Hindu Wedding Photographer in Berkshire

The short answer

Do you photograph Hindu weddings in Berkshire?

Yes. Kaushik Bathia has photographed weddings since 2001 and covers Hindu and Gujarati ceremonies across Berkshire, from Slough, about 10 miles from the Northwood studio, out to Reading at 26 miles and Newbury at about 42. Coverage can include the Ganesh puja, mandvo, pithi or haldi, the sangeet or garba night, the mandap ceremony with its pheras, and the reception. Packages start from £750, and travel from Northwood is quoted up front and set out in writing before you book.

Before the mandap

Ganesh puja, mandvo and pithi in a Berkshire family home

A Gujarati family may open the celebrations with a Ganesh puja and the mandvo muhurat at home, often a day or two before the wedding. These are small, close rituals led by the family priest, and the photographs that matter are the faces: grandparents tying the first threads, the parents at the puja thali, the cousins crowded into the doorway. We work quietly from the edges of the room during the prayers.

The pithi or haldi is the opposite: loud, messy and full of colour. If you have a garden, it is the best place for it, because daylight shows the turmeric yellow properly and gives everyone room to move. In a terraced house in Slough or a semi in Bracknell, we will look at the space with you and suggest where the couple should sit, near a window or a door to the garden.

Home rituals are where timings slip most, and that is normal. Tell us who must appear in the family photographs before the paste goes on, and we will take those first, so nobody has to change clothes before the formal pictures.

The legal part

Registering a Hindu marriage at a Berkshire register office

Berkshire has no single county registration service. Each unitary borough runs its own, so where you give notice and where the civil ceremony can happen depends on where you live and where you want to marry. You can hold a small civil ceremony on a separate day, and those rooms are compact.

In Slough, the register office is at The Curve on William Street, and the Elizabeth Room holds up to 50 people, a total that counts guests, witnesses and the photographer. Reading holds its ceremonies at Reading Museum and Town Hall on Blagrave Street, where the Ceremony Room takes 45 guests plus the couple and the Forbury Room four guests plus the couple. West Berkshire uses Shaw House on the north side of Newbury, with a Ceremony Room for up to 46 guests and the Great Hall, licensed in 2023, for up to 100.

A register office ceremony usually lasts well under an hour, so the photography is short and simple: the signing, the exchange of rings, family groups outside and a few portraits. It is often the one day of the wedding when the couple wear western dress, and those pictures sit well in the album beside the mandap.

Town guides

Hindu wedding pages for Berkshire towns

Each Berkshire town has its own Hindu wedding page with the local register office, distances and planning notes. Start with the Hindu wedding guide for Slough, the closest to the studio, then the pages for Maidenhead, Reading and Bracknell.

If your celebration mixes traditions, or includes Sikh or Muslim family, the Asian wedding guide for Berkshire covers the wider picture, and the county wedding page deals with civil and church weddings. Our general Berkshire photographer page lists every service in the county.