Sikh Wedding Photographer Solihull

The short answer

Your Sikh wedding photographer in Solihull, at a glance

Recognised with five European Kodak Gold Awards, Kaushik Bathia is an award winning Sikh wedding photographer based in London who welcomes enquiries from couples marrying in Solihull and elsewhere in the West Midlands. We watch for small moments, a grandmother wiping an eye during the laavan or cousins laughing at the milni, and let them unfold without interruption. Family runs through every part of it: aunties applying vatna, uncles meeting at the milni, the maternal side at the choora and grandparents seated in the darbar hall. The doli can arrive quickly at the end of a long day, so we stay in position for it. You can add a pre-wedding shoot, perhaps at Tudor Grange Park with its lake and stream, a second camera for a busy darbar hall, and fine art albums for you and your parents. The distance to Solihull is simply planned into the day.

Solihull sits on the south eastern edge of Birmingham, so an anand karaj is generally held at a city gurdwara and the reception brought out here. The four laavan, the kirtan and the ardas are photographed from one fixed position with the head covered and shoes off, never in front of the sangat. Choora and kalire are the morning's close work. The Limes Country Lodge Hotel or Nuthurst Grange take the evening, with the M42 handling the travel between. Solihull railway station lies on the Chiltern line for guests coming from London.

Google reviews

What couples say

4.8 from 580+ Google reviews

Kaushik photographed out wedding on september last year. He was so professional and was great with everyone making them laugh before taking all the snaps. We really couldn't have asked for more he worked hard all day to get the best pictures. We are very pleased with all the pictures and love the photo album. We will differently be using you again in the future Thank you!

Shane T., Google review, 2018

I had hired Mr Kaushik as our photographer for my son and daughters wedding fir all the ceremonies conducted and found him to be friendly professional with all the guests The quality of his photographs are excellent and are of high quality I was also very impressed when he had completed the albums He also give extra hours if needed and does not complain I would recommend to anyone

Malti B., Google review, 2021

"Kaushik is brilliant photographer and provides a great service, would highly recommend"

Raj K., Google review, 2016

Read all the reviews on Google

Serving Solihull

Two buildings, one Sikh wedding day

Photographing this day well takes two opposite instincts. Early on, a photographer is a visitor inside constraints somebody else settled long ago, so you read the hall, take one position that respects it, and stay put. By evening those constraints become yours to invent: the colour of the uplighters, where the cake table lands, which wall the dancing happens against. Anyone who ends up with a strong set from both halves has generally planned the second half around whatever the first one could not give them.

The hour between the two buildings is the part couples plan last and regret first. Cars are being loaded, clothes are changing, and the daylight outside is better than at any later point. Give that hour a shape. Decide beforehand where the cars stop, whether Malvern Park and Brueton Park are in the plan at all, and how long relatives will genuinely tolerate standing about.

Check your date

Bride and groom in a park, groom in a turban and kalgi

Every Sikh ritual

Kirtan, laavan and ardas

Floor seating outranks every lighting decision in the hall. At knee height a lens looks between shoulders rather than over them, so whatever spot is taken before a first laav begins is the spot you keep for all four. We pick it for what it sees, never for comfort. Overhead tubes are the usual light in a darbar hall, high, hard and unkind to a dark beard, so we keep them behind us and work in the direction they favour.

Both ends of the palla have to show, or the cloth reads as nothing, so wider than instinct suggests is the rule there. The milni outside is pairs of men meeting in turn, quick, and generally against morning light over a car park; we take it from one flank, aiming down the corridor the two families leave between them. Langar photographs warmer than any of it and gets asked for least.

Bride and groom walking a garden path in Asian wedding dress

Why choose us

One plan for the gurdwara and the evening

Both halves get planned together, as one commission. The interval is budgeted in minutes instead of hoped through, and the evening room gets discussed beforehand rather than discovered at seven. Nearly everything that fails on a day shaped like this is a timing fault wearing a lighting costume.

Bride and groom photographed at a distance beside a lake

Solihull venues, parks and landmarks for a Sikh wedding

For a Sikh wedding in Solihull, the anand karaj would be at your gurdwara, the reception perhaps at Castle Bromwich Hall Hotel, a Grade I listed Jacobean manor that hosts Asian weddings, and portraits might follow by the lake at the Brueton end of Malvern and Brueton Parks. If a civil ceremony is added to the anand karaj, the council holds them at Solihull Register Office on Homer Road (B91 3QZ) or at approved venues such as Hogarths Hotel in Dorridge; each entry below is summarised from a linked council or venue page. We travel from Northwood; travel and any overnight stay are quoted in writing before you book.

Solihull approved venues. Solihull Council's list of approved ceremony venues includes Hampton Manor, Castle Bromwich Hall Hotel, Hogarths Hotel, Nailcote Hall Hotel, The Lake at Barston and the National Motorcycle Museum. ¹
Hampton Manor in Hampton-in-Arden (B92 0EN) is a 45-acre estate hotel with 24 bedrooms set around a walled garden, with the Michelin-starred Grace & Savour restaurant, and is a seven-minute walk from Hampton-in-Arden station. ²
St Alphege Church. St Alphege, the red sandstone parish church at the head of the High Street, is Grade I listed and has a 168-foot spire, and the town's name is thought to come from its position on a 'soily' hill. ³
Solihull Register Office on Homer Road (B91 3QZ), a short walk from the town centre, has a Ceremony Suite for the couple and up to 58 guests, a smaller Jubilee Room, and a garden at the front used for photographs. ⁴

Sources

Coverage and booking

What your Sikh wedding photography in Solihull includes

What's included

Wedding photography from £750, priced for the events you choose
The milni, the Anand Karaj and the four laavan, and the reception, as you plan them
A pre-wedding planning meeting to agree the timings and the family groups that matter most
A second photographer available for the largest celebrations
An edited private online gallery to share and download
Hand-finished albums and wall art as an option

How booking works

Check your date. Call or WhatsApp 07956 505383, or use the enquiry form on this page.
Free consultation. In the studio, by phone or over video, with sample albums to look through.
Written quote. The events, the hours and any album, with travel from Northwood set out in writing before you book.
Confirm the booking. A simple booking agreement holds your date in the diary.
After the day. Your edited gallery arrives online, followed by any album you have chosen.

Good to know

Wedding photography in Solihull, frequently asked questions

Can we pay for our wedding photography in stages?+

Yes. Most couples split it: a sum when the date is held, then instalments through the months leading up, finishing shortly before the day. You pick those dates, nothing is added for choosing them, and the schedule is confirmed in writing.

What happens if the ceremony at the gurdwara runs longer than expected?+

Then it runs long and we stay. Overruns are ordinary and nobody starts a stopwatch at the door. What we would rather protect is the daylight afterwards, so if the morning slips we suggest trimming portraits before anything else.

Will we pay a travel charge for our wedding in Solihull?+

Solihull is about 81 miles from our Northwood studio. For a Solihull wedding, we travel from Northwood; travel and any overnight stay are quoted in writing before you book. Send us the gurdwara and reception postcodes with start times, and travel is set out in your written quote before you book.

Can you cover our multi-day Sikh wedding events in Solihull?+

Yes, and the days are quoted separately rather than as one long block, so you can take only the ones that matter. Families often keep full coverage for the ceremony day and ask for a shorter visit to the jago.

Can you cover a Solihull gurdwara and a separate reception venue on the same day?+

Yes, and we would run it as a single unbroken day, not two separate bookings. Fixing the moment the first building is left behind matters most, since the whole afternoon, portraits and their daylight included, follows from it.