Bhumika and Nirav had their Garba event the night before their wedding down in Costa Mesa. We had such a fun time at this event as you will see in the images below. The dancing portion of the evening began with the bride and groom lighting the Diya in the middle of the room. The live band started with slower Garba songs while everyone warmed up. Over
A tradition in Gujarati weddings is the giving of gifts and the symbolism of the “groom’s side” coming to the bride’s side. In India, this would be literally the groom coming to the bride’s home. Since many events are at halls and not at home, they still hold the tradition by making an entrance outside together as one unit and are received by the bride’s family. When the groom’s family arrived, the groom’s sister and his cousins and family presented Bhumika with gifts of clothing and jewelry. This is to welcome her into their family and also to show their affection for the bride. After Bhumika could barely hold all the items presented to her, it was time for the next portion of the evening.
To kick off the Garba, the bride and groom lighting the Diya in the middle of the room. The live band started with slower Garba songs while everyone warmed up. Over time, the music sped up and everyone was dancing in a large circle. During this time, people could enjoy a nice dinner outside or just sit on the outskirts of the circle and watch the dancers go by.
As a photographer of Indian weddings, shooting the Garba night is one of our favorite events to photograph. The beautiful swirl of colors that can be created by dragging the shutter is so much fun and we can play with lighting and do a lot of different things. As people move, they will go in and out of light. As they twist, a backlight can become a front light and so forth so it is always ever changing and leads to a lot of experimentation. We love doing our slow shutter portraits of the bride and groom and that is what we end this blog post with.
We look forward to sharing many more Garba night photos this year as we still have lots of Gujarati weddings coming up! I think you will agree that Bhumika and Nirav are adorable and we hope you enjoy viewing all the events from their wedding!
