{"id":2683,"date":"2015-07-28T20:50:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T03:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/?p=2683"},"modified":"2015-07-28T20:54:15","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T03:54:15","slug":"multicultural-indian-asian-wedding-photographer-sikh-wedding-ceremony-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/?p=2683","title":{"rendered":"Multicultural Indian-Asian Wedding Photographer | Sikh Wedding Ceremony | Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few (many<\/em>) years ago, I sat in Red Square at WWU, observing my fellow students scurry past one another and file into brick buildings. They rushed to secure a seat in perfectly arranged wooden desks. So many different people from around the country, and world, gathered in a small town for four<\/span> five years to secure a better future for themselves. I played this little game in my mind where I’d envision each student with an imaginary arrow projecting in front of them designating the direction of their travel. These arrows were always crossing each other, but not necessarily connecting<\/em>. We\u2019re always crossing paths with others, but how often do we actually connect with them? But then, you’d see people who did<\/em> connect, in fact it happened all the time; perhaps in a classroom, maybe through an introduction by a mutual friend, at a party, in line to get a slice of pizza, or even because a brave person had the courage to say \u2018hi\u2019 to a stranger. All around me, there were so many connections happening, and it was fun to see.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve photographed quite a few multicultural Indian weddings and it\u2019s not everyday that an Irish-Japanese\/Chinese bride marries an Indian Sikh groom. But then again, it\u2019s not everyday that you connect<\/em> with two people who become more than a couple you\u2019ve photographed \u2013 but instead your friends.<\/em> It’s these connections with people that give me so much energy – people like Kelly and Jessie, and their families. And it’s an even greater honor to photograph two people who have connected with each other, just like these two.<\/p>\n

I met Jessie and Kelly during the Fall, in Ballard, for an engagement session<\/a> and I immediately loved them both because they have this calm, cool, kindness and a down-to earth<\/em> vibe that makes you want to keep hanging out. You know when you meet someone and you think they\u2019re so damn cool, and then later you meet their friends & family and it all makes sense? That’s how it was for them. Their families were so much fun, and they welcomed my brother and I like family, and it really made our experience incredible.<\/p>\n

Like many Indian weddings, the festivities spanned three days – the first day was the ladies Sangeet (the bride applies mehndi to her hands<\/em>), followed by a traditional Sikh ceremony at the Bothell Gurdwara<\/a>, and then a civil ceremony\/reception at Sodo Park<\/a> on the third day.<\/p>\n

Here is blog post 1 of 2.<\/p>\n

The Sikh Wedding Ceremony<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Asian<\/a><\/p>\n

\"asian<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Indian-Asian<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tying<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sikh<\/a>

Sikh groom rides a white horse during his Baraat in Mukilteo, WA<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"removing<\/a>

A Sikh groom may wear a headdress, called a Sehra, which is made from flower garlands or white beads. Before the ceremony, the Sehra is removed.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Bothell<\/a>

The bride enters the Gurdwara’s darbar and sits next to the groom, in front of, and facing, the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh holy book)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/a>

To start the Sikh wedding ceremony (Anand Karaj) the bride and groom stand, along with their parents, while the priest bestows a prayer and blessing called Ardaas<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Asian<\/a><\/p>\n

\"happy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/a>

The bride’s father places one end of the scarf worn by the groom into his daughters hand signifying that she is now leaving his care to join her husband<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/a>

The priest will recite a stanza from the Granth Sahib, followed by Kirtan (music & singing). During the music, the bride and groom will walk around the Guru Granth Sahib \u2013 this is called the Laavan, and is repeated four times. The four stanza hymn describes the progression of love between husband & wife, which is a representation of the progression of love between the soul (bride) and God (groom). During the walk around the Granth Sahib, the bride will be helped by her family members or friends to signify their support.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"happy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"happy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/a>

Bride and Groom stand for one final prayer \/ blessing, called Ardaas, which concludes the Anand Karaj Sikh wedding ceremony<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Asian<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sikh<\/a><\/p>\n

Stay tuned for part two of this wedding – the civil ceremony at Sodo Park.<\/p>\n

To follow my work in the future you can ‘like’ my Facebook Page<\/a>.
\nI’d also love to connect with you on Instagram<\/a> (@MandevSidhu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few (many) years ago, I sat in Red Square at WWU, observing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[93,210,69],"class_list":["post-2683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wedding-photographer","tag-indian-wedding-photography","tag-multicultural-wedding","tag-sikh-wedding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2683"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2707,"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions\/2707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mandevsidhu.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}