Some friends kept pestering me for my first Indian Wedding shot via MSN. To them, the colourful elements in an Indian wedding can be an elixir for their boring life but it means more than a lot to me because it is my first non Chinese Wedding shot after all.

Initially, I was slightly worried that I might not be fit for this assignment because of my limited knowledge on Indian weddings. After carefully reviewing my finished works on the next day, I would not say that the photos are too highly artistic but at least they fulfill my own standard. This fact alone, is so relieving.

The actual Indian wedding ceremony did not disappoint me at all. Happiness, sentiments, actions, vibrancy… If you name it, I can find a photo to match it throughout the ceremony.

Let us retrace the day when Bhupinder and Harvinder tied the knots (Beware, there are more than 40 photos along with elaboration):

The throng of relatives joined their forces in the oiling ceremony at her house on Friday afternoon. The purpose of these customaries is to turn Harvin into a beautiful and official bride for the wedding day, which falls on Sunday.

If you’ve watched Bollywood movies before, you’d have known that dancing is deemed compulsory whenever there is celebration. When bride-to-be Harvin went through all major traditional ceremonies, the crowd danced with the beat naturally when the music was played.

Harvin got her hands and feet dyed with henna right after the party and this marked the end for the “oiling ceremony” on that day.

At Sunday dawn, I witnessed a prettiest bride in the making, before the prayer ceremony that took place in a temple.

We headed to Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Temple at Wilkie Road. It was then I realized that both families’ kins were already there, looking forward to the start of the ceremony.

Despite a short briefing on the ceremony flows, I was still worried that I might miss out some details at first. However, all flows will be rightful if you indulge yourself in their celebrations.

The start of the main ceremony: the bride’s relatives awaited the arrival of the groom’s relatives in the temple.

They would welcome each other (Father to father, mother to mother, aunts sisters etc). The ladies would embrace each other, and the guys would carry each other. (So dearly and so close it seems)

No outrageous gate crashing as we always see during Chinese wedding. The groom here just gave an “angpow” in exchange for a “key” that allowed him to enter the temple.

Then, the host prepared a lavish breakfast to welcome all relatives who were together with the groom.

During the start of the official ceremony in prayer’s hall, the groom, Bhupinder waited calmly in front of the Holy Book, waiting for the bride to march in from behind.

A series of sacred ceremonies after this.

The ceremony officially came to an end after one hour when they were pronounced husband and wife.

The newly-wed were ready to leave after lunch and the best man was picked to be made fun of (As the Indian Wedding Culture goes).

According to the traditions, the bride will be a lawful wife upon leaving the temple. The feeling that I sensed here was not sadness for sure but somehow, sentimental tears were still running down their cheeks.

The bride bid farewell to each relatives and friends. But before leaving, she proposed a modern idea: See who’s the lucky girl to be the next bride?

It was then I realized the purpose of such lavish breakfast and lunch from the host (Especially to the guys). The breakfast was to be transformed into energy in order to push the car which was loaded with the couple out of the temple (as tradition goes).

We headed to newly wed’s new house at Sengkang.

After a simple welcoming ceremony, the couple were looking forward to have their very own wedding portrait.

Then, the evening’s wedding reception preparation kicked start with couple’s make-up session.

There was a short break before everyone starts to get busy with the dinner banquet. Buphinder was also a little bit busy with his dress code. And the playful and joyous groom was also hailing someone to do him his favour.

The highlights of the night would definitely be the wedding banquet at Queen’s Tandoor, which is situated at Robertson Walk. Due to the remarkable choice of this restaurant, the atmosphere was splendid with more interactions between the guests. The restaurant was booked for the night for the sharing of this event with hundreds of guests.

The march in of couple was very special with their gang of brothers which was leaded by a drummer and lots of cheers. The percussion’s rhythm attracted lots of attention and what you are going to see next is unbelievably resembling the scene from the Bollywood movies: Lots of cameos and passerby started to surround our leads today *from nowhere*.

Champaign opening and toasting ceremony, symbolize the couple to be in the best of health and good luck for many years to come.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do; Cheers in Singapore, Yum Seng as the Singaporeans do. I heard one of the guests pronounced it as “Yam Singh” – a name of a new friend perhaps.

The pinnacle of the dazzling night started when the couple performed the first dance.

Minutes later, most of the guests had gone crazy…

The disco songs just went on through the night. Poor me, I just knew some English songs and “Jai Ho”, the ending theme from movie Slumdog Millionaire. All these are not important though, what is important is: I’ve done my part to capture the moments for them.

Join me to wish them happily ever after ~

Same write-Up in Mandarin version