Speeches & First Dance
The toasts, the laughter and the first dance under the lights, photographed through to the end of the evening so the reception takes its full place in the album.
Your lead camera for Sikh weddings in Solihull, through the Anand Karaj and every laav before the Guru Granth Sahib, with a light footprint inside the gurdwara and energy outside it.
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Wedding photography from £750
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The short answer
Recognised with five European 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. 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. Family is the thread through it all, so the aunties applying vatna, the uncles at the milni, the maternal family at the choora and the grandparents seated in the darbar hall in Solihull are photographed too. The doli can come suddenly at the end of a long day, and knowing that is exactly why we are always ready and in position for it. Pre-wedding shoots, a second camera inside a busy darbar hall and fine art albums for you and your parents can all be added. Distance is not an obstacle; we travel wherever the celebration is held.
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.
Serving Solihull
Solihull is an affluent town near Birmingham with grand venues. The gurdwara halls and banqueting suites of the West Midlands are settings we work in, and we would gladly work at the venues near Shirley, Knowle and Dorridge. Arriving early at the gurdwara in Solihull gives us time to photograph the hall, the flowers and the family greeting guests before the milni brings everyone together.
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. Between the ceremony and the reception we find ten calm minutes for the two of you, usually in soft natural light, before the evening gathers pace. Both households get covered on the wedding morning when you book a second photographer, so the sehra bandi and the bride's final preparations are told at the same time rather than one after the other.
If your celebration is in Solihull, we will come to you there. Solihull is an affluent town near Birmingham with grand venues, and we know its neighbours West Bromwich and Walsall equally well. Close to Solihull, we cover venues including Nuthurst Grange, The Limes Country Lodge Hotel and Castle Bromwich Hall Hotel.
Solihull is an affluent town on the south eastern edge of Birmingham known for its historic High Street and green suburbs. Solihull railway station lies on the Chiltern line to London Marylebone, with the M42 running past the town. For pre-wedding and couple portraits, we love spots such as Malvern Park and the adjoining Brueton Park beside the River Blythe, with the medieval St Alphege Church in the town centre close by for a striking backdrop.
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What we offer
The toasts, the laughter and the first dance under the lights, photographed through to the end of the evening so the reception takes its full place in the album.
We watch and wait rather than direct, photographing your Sikh wedding as it truly happens, so the glances, tears and laughter between the ceremonies survive in the finished album.
The chunni placed over the bride by the groom's family, an intimate pre-wedding tradition we photograph quietly among the mothers, aunts and grandmothers who lead it.
Every Sikh ritual
Outside the gurdwara before the ceremony, tea and jalebi are shared while the two families size each other up, and those first minutes of the morning make wonderfully honest photographs. Wedding registers are sometimes signed at the gurdwara after the ceremony, and we cover that too, though we always let the sacred part of the morning finish completely first. After the ardas and the final hukamnama, the hall exhales, and we photograph the congratulations breaking out along the rows as you sit as a married couple for the first time.
We photograph the jago pot itself, the lit candles or lights on the decorated gagar, before it disappears into the dancing and the noise of the procession. Kurmai brings the two families formally together with the ring, the sagan and the exchange of sweets, and covering it means your wedding album can begin where the story actually began. The groom's side has its own jago and its own noise, and we can split our coverage across both houses so neither family's celebrations are missed.

The whole celebration
Alarm clocks go off absurdly early for an anand karaj, and we are usually there before the family is fully awake, which is exactly when the most unguarded pictures happen. Kalire are tied over the choora with blessings and jokes in equal measure, and we photograph the whole exchange without interrupting it.
Reception rooms photograph best empty, so where a second photographer is booked, one of us goes ahead to record the tables, the flowers and the room exactly as the planners intended. Hours matter less to us than moments. We agree a finishing point in advance, but if the doli or the last dance runs over, we are not the ones packing up first.
Why choose us
Large guest lists hold no fear for us; a reception of five or six hundred is a normal working day after a quarter century of Punjabi weddings. Long service has made us reliable in the plainest sense: early to arrive, fully prepared and unflustered whatever the day brings.
Once your venues in the West Midlands are confirmed, we will look at them properly, check the timings against your running order and tell you honestly if anything in the schedule will not work. Destination weddings abroad and celebrations far from London are both quoted transparently, with travel and accommodation listed separately so nothing about the cost is ever left vague.

Where we travel
We ask about your full schedule early on, because a Sikh wedding rarely sits in one place, and the travel between venues in the West Midlands deserves proper planning. A Sikh wedding day usually moves from the gurdwara to a reception venue some miles away, and we map that journey before the day so nothing is rushed.
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Good to know
We keep things simple: a booking fee to secure the date, then the balance a couple of weeks before the celebrations start. Where it eases your planning, we are glad to arrange a middle instalment between the two, especially on multi-day bookings. One thing we never do is add surprise charges after the wedding, so the quote is exactly what you pay. Getting to Solihull is straightforward for us: Solihull railway station lies on the Chiltern line to London Marylebone, with the M42 running past the town.
We plan for it in advance, knowing kirtan, the ardas and family arrivals hardly ever run to the minute. If the laavan begin behind schedule or the milni takes longer than expected, we photograph on without a word of complaint. The whole point is that you stay present in the moment, not anxiously watching the clock or watching us. Around Solihull we plan for landmarks such as the medieval St Alphege Church in the town centre.
For Solihull and the surrounding parts of Greater London, travel is normally already included in your package. Where a venue is much further away, or an early baraat makes an overnight stay sensible, we add a modest, clearly stated cost and agree it upfront. Nothing travel-related ever appears on your invoice as a surprise.
A good many couples opt for one, and we can often include it within a wedding package at a gentle rate. It is simply a relaxed hour or two at a place you cherish, whether in {COUNTY} or a little further out, letting you get comfortable with the camera before everything begins. The resulting images work wonderfully for invitations, welcome signs and a signing frame. Around Solihull we plan for landmarks such as the medieval St Alphege Church in the town centre.
Gladly, and it is work we know well. The maiyan and vatna, the mehndi night, the jago with its lit pots and singing, the choora ceremony and then the wedding day itself can all be covered as one booking or as the events you pick. Planning them together with you means we arrive at each function in Solihull already knowing the family.
We build protection in from the first frame, as each image is captured to dual cards inside the camera. Back at base, everything is copied to multiple separate drives before any card gets cleared, and the files sit in several places until your gallery has been delivered and saved. That means your wedding exists in more than one copy from the outset. Outdoors in Solihull we like Malvern Park and the adjoining Brueton Park beside the River Blythe.
Of course, and that split is standard for Sikh weddings rather than unusual. The drive from the gurdwara to the reception hall is written into your timeline so coverage never has a gap. When the venues sit well apart, a second photographer can go ahead to the reception and photograph the empty room before everyone arrives. Solihull and neighbouring Olton, Hall Green and Balsall Common are all covered.
More in Solihull
The same team, experience and care across every wedding and service we cover in Solihull. For weddings of every tradition in Solihull, see our wedding photographer in Solihull page. Browse our Sikh wedding photography page, the wedding photography overview, all areas we serve, or nearby Birmingham and Smethwick. We also photograph Sikh weddings across the West Midlands, including Coventry, Dudley, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Birmingham and Walsall.
Guides
Recent weddings
Milni · Anand Karaj · Laavan · Mehndi · Jago
Tell us about your celebration and we will send availability, ideas and pricing, wherever it takes place.
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