When romance hits the dance floor!

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We just have to share at least two images from this past wedding at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. This couple literally stole our hearts forever!

Rina + Manan

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Chicago! Chicago!

We are always so in love with your beautiful city backdrops ~ our downtown is so full of stunning architectural backgrounds, and we love the amount of greenery that we get to enjoy all over this modern city... What a blessing to spend our summers here! 

Meet our sweet couple, Rina & Manan... two smiles that capture anyones attention wherever they go. 

Swati + Ankur

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Indian Weddings are known for their rich rituals and extravagant parties. Both the bride and her groom wear very gorgeous clothes during each of the events. Their guests attending the wedding are often dressed up to the nines too! Brides usually wear red colors for their Wedding Ceremony, but for the other events, there is no rules as far as colors go. 

One of their most important events is the Hennah day, where all the ladies get to participate and get Henna patterns all over their hands, or arms if they desire. Swati began her wedding celebrations with Pithi, in which she wore a vivid yellow and orange outfit... her lashes were definitely a point of distraction for me as a photographer... look how beautiful she looked!

Later on that same day, we got to celebrate another one of her events, her Grah Shanti. This is an event that prepares her and her family members spiritually for the big day, and this time she wore blue and red as the rest of her family. 

Then on the second day, we started the day very early in the morning, to catch her on her last couple of make up touches. It's more often than not, that our couples have a First Look before the wedding ceremony begins. For Swati + Ankur, they weren't too lucky with the weather as you can tell from this first picture. So we decided to have their First Look at their ceremony room. We really loved the feeling of re enacting that moment, when he first sees her walking down the isle. There was no one in the room, so it felt like an intimate moment for the two of them. It was rather special and a great idea for a rainy morning. 

Look at the gorgeous mundap.. it was just the perfect scenario to have their First Peek to each other.

Their bridal party made sure the rain didn't stop them from having fun on their wedding day. These guys were the reason why we had such a great time with this couple! 

Fair enough.. the rain stopped in the afternoon, and we got to photograph sneak out of their Cocktail Hour with these two for a couple of pictures under a beautiful sunset. 

Congratulations to our beautiful Swati + Ankur! We are so so thankful to have couples like you in our book of memories! 

xoxo

Ishani + Sidhart

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Indian weddings are rich in culture and traditions. Most Indian weddings are big in size, and have several events throughout the week of their wedding celebration. There are so many traditions depending on where the couple was raised, whether it was in the North part of India, or the South, East or West. But most of them have similar ceremonies, where the couple walks around the sacred fire, they exchange garlands and some exchange rings as a part of their marriage ceremony. Ishani and Sidhart had a more intimate wedding, bringing families from all sort of places of the world. We met people from India, Pennsylvania, California, and a number of states. 

One of our favorite moments of Indian Weddings is the early morning ceremonies that welcome the groom to the brides family. In one way or another, the groom tries to impress the guests and the family with a big entrance at his arrival.  

While most couples these days like to have a "First Look" before the ceremony, Sidhart preferred to keep it more traditional, by seeing his bride for the first time at their ceremony. Sidhart's uncles carried her on a Dolly, as she covered her face with some leaves. 

In the afternoon, we got to document these two lovelies getting ready for their wedding reception... we took them out for a super short session as the sun sat, and we dove into cocktail hour and straight into the program. Some of their relatives surprised them with special performances and super heart melting speeches...