Sapna and Karthik’s wedding was so much fun! Fall weddings in the Bay Area are so beautiful because the weather is a little cooler but it’s still perfect weather! The day was absolutely perfect at Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton.
This was day three of their wedding events and we started bright and early with the bride and groom getting ready. Starting while the bride is still getting her hair and makeup done allows us to capture all her details while she is in the chair, and capture her putting on all her jewelry and having her mother and sister help her.
By working with a great hair and makeup artist like Christal of Christal Clear Beauty, means we work together to do “mini shoots” while the bride is getting ready. For example, once the hair and makeup is done, we do a shoot with the bride in her robe, prior to her putting on her dress. Then we capture great shots of her putting on the dress and shots of her jewelry going on. Once her jewelry is on, we do some more shots before her Chunni is put on. That way the bride gets photos of her look before covering her hair. She is can also play with the veil and get a variety of cool shots while her makeup and hair are flawless.
Sapna has known of our work for years and has several friends who’s weddings we have shot so she is familiar with all the types of shots we like to do and she was just as excited as we were to do them! Sapna is the perfect bride because she was always up for all our ideas and has a lot of energy!
Once everyone was ready, we headed to Castlewood to set up and do their first look and couples shoot. Again, by being early, we had great soft light, captured a ton of shots of them together, and they both had time to relax before the Baraat and the ceremony. We then shot decor, did our venue drone shots, set up audio etc for the ceremony and got everything ready so once the Baraat was over, we were ready for the ceremony.
What makes Castlewood so great for Indian weddings is the great Oak Tree that sits above the Mandap. It is a beautiful tree offering shade, natural beauty, and a very outdoorsy, organic feel. The florals and decor provided by Bloomsters meshed perfectly with the natural beauty of the tree and was a very nice set up. We know a lot of brides read our blog simply for inspiration and we highly recommend Bloomsters for florals and design. They are really good and we always love photographing their work!
After their fusion Gujarati/Telugu Hindu ceremony we had more time with the couple to take family photos and then they went off to get ready for the reception. During that time we photographed and filmed cocktail hour and decor before meeting up with the couple again for their reception outfit shoot.
Another element of Castlewood we really like is the Palm tree lined driveway. It can be a little busy with cars coming for the evening event, but it is one of our favorite spots to shoot when you don’t want to take the golf cart and hit all the spots up on the hill like we did earlier before the ceremony.
The reception was a lot of fun with speeches, cake cutting, first dance and lots of open dancing with killer music by DJ Salim! We had great food by Jalsa, one of the best Indian catering companies in the Bay Area, and then we were sad to say goodbye to the couple because we were having so much fun! We felt like guests at the reception because we knew so many people as there must have been 3 or 4 past couples at this wedding.
We know we will Sapna and Karthik at future weddings and we hope you enjoy viewing this one!
