Love stories change with time and this one is as contemporary as it can get. New York (2017), Abilasha was getting in a shared Uber to get to work and this dark & handsome dude was a fellow passenger. That day they said hello to each other and continued on their respective journeys, but then they kept running into each other time and again on their way to work. Soon after, from sharing cabs to work, Abilasha & Nivashan went on to travel the world together. Eventually they decided to tie the knot in Hawaii with a wedding reception at ITC Windsor Manor in Bangalore and have the quirkiest wedding hashtag - #NivGotHisAbs
Nivashan’s family had migrated to South Aftrica generations ago. All his uncles & aunts along with his parents were coming to India after a very long time and to give them the true taste of an Indian wedding, Abilasha’s family had also planned a small Mehendi event at home. When Kanya Aunty (Abilasha’s mom) called us to photograph the reception in Bangalore, we could sense the excitement in her voice. I (Manas) still remember the enthusiasm with which she narrated Abilasha & Nivashan’s story to us. We connected so well with her. “I want everything candid… no group pictures except a few of the immediate family”, she said and we knew this was right up our alley.
For the kind of work we do, shooting receptions is far more challenging than weddings. Weddings have a wide gamut of emotions and a host of little rituals and events where finding interesting moments is easier as opposed to receptions which are mostly uni-dimensional, meet & greet events. Our strategy here was simple - stay sharp and work extra hard. In the end, we were absolutely thrilled with the range of pictures we made - starting with a few elegant portraits of the gorgeous couple, moving on to some memorable moments with their families and topping it up with a ton of crazy, quirky & humorous moments in our signature style.
A few days ago, we visited Kanya Aunty to deliver the album of the event. We all went through the Photobook together and relived that beautiful evening.
Finally a big thank you to Nishal from DropD Studio who beautifully covered the Mehendi event for us.