Sikh Wedding Photographer in Brent

Serving Brent

Sikh wedding photography in Brent

Brent is a diverse north-west London borough. The gurdwara halls and banqueting suites of Greater London are familiar ground for us, and we have worked at a good number of the venues near Harrow, Barnet. We follow each of the four laavan at walking pace, photographing the bride's brothers steadying her round the Guru Granth Sahib and the calm on both of your faces circuit by circuit.

Barefoot and low is how we spend the anand karaj, often seated with the sangat at floor level, so our eyeline matches yours and the pictures feel like the ceremony rather than a report on it. Reading the room is half the craft; we watch for the grandmother wiping an eye during the laavan and the cousins laughing at the milni, and we let both happen. Through the sehra tying and the last adjustments to the turban we work quietly from the corner of the room, letting the anticipation of the morning speak for itself.

There is a lot to like about Brent for a Sikh wedding. Brent is a diverse north-west London borough, and the wider area, Bromley and Camden among it, is somewhere we photograph regularly. We are at home at Brent-area venues such as The Clay Oven Banqueting, Brent Civic Centre and Wembley International Hotel.

A diverse north-west London borough known for the Neasden Swaminarayan Temple and richly multicultural communities. Wembley Park station is served by the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines. For pre-wedding and couple portraits, we love spots such as Fryent Country Park near Kingsbury, 103 hectares of rolling fields and small woods, with Wembley Stadium, reopened in 2007 with a 90,000 seat capacity and its landmark arch close by for a striking backdrop.

Every Sikh ritual

The milni, the kirtan and the four laavan

Shoes left in neat rows, heads covered at the door, hands washed at the entrance; the small acts of entering a gurdwara are worth photographing, and they open the ceremony properly in an album. Never do we place equipment on the floor of the darbar hall or lean anything where it does not belong, and we carry only what our hands can hold for the length of the ceremony. We photograph the ardas from the back of the hall, the whole sangat standing together, a wide and reverent frame that shows the community gathered around your marriage.

We photograph the sehra bandi as the last quiet chapter of the groom's morning, the turban finished, the sehra tied and the mother's blessing before the noise of the baraat begins. Akhand path bhog is a calm, prayerful morning that sits beneath all the celebration, and we photograph it quietly and without flash, so the album carries the devotion as well as the dancing. Choora mornings are emotional in the best way, and we photograph the milk, the bangles and the maternal family gathered close as the ceremony unfolds.