Photo by Juan
Explosion of Color, tradition and culture.
Photography by Juan, assistant Jhancarlo
“A Hindu man does not become his complete self unless he is married and has the support of his wife.”
With the wedding of Neema and Ajay we offer moments of sensibility and emotion scattered over a full 3 days celebration. Both Neema and Ajay are wedding professionals and passionate about life, which gave them the comfortability to create and organise in a relative short time a series of very personalised events that only wedding professionals could have managed. Due to this short notice Vincent regretted strongly not to be able to shoot so Juan, one of our prime shooters and Jhancarlo had the chance to share 4 days with the couple and their guests at Kore Resort in Tulum. The hotel which was entirely reserved and transformed for this event of vibrant energy with a special attention for the LA Lakers since Neema is a huge fan of Kobe Briant. She not only used his number for the name of her business Weddingstore24 in Los Angeles, specialized in big indian weddings. The 24 was also integrated as a detail in her ring and Neema was super proud to wear his sneakers on her wedding day.
Indian weddings are known for having several ceremonies, a lot of symbolism and tradition, from which Neema and Ajay took to their destination wedding:
the MEHNDI CEREMONY: It is a common belief that the darker the color the mehndi leaves on the hands on a bride, the more she will be loved by her husband and mother-in-law. What is less known is that besides lending color to the hands, mehndi is a very powerful medicinal herb. As weddings are stressful, the application of mehndi is thought to prevent too much stress because it cools the body and keeps the nerves from becoming tense. This is the reason why mehndi is applied on the hands and feet, which house nerve endings in the body. The initial practice of applying mehndi in ancient times began in order to protect the couple and keep them healthy.
The bride and her family also did the Gouri Har POOJA in which the bride prays to Gouri and Shankar for a happy and strong marriage.
The HALDI CEREMONY: Here both the bride and the groom’s sides of the family take turns rubbing a mixture of turmeric, oil, and water into the skin and clothes of the bride and groom. The special concoction that is used in the Haldi Ceremony is supposed to simultaneously bless the couple and moisturizes their skin.
After the haldi ceremony Neema and Ajay invited their guests for a pool party where our photographer Jhancarlo accompanied them even into the water. At night they held the SANGEET PARTY where relatives and friends usually play the dholki and sing suhaag, which is a traditional folk song. Songs include ‘jokes’ about the in-laws, and would be husband how to have a successful marriage like and songs about the bride leaving her parents home. Here Ajay showed of his talent as a musician playing the Damaka, a traditional drum. Music embrasses Ajay life since he is DJ himself and he runs a business of DJ and sound system service for indian weddings.
The actual WEDDING SERVICE is fascinating because the parents and close relatives of the couple also participate. It includes several steps and the pundit chants mantras form the Vedas that were originally written in Sanskrit and there are many symbolic presences: Fresh flowers – to signify beauty; Coconut – to signify fertility; Rice and other grains – to signify the food necessary for sustenance of life; Ghee (purified butter) – to feed the sacred fire; Kumkum (vermilion) – red powder used for marking the forehead to signify good luck and to say that your soul (husband) is with you.
Photo by Juan
Photo by Vincent
