Sikh Wedding Photographer in Cobham

Because Sikh weddings keep no neat timetable, we build our coverage around your genuine schedule rather than a set number on a clock. A full day typically flows from the morning preparations and the baraat, through the Anand Karaj, the langar and the family portraits, and on to the reception. Should the plan slip, which it usually does, we simply remain with the day. We cover Cobham and nearby Oxshott, Stoke d'Abernon and Downside.

Expect several hundred finished images from one wedding day, and considerably more from a complete multi-day celebration, as the mehndi night, the jago and the ceremony all contribute moments of their own. Rather than a slender highlights set, we deliver the whole story, so the langar queue and the dancing aunties appear right beside the laavan. Locally in Cobham that takes in Cobham Mill, a restored watermill on the River Mole.

Not in the slightest, that is how a Sikh wedding day usually runs. We work the journey from the gurdwara to the banqueting hall into the timeline, and often turn that window into couple portraits while your guests are on the road. Where the Cobham venues sit far apart, our second photographer goes ahead to shoot the room before anyone arrives.

We do, as a matter of course. Firing flash near the Guru Granth Sahib would be wrong, so the whole Anand Karaj is covered on available light, quick lenses and cameras that handle dim rooms with ease. That gives you soft, true frames of the darbar hall as it really was. Extra lighting comes out only later, at the reception. Cobham is easy to reach: Cobham and Stoke d'Abernon railway station on the New Guildford line to London Waterloo.

Yes, you receive full high-resolution downloads with personal printing rights included in your gallery, so making prints, frames and gifts for relatives is entirely up to you. We are pleased to point you to labs that will honour the colours of the outfits. There is no drip-feeding of your files and no paying twice for your own pictures. For outdoor photographs in Cobham we often use Painshill, an 18th century landscape garden in Cobham with follies and a crystal grotto.

Our heads stay covered, our feet are in stockings and we never turn our backs on the Guru Granth Sahib as we shoot. We keep low and to the edges, moving only between stages of the ceremony and bringing the least equipment we can into the hall. The goal is for the sangat to hardly register us while none of your Anand Karaj slips by unrecorded. Around Cobham we have photographed at Painshill Park and Hilton Cobham.

Of course, and we come prepared for it. We turn up with our own head coverings, remove our footwear and follow each of the gurdwara's customs unasked. Having spent twenty-five years at Sikh weddings, none of it is new to us. Granthis and sewadars regularly note that our team behaves as respectfully as any worshipper present. For Cobham bookings, getting here is simple: Cobham and Stoke d'Abernon railway station on the New Guildford line to London Waterloo.