Sikh Wedding Photographer in Berkhamsted

Serving Berkhamsted

Sat sri akal from Berkhamsted

Berkhamsted is a pretty Chilterns market town. The gurdwara halls and banqueting suites of Hertfordshire are familiar ground for us, and we have worked at a good number of the venues near Hemel Hempstead, Tring and Chesham. We photograph the sikhia, the short talk given to you both before the laavan, catching the nods, the smiles and the seriousness with which you listen together.

Flash stays off inside the gurdwara whenever the light allows, so the warmth of the hall and the colours of the outfits come through as they really were. Nothing is restaged for us. If a garland at the milni is missed it stays missed rather than asking two uncles to embrace again, which is why we work from a known order instead of luck. Sudden movement is the fastest way to disturb a ceremony, so we shift position only between stages, never during the ardas, and always at a pace that startles nobody seated behind us.

There is real character to Berkhamsted, and we have learned how to make the most of it. Berkhamsted is a pretty Chilterns market town, and we photograph in Radlett and Cheshunt close by too. Venues we know well in and near Berkhamsted include Ashridge House, Berkhamsted Town Hall and The Gatsby.

Berkhamsted is a pretty Chilterns market town on the Grand Union Canal, known for its historic high street and canal side setting. Berkhamsted station is on the West Coast Main Line to London Euston, and the Grand Union Canal runs through the town. For relaxed couple photographs, we like Ashridge Estate and Berkhamsted Common, woodland and open commons, and Berkhamsted Castle, the ruined Norman motte and bailey castle gives the day a strong sense of Berkhamsted.

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Every Sikh ritual

Sacred mornings, told in pictures

Escorting the bride into the darbar hall is a slow, charged walk, and we work ahead of it from the side aisle so the arrival is covered without a lens ever facing the Guru Granth Sahib. We treat the darbar hall as the sacred space it is, covered, barefoot and unobtrusive, and couples tell us afterwards they barely knew we were there. Working in gurdwaras across Hertfordshire has taught us where the light falls in each darbar hall, so the laavan are photographed beautifully without a single flash being fired.

The dhol players set the pulse of the baraat, and we photograph them properly, the sticks blurring, the sweat and the grin of the groom dancing at the centre of it all. During the doli we photograph the family gathered at the door and the phulkari over your head, treating the goodbye as one of the truest moments of the whole celebration. At the sehra bandi we photograph the groom's sisters tying the sehra, the surma being applied and the family fussing over him before the baraat sets off.