Sikh Wedding Photographer in Esher
Sikh and Punjabi wedding photography in Esher, from the mehndi henna to the choora and kalire, with the patience a long Sikh wedding day deserves.
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Wedding photography from £750
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The short answer
Your Sikh wedding photographer in Esher, at a glance
Kaushik Bathia has more than 25 years behind the camera and would photograph your Anand Karaj himself. Kaushik Bathia holds five European Kodak Gold Awards, and the person you book is the person who photographs your day. On the jago and maiyan evenings we work in among the boliyan, the dancing and the plates of colour, and leave the room to run itself. During the ceremony we photograph the kirtan, the sikhia given to you both, each of the four laavan and the closing ardas. The milni, the family groups and the doli follow outside. Talking through your day beforehand means we already know its shape when the morning comes. When the gurdwara and the reception, perhaps at Sandown Park Racecourse, are in different places, a second photographer earns their place, and a pre-wedding shoot and album can be added. Travel from Northwood to Surrey or any other part of the UK is set out in your written quote before you book.
Esher station on the South West Main Line is about 14 miles from Waterloo, which keeps a reception here within reach for guests coming out of London. At the gurdwara the four laavan, ardas and sikhia are photographed from the floor, heads covered and shoes off, the Guru Granth Sahib honoured as a living Guru. Sandown Park Racecourse could host the reception, and Claremont Landscape Garden suits choora portraits before the doli. Hersham and Surbiton are close by for guests staying over, and Oatlands Park Hotel in Weybridge is a further option for the meal.
Serving Esher
Gurdwara and reception: two separate jobs
Two separate commissions coincide on one date only, and the second is the one couples underfund. A gurdwara arrives with a floor, a light and an order of service already settled, none of which rearranges itself around a camera. The room you hire afterwards will rearrange itself around anything you ask of it. One is read and the other is built, so plan the pair of them apart and give the built one the hours it actually deserves.
For the evening room, options nearby include Sandown Park Racecourse, Oatlands Park Hotel in Weybridge and Painshill in Cobham. Ask each the same thing: what hour does daylight go, and which elevation loses it first. Your evening lighting plan comes out of that answer.
Check your date
Every Sikh ritual
Inside the darbar hall on an Esher wedding day
The floor seats everybody present, camera included, so the ceremony gets photographed from kneeling height and remains there. That constraint helps more than it hurts, since a lens ends up level with the couple instead of above them. The four laavan supply the structure, and a circuit turns into a distinct picture only when you move between them, which on a packed floor means fixing your two positions in advance.
A palla links two people who are at the same time being led, and it reads best from behind, a little off the axis, where the cloth resolves into a line rather than a blur. Sri Guru Granth Sahib's placement decides which way the whole hall looks, so your angles were chosen for you long before you arrived. Later the day moves on and nothing whatever is chosen for you. A hired room surrenders its ceiling, its power and its colour, so from there we start building light instead of reading it.
Why choose us
Timing the morning before an Esher Anand Karaj
Morning preparation is mostly arithmetic. Count the paces between where the bride dresses and where she has to be, add the relatives who will stop her along the way, and you have the real getting-ready window rather than the hoped-for one. Arriving early and waiting suits us. Waiting costs nothing and buys you every calm frame in the set.
Esher and Elmbridge settings for a Sikh wedding day
Claremont Landscape Garden, just outside Esher, has a turfed amphitheatre above its lake, and Painshill at Cobham covers 160 acres of 18th-century landscape garden, so couple portraits after the laavan would not mean a long drive. Sandown Park Racecourse, beside Esher station, has suites for receptions of 50 to 500 guests, and Oatlands Park Hotel in Weybridge is licensed for ceremonies of up to 376. Travel from Northwood is set out in your written quote before you book.
- Claremont Landscape Garden, just outside Esher, is a Grade I registered 18th-century garden shaped by Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown, William Kent and Sir John Vanbrugh, with a turfed amphitheatre overlooking the lake, and has been owned by the National Trust since 1949. 1
- Oatlands Park Hotel on Oatlands Drive, Weybridge, is licensed by Surrey County Council for ceremonies of up to 376 guests in rooms including the York Suite, the Drawing Room and the Cromwell Suite. 2
- Weybridge Registration Office. Surrey County Council's Weybridge Registration Office at Rylston, 81 Oatlands Drive (KT13 9LN), holds ceremonies in two redecorated ceremony rooms, has ramp access at all entrances and free on-site parking; the nearest station is Walton-on-Thames. 3
- Other licensed venues near Esher. Surrey County Council also licenses Imber Court in East Molesey (up to 190 guests), Burhill Golf Club in Walton-on-Thames (136) and Woodlands Park Hotel in Stoke D'Abernon (150) for ceremonies. 4
Sources
Good to know
Wedding photography in Esher, frequently asked questions
Fifty is no trouble; fifty unplanned is. Give us a wall or a bank of ground, one loud voice per family able to match a name to a face, and about ten minutes. Ground that steps upward beats a wider lens every time.
Yes, and those carry the best faces of the week, since formality has not set in. Jago runs late and refuses to stand still, so it gets lit like a night event. Pass on the Esher address once it is fixed.
Against a list we build with you beforehand, using two relatives who can identify everyone on it. We work in an order releasing the eldest and the smallest first, then move outward. Overruns happen only where names get discovered on the spot.
Far more than a single sitting can absorb. We cut down to frames that carry something, then hand over the whole edited set from your Esher day instead of withholding the quieter ones. The count moves with the hours booked.
Frequently not. Dates fill in an order bearing surprisingly little relation to distance ahead, so ask instead of assuming. If your Esher date is already committed elsewhere, that is said plainly and immediately.
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We hired Kaushik for our wedding. He was a fantastic photographer, very professional and great to work. Flexible with timings, patient, and produced amazing photos.
Milni · Anand Karaj · Laavan · Mehndi · Jago
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