typical Indian wear
A dragon dance during the wedding dinner
Oh, and for the record, it was my last wedding shoot before I took a break to deliver my 2nd child!
Photographers: Grace, Nigel & Diane (wedding day), Weiming & Nigel (sangeet and santh)
Videographers: Nick, Chi Yin & Felicia
It has been a while since I last photographed a Sikh wedding. I love the wonderful details that colour cultural weddings like these. It makes me really happy. :) Sonia and I used to be colleagues years ago. She was a really good project manager and is a really detailed person. It really showed in her wedding, because she had wrapped and labelled all her items needed for the wedding… placed in bags for when she needed them. Row upon row, she detailed everything in her excel sheet. She also had an emergency kit for the day which included an umbrella, drinks, food, toiletries, and even a Rubik’s cube! (I think the Rubik’s cube was for the driver in case he was bored! haha).
Reyhan completes Sonia by being her solid rock. He’s patient and kind, one of the traits that attracted Sonia to him in the first place. What amazed me was that he used to drive all the way from his home to hers to send her to work even though it was an hour off his route to work! That’s dedication and love!
Reyhan and Sonia’s wedding was really memorable because they are really sporting and fun people. So many different expressions, lots of laughter, silly faces, and amazing dancing! No Punjabi wedding will be complete without dancing! We had heaps of fun photographing their Sikh temple wedding and then a church wedding the day after.
Sonia and Reyhan says:
We’ve known for a few years now that we would love for you to photograph our wedding day. We’re grateful that we were able to book your time on the 13th and 14th of December! Thank you for all your hard work over those two days in taking all those lovely photos for us and preparing them for the slideshow at dinner.
We appreciate that you guys woke up at insanely early hours to come over to our homes to take photos of us getting dressed. Grace, I was yawning away during my makeup and hair session on the 13th so it was awesome when you arrived and helped wake me up with your chirpiness.
Thank you for your creative input throughout the events. We have had at least 15 guests tell us that your slideshow at dinner was amazing. And we agree wholeheartedly! Some of the feedback we received was from people whose photography styles we ourselves look up to, so it was really very exciting for us to hear from them. One person said that you took unique photos and expressions that they have never seen before and another told us that it was so beautiful, they nearly cried.
Thank you for your patience with us when we ate into your portrait time as we kept getting caught by guests! And thank you also for your patience with some guests who got in your way while you were working.
Diane, thank you for all the preparation work and for your prompt communications in the months prior to our wedding. Of all the vendors at our wedding, Stories gave us the best experience from asking the right questions to being patient with us when we had delays in responding to you.
All in all it has been a wonderful experience working with you.
As promised, more photos from the Sikh wedding shoot. From 3000 photos shot over 3 days, it’s really hard to pick only a handful to showcase on the blog. So we’ve created a slideshow for you to view, which is right at the bottom of this post. I love this shot of Raj & Charan, there’s so much drama to it.
They can pass as movie stars! These 2 photos below were taken by Mark.
Leaving her family to join Raj’s family.
On her wedding day, Charan looked absolutely stunning. I am amazed at the detail that went into her make up.
Two different looks… she’s very versatile.
While I was at Charan’s place, Mark was photographing Raj at his home.
The hall looks incredible. The light design on the ceiling looks very futuristic.