The Berkshires around Lenox Ma pretty much took a back seat to this South Asian traditional Pakistani wedding with some American twists. The colors and details in both the Lenox MA mountains and the wedding paired up beautifully, and that of course is going to make for some awesome wedding video.

Wedding & Reception Venue(s): Elm Court Estate

Dress: Rani Emaan
Accessories: Ali’s mom gave Jill all the jewelery
Shoes: Custom from Pakistan
Hair/makeup: Theresa Marcucci
Bridesmaid dresses: Rani Emaan
Flowers: Felthousen’s
Cake: Cakewalk
Catering: New World Catering
Mehndi: Aurora Mehndi
Entertainment: Roger Lipson (instrumental musicians)
Reception: Elm Court Estate Lenox MA wedding
Thank you both so much for having us at your Elm Court Estate wedding in Lenox MA!

I’m excited to kick this beautiful weekend off with some color, vibrancy, emotion, and tradition with Meenakashi+Rohit’s beautiful wedding at The Sagamore in Lake George, NY!

The Hindu wedding ceremony is based on traditions and rituals originating six thousand years ago from the Vedas, the Sanskrit books of knowledge that form the foundation of Hinduism. Each part of the ceremony usually spread over several day are filled with color and meaning, from the Baraat to the Ashirvaad.

It was truly amazing being able to capture this Lake George wedding over several days, and exploring the many aspects and celebrations that go into each carefully planned part, with everything culminating into a magnificent celebration on the final night at their Sagamore wedding in Lake George.

Special thanks go to Rose Events, who we’ve been killing it with for 6 years of weddings now, and The Sagamore where we are at a ton this Summmer!

Get ready for a three-day great blog post with Samira+Asad!

The first day, we went to Samira’s family home in Niskayuna for the Jashan Ceremony. A Jashan ceremony is done to celebrate major passages in peoples’ lives, whether seasonal or within the community, such as births or marriages; it can also be done to celebrate other new beginnings, such as a new house or organization. Many of the woman gather around and give many blessings in form of songs, poems, ect to the bride.

The light was just butter!

 

 

The next day I covered the Henna (Mehndi) ceremony… The occasion of Mehndi ceremony is often one of the most important pre-wedding rituals especially for the bride. It is a fun filled ritual, which is celebrated mainly by the bride’s family. Different regions of the country celebrate the ritual in a different way according to their own marriage customs, rituals, and culture.

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome, right?!!

Wedding Day!!!

 

 

Just a little bit of rain, but it cleared up!

After the ceremony we got ready for the reception.

 

 

 

Look at all that detail! Samira got all her outfits from India!

The rain cleared up!

 

What a lovely family to be a part of. Thank you so much for having me! ~Alisha

Dress: Hyderabad, India
Shoes: Bloomingdales
Hair/makeup: Jayshri Mehta
Flowers: Felthousens Florists – http://www.felthousensflorist.com/
Desserts & Ceremony Brunch: Elegant Touch Catering: http://www.theeleganttouch.com/
Catering: Shahi Palace: http://www.shahipalacenj.com/
Entertainment/DJ: http://www.bboyzentertainment.com/
Decorator: Sajawat: http://www.sajawatusa.com/

After shooting Reena and Amit’s engagement session this spring, we knew their wedding was going to be a treat. They did not disappoint! These two are not only incredibly good looking (as are all of our couples, we swear) but so much fun and they filled their traditional wedding with personalized touches that made their celebration so much fun. Seriously, when is the last time you heard Snoop Dogg played during a baraat? Never? Neither had we, but it brought the house down.

And the crowd goes wild! Snoop was a huge hit.

These little ones might take the prize for cutest flower girls this year. They were all adorable!

Now that is the look of a groom who is really really happy to be getting married!

Reena and Amit were just smiles and love and laughter all day. It was incredible.

We brought them out into this maintenance area of the property that has tall over-grown grass for these shots. Guarenteed we are the first ones to shoot there and huge props to the couple for hiking in their wedding attire for these sunset shots – they turned out awesome, well worth the effort!

Want to make a memorable entrance? Take a note from these two and rock some heart-shaped glasses. You can’t go wrong.

Another huge hit was this hilarious cake topper. The guests loved it! This was such a great, heartfelt celebration. From tear-jerking toasts…

To amazing choreographed dances Reena and Amit’s friends organized…

And then everyone danced the night away.

A big thank you to Reena and Amit for letting us be a part of your wedding. Congratulations and best wishes for the years ahead!

We’ve had this blog entry waiting in the wings for a bit, and I’m really excited to make this “Anuja+Rishi Week” over here at Clark+Walker :) The video trailer is being polished as I type this and will be blogged towards the end of the week in addition to all of these photos. Get strapped in and grab some popcorn because this is a SICK wedding!
Anuja looked beautiful in the morning when we arrived, and when we saw Kris Kellogg we knew why the hair and make up looked so great.

We loved everything Anuja wore all weekend, and weren’t surprised to hear these were all from Mumbai, India. Our job is easy when we get brides like this :)

Rishi was not to be out done though!

We work a lot with Rose Events, who continually impress us each and every year, and once again the details at this wedding were spot on

When it was time for the baraat people were ready to get down! I love baraats like this, I wanted one for our wedding last year :)

DJ Shahid of Rose Events Entertainment made sure the music was pumping as we walked around the streets of downtown Rochester


Once the baraat was finished we headed inside for the wedding ceremony. It was a bit “modernized” with the entire bridal party coming down the aisle during the processional and I’ve been seeing more of this lately.

I love this moment between these two

I have to admit, when I found out the ceremony was going to be inside the Rochester Convention Center I was eager to see how it would turn out. That had to present some challenges to work with, but as you can see it turned out phenomenal


Because the ceiling was essentially a huge skylight we were able to get some awesome natural daylight while still staying in the air conditioning (good move guys)

One of my favorites from the ceremony

Once the vidai started we saw some tears and some heartfelt moments which I LOVE shooting. I also loved shooting the ’58 Bently they drove away in though too, that was pimp!

During cocktail hour I loved the idea they used for people to leave them messages. Since they were both doctors they had people fill out these prescription cards telling them what they needed for a happy life and then people left them on a couple trees they had set up


After that it was time for us to capture some portraits in the end of the day butta light. I knew from our awesome e-shoot together that portrait time was going to be fun with these 2

The comfort level in front of the camera made this an awesome session

We’ve worked together with Rose Events enough times for them to just plan in these portraits during this light. Awesome.

Rishi was showing us how he models earlier in the day, but now it’s Anuja’s turn

The reception room looked absolutely awesome, which was no surprise. The entire room was draped in fabric and looked very elegant. Elegant Affairs gave us some great centerpieces, Premier Pastry did the cake, and Moghul Catering did the food (which by the way is always some of the best food we get to eat).

I especially loved these shot glasses of milk with cookies on top at the end of the night, such a great idea!

A huge thank you to the happy couple for allowing us to come along for the ride known as your wedding day. We had a blast and can’t wait to also show you the video trailer later this week as well.

Check out more of our wedding photography in Rochester, NY.