Invited to a Sangeet for the first time?

If you ever get invited to a Hindu, Punjabi or a Gujurati wedding event, and you see the word “Sangeet” or “Garba” it means festival of music. It is by far our favorite day of our 4-day Indian weddings. In most Sangeets or Garbas, depending on their religious background (usually depends whether the couple is from the north or the south of India), couples perform in front of their guests, and their families put together quite the show for the night!

We start our Sangeet/Garba celebrations by taking a creative session with our bride & groom. This session was a thirty minute window before their program began. Monica is not only the most photogenic bride we’ve had all year round, but also had a contagious smile that warmed everyones hearts while working with her and her handsome groom.

To start the program, Monica and Pratik lit up a candle and had a religious ceremony at the altar. Then they danced around the altar. All guests were invited to do this challenging dance, even if they didn’t know the steps; while the expert crowds danced non-stop as the music and the difficulty of the dance continuously got faster and harder.

She enjoyed planning her wedding so much, that she became a Wedding Planner herself!

Ashley’s vision for their beautiful wedding was a romantic glam/elegant wedding, which came to life with sparkling everything! She took care of all the planning herself, and enjoyed it so much that immediately after her wedding, she made wedding planning her own business.

One of the things that we really loved about this wedding was how much in love Ashley and Joey are! So much so, that when Joey stopped by to just get a photo of their dog, Ashley couldn’t help but try to see him, so we setup a quick meeting of them both, but Joey couldn’t look, which had to be so frustrating for him, but it was so romantic too.

Ashley, our bride went for a full-on glam look with ombre eyeshadow and thick lashes. She also wore a cathedral-length veil, perfect for their ceremony venue.

The wedding party in shimmery black dresses, and white flower bouquets.

Sparkling decor and white furry rugs and sofas set the tone for an elegant wedding reception. They set up a lounge area near the bar for their guests to create a relaxing conversation area.

We don’t normally share the garter toss, but OMG this one was hilarious! Look what Joey found under Ashleys dress…

Cheers to 2019!

It feels like we have been hibernating all this winter, but who is to blame with Chicagos weather and the famous Polar Vortex 2018. We are all so excited to begin our 2019 wedding season, and to honor our first wedding of the season, we wanted to post images from Binal and J’s wedding. They will be getting married this weekend in Indianapolis. The weather hasn’t changed much from their cold engagement session, but our hearts have grown to love these two people full of love and excitement! Here is to a great start of the season!

The Best Kind of Love

I know it is quite cliché to say that every love story is different, but when you meet Jordan and Trisha, you immediately notice something different. Their love for each other is intricately interwoven with their love for family.

In Trisha’s family, there is a number of deaf family members who are very close to her, including her own parents, and there was such an attention to detail throughout their entire wedding. Jordan and Trisha wanted to make sure to not only include them in their wedding, but to make a point to connect and enhance their experience at their wedding. Trisha and Jordan hired two ASL translators who helped translate any speaking moment throughout their wedding and other functions.

One really neat activity they incorporated was that during their Sangeet night, they taught a few signs to all of their guests, and that definitely was a precious moment that we got to capture.

One thing that struck us all was that Jordan without having any difficulty hearing, learned sign language out of love to his family. I can attest that personally this is something that

We were amazed on how many people in their family, including young children could sign ASL. We were in fact so inspired, that on our way back home, we were already downloading apps in our phones, to start our kids the next day with their first ASL lesson.

We have lots and lots to say about this wonderful wedding, but I will let the images tell the rest of the stories, and not only our bride was absolutely beautiful on her Indian gowns, but also she was happy, and that alone is part of our success with the images we got to capture.

Wedding Day

Renaissance Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL

Jordan and Trisha's First Look

A little time for the two of them to connect before their ceremony.

All Baraats are fun! All of them without a doubt, but Jordan without being Indian himself had an epic Baraat! You see him on top of cars, carried by his friends on their shoulders, and making quite the entrance to his wedding ceremony. Epic!

Hindi Ceremony. Event Decor by Yanni Designs.

This is Jordan reading a love letter to his wife (we were bawling our eyes out!)

Time flies on the day of your wedding day, but we really enjoyed having a few minutes to take pictures of the two of you in our mini Creative Sessions. Sometimes we can go to the city, sometimes it gets dark, and all we have is a couple of minutes in the sunset, and sometimes, we just enjoy photographing our couples in their ballroom with dimmed lights, and just minutes before their guests walk in to celebrate the couple at their reception.

Event Design by Yanni Designs

Their reception was a romantic, extremely fun and very very loud wedding reception...

Their DJ and their after party snacks were on point! Those midnight churros were everything!

And if you were every wondering if deaf people dance, let me tell you, they dance more and better than anybody! They know how to feel the music through their feet, and they dance and celebrate like you never imagined. Not sure if it was because of the drinks or what, but it was so fun. I was on my third trimester with my third baby, and I swear that kid was dancing inside of me. It was amazing!

Congratulations Jordan and Trisha ~ our entire team hold your wedding as one of our favorite ones of 2018. Can’t wait to party with you all at the next wedding we are together with your family and friends.

Event Design by Yanni Designs

Wedding Venue: Renaissance Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL

Sangeet Venue: Medinah Country Club

Photo and Cinema: Le Cape Weddings (of course!)