Indian wedding photography

Indian wedding photography is the photography of activities relating to Indian and other South Asian weddings.

Indian weddings are a Rs. 800 billion industry, which is expected to grow by 25% per annum, with a significant part dedicated to photography.

Indian weddings are significantly different from western marriages. While the western marriage rituals have become common in many countries, they have not become common in India except among the Christians. Indian weddings use bold colors, not white. Loud music is considered to be proper during parts of an Indian marriage. The ceremonies are elaborate and can take considerable time even when condensed. An Indian marriage is traditionally a public affair, with the bridegroom taken in a procession through the town. Even a modest Indian wedding can have several hundred participants, who are all thought to be "relatives and close family friends". By convention a photographer is required to include each guest in at least one photograph which includes the bride and the groom. These factors make photographing an Indian wedding significantly different from western weddings.

Bride and groom conducing worship together. Indoor flash photography, with the couple in focus

Bride and groom as a royal couple under the mandap, day-time photography with fill-in flash

Wedding photography is a now a major commercial endeavor in India that supports the bulk of the efforts for many photographers. There are photographers outside of India that specialize in Indian weddings.

Bright colors such as red and orange are considered appropriate, and the photographs often use saturated colors. Generally Indian wedding proceedings do not pause for photographs, requiring the photographers to anticipate the next event and be ready with the right angle.

Photographs from some famous Indian weddings have been published widely in newspapers:

Photographed moments :

Common moments that are recorded in Indian wedding photography include:

• Mehendi (henna) on the palms of the bride indicating she is getting ready.
• The bride in a wedding dress with heavy wedding jewellery.
• Arrival of the groom on a horse in a procession and being greeted at the door.
• The wedding mandap 
• Bride and groom seated and engaged in worship.
• Bride and groom walking around the sacred fire.
• Special moments such as
  • tying the knot
  • holding hands
  • tying the mangalasutra 
  • filling the parting of the hair with sindoor 
• Portrait of the couple as a royal couple, with guests on their sides as blessing dignitaries or attendants.
• Bidaai, the crying of the bride as she leaves her father's home .

Wedding portrait: showing the newly wedded husband and wife.

India's "Wedding Season"

In India, a huge number of weddings take place in the "wedding season". For example, in early October, the city of Delhi can have up about 15,000 weddings a night. That can make it hard to locate wedding photographers for those who have not planned sufficiently in advance. Wedding planning in India is now a $10 billion market.

Indian Wedding Photography Overseas :

Indian children, who have been raised overseas, also expect to get married in the Indian tradition 

Photo stories of Indian weddings occasionally are published in US newspapers

Technical & Cultural Challenges :

Indian wedding photographers need to aware of the cultural aspects of Indian wedding photography. They need to understand the symbolism of specific religious rituals and perhaps meet with in-laws to ask whether traditional photo compositions are desired. They also need to take into account the variation in skin tones.

They need to know when the symbolically significant moments will occur. R. Gunasilan, who specializes in Indian weddings in Malaysia says:

"You can’t afford to miss crucial moments like the wedding kiss or the tying of the tali (in Hindu weddings) or the exchange of rings,” 

India has now got a new breed of wedding photographers who capture candid and journalistic wedding photographs. NRI (Non-resident Indian) people who come to India for marriage, tend to look for Indian photographers on the web . A Kodak featured Indian wedding photographer Subhendu Sen , who resides in Mumbai, India and caters to many NRI people for their weddings in India, says:

"Pre-wedding couple portrait photography is a new trend world-wide. It's catching up in India too. My NRI clients specifically ask for it, whereas, I ask my Indian clients to give it a try. The photo-sessions are interesting and fun. Couples like these photo sessions a lot."

Indian wedding events can often take multiple days, and may take place in multiple locations. Mehendi/Sangeet can often take place at bride's home, whereas the wedding is held at a hotel or function hall.

Marriage Vows

Marriage vows are promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ceremony. Marriage customs have developed over history and keep changing as human society develops.


Background:
In secular ceremonies, vows can be chosen freely or created by the couple. Couples marrying within a religious tradition are often constrained to use the standard vows of that tradition's ceremony.
Writing one's own vows
In some countries it is common for couples to write their own vows. Inspirations are often taken from poems, movies, or music. Vows usually consist of what characteristics each bring out in each other, what they look forward to in life, how their lives changed once they met. Vows tend to be between two and three minutes in length and are a public expression of love
Traditional Roman Catholic Vows

Couples wedding in the Roman Catholic Church essentially make the same pledge to one another. According to the Rite of Marriage (#25) the customary text in English is

I, ____, take you, ____, to be my (husband/wife). I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

In the United States, Catholic wedding vows may also take the following form.

I, ____, take you, ____, for my lawful (husband/wife), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

The priest will then say aloud "You have declared your consent before the Church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings. That God has joined, men must not divide. Amen.

Marriage Vows in England:

The law in England authorises marriages to be legal if properly carried out and registered in the Church of England and some other religious bodies (e.g. Jews, Quakers): other men and women who wish to marry can be married by a local official authorised to do so (civil ceremony). Circumstances may result in the same partners having both ceremonies at different times though this is rare. The vows, presence of witnesses and civil registration are absolute requirements under the law.

Civil ceremonies often allow couples to choose their own marriage vows, although many civil marriage vows are adapted from the traditional vows, taken from the Book of Common Prayer, "To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.

They were first published in English in the prayer book of 1549, based on earlier Latin texts (the Sarum and York Rituals of the medieval period). An older version of the final phrase is "and to obey, until death us do depart" where "depart" means "separate". "Until death us do depart" had to be changed due to changes in the usage of "depart" in the Prayer Book of 1662. In the 1928 prayer book (not authorised) and in editions of the 1662 prayer book printed thereafter "and to obey" was retained (in the 1928 book an alternative version omitted this). The 1928 revised form of Matrimony was quite widely adopted, though the form of 1662 was also widely used, though less so after the introduction of the Alternative Service Book.

The original wedding vows, as printed in The Book of Common Prayer, are:

Groom: I,____, take thee,_____, to my lawful wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.

Bride: I,_____, take thee,_____, to my lawful wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.

Then, as the groom places the ring on the bride's finger, he says the following:

With this Ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

In the Alternative Service Book (1980) two versions of the vows are included: the bride and groom must select one of the versions only. Version A:

I,N, take you, N, to be my wife (or husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy law, and this is my solemn vow.

Version B is identical except for the clause "to love and to cherish" where the groom says "to love, cherish, and worship" and the bride says "to love, cherish, and obey".

On September 12, 1922, the Episcopal Church voted to remove the word "obey" from the bride's section of wedding vows. Other churches of the Anglican Communion each have their own authorized prayer books which in general follow the vows described above though the details and languages used do vary.

Eastern Orthodox:

There are no vows exchanged during the Crowning (wedding ceremony) of the Orthodox Church. However, the priest asks first the groom then the bride:

• Priest: Hast thou, [Name], a good, free, and unconstrained will and a firm intention to take unto thyself to wife (husband) this woman (man), [Name], whom thou seest here before thee?

• Groom (Bride): I have, reverend Father.

• Priest: Thou hast not promised thyself to any other bride (man)?

• Groom (Bride): I have not promised myself, reverend Father.

It should be noted that in the Byzantine Rite, the rings are not exchanged during the wedding ceremony itself, but rather at the Betrothal. In current practice, however, the Betrothal is usually celebrated immediately before the Crowning.

source : wikipedia.org

Wedding Rings : Origin, Customs & Much more

Egyptians

From the ancient Egyptians, rings and bracelets were plaited from reeds that grew beside the fertile Nile River where the biblical basket containing the baby Moses was found by the Egyptian princess. Initially, rings were made from vegetation but since it required frequent renewal, it was replaced by tougher materials such as bone or ivory, and leather.

The Egyptians believed that the veins on the third finger of the left hand traveled directly to the heart. However, at that time, rings were worn more for their decorative worth than their sentimental value.

From 332 BC - The Romans 

In 332 BC, after conquering Egypt, the armies of Alexander the Great continued to adopt the notion of this "vein of love" or veno amoris and eventually, passed it on to the Romans who took on far greater importance on the finger rings.
At the time of betrothal, and as a way of binding the future bride to her future husband, the groom's family gave a ring made from iron to her. During the days when marriage was more negotiation than love match, perhaps still practiced in other cultures today, the act of giving a ring was a show of the groom's goodwill. It also serves to protecting the future bride's rights in the face of possible home-wreckers.


Christian
The use of rings in wedding ceremonies is traced back to the early part of the fourth century. However, the first explicit description of the ring’s usage seems to come from Isidore of Seville, who became archbishop of that city in 595. He wrote: "The ring is given by the espouser to the espoused either for a sign of mutual fidelity or still more to join their hearts by this pledge; and therefore the ring is placed on the fourth finger because a certain vein, it is said, flows thence to the heart."

The belief that the fourth finger (counting from the thumb), has a vena amoris–a love vein running directly to the heart–is obviously pure superstition. The annular (ring) finger shares the same "route" to the heart as the other fingers. In spite of its superstitious origin, the custom of wearing the wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand has prevailed in most Christian countries to this day.  

Early Pagan Practices

The practice of wearing a ring is also thought to stem from earlier pagan times when a man would encircle a likely woman in rope to ensure her spirit would remain under his command. Although the early Christians discarded most of the pagan customs, in 200 AD, they continued the Roman practice of the betrothal ring. The Christian betrothal rings have been found in the catacombs outside Rome. The use of a wedding ring in a marriage ceremony is first recorded in the early part of the fourth century.
During the Middle Ages, gold rings set with gems overtook iron as the most fashionable demonstration of eternal love.

13th Century Customs

In the early 1200s, Pope Innocent III decreed that a waiting period between betrothal and marriage should be observed. This created a practical need for the engagement ring. In 1217, the Bishop of Salisbury decreed: "Let no man put a ring or rush, or of any other material, upon the hands of young girls, by way of mock celebration for the purpose of easily seducing them."

16th Century Customs

The Puritans avoided the notion of wedding rings in the 1500s, as they perceived jewelry to be materialistic and frivolous. Instead, couples had to exchange more practical and useful wedding thimbles when they were married.

It was not until 1549, when King Edward VI of England officially declared the third finger as the "ring finger" and designated the left hand as the "marriage hand" in the Book of Common Prayer.

19th Century's Victorian Era

In 1840, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert handed out six dozen rings to guests, each engraved with the queen's profile, on their wedding day.

20th Century Wedding Rings

During World War II, many young soldiers chose to exchange rings with their bride so they could be reminded of their wife during the long separation.

21st Century Generation

In 2000, the world's largest gold ring is made in Saudi Arabia. It consists of more than 56 kilograms of gold.

Today, the engagement and wedding rings represent a mix of old customs, as a symbol of love and devotion, as they are of wealth, power and ownership.

Source:

Sunday Life Magazine, supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald

Related Website:

History of Wedding Rings

MATRiMONY

MATRIMONY:

       The union of man and woman as husband and wife :marriage

1. two people joined in matrimony
2. we intend to be joined in matrimony until “death do us part
3. Origin of MATRIMONY
4. Middle English, from Anglo-French matrimoignie, from Latin matrimonium
5. First Known Use: 14th century