“From Bangarpet to Bangkok” - that’s our tagline for 2018!!
In Jan 2018, Neetika & I (Manas) took a leap of faith and stopped all paid marketing for our business.
What followed was an incredible year, especially for the sheer range of assignments we shot. 17 weddings, 6 couple shoots, 2 Upanayanam ceremonies, 2 wedding receptions, 2 family portrait sessions and 1 absolutely crazy all-nighter pool party - and all this work took us not just to cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Bangkok but also to small towns like Tirupati, Bangarpet, Virudhunagar and Dharwad. What makes us particularly happy (and proud) is the fact that most of these assignments were referrals, some being weddings of younger siblings of old clients.
The year began with capturing the quirks of our local politicians in an Upanayanam ceremony at Taj Westend, Bangalore. Then came Shalini & Niketh’s Tamil-Telugu wedding in Hyderabad - an emotional rollercoaster where there were tears and laughter, both at the drop of a hat. Priya & Srikar’s cross cultural wedding in Bangalore also happened around the same time - 24 hours of Telugu Brahmin rituals which left the bride, the groom and us practically zombified!!
Shruti & Ashwin then decided to get married under a gigantic tree after which Jayashree & Prashant had their Oriya-Kerala style wedding at Ganjam Mantapa (Bangalore) with just 80 guests, minimal rituals and maximum fun.
In direct contrast, followed Indira & Samar’s epic wedding at Novotel Hyderabad Convention Center - 2000+ guests at one of the largest indoor venues we’ve shot at. The very next day we were back in Bangalore attending (and shooting) a pre-wedding all-nighter pool party, details of which are classified *wink*. A few days later we were shooting this insanely quirky wedding of Jayashree & Gautham in Bangarpet, a small town about 80kms from Bangalore. Ipsa & Prasad then invited us to their Oriya-Marathi wedding at Bhubaneswar - another super quirky wedding with free-flowing “Rasgullas”.
After back to back weddings, we documented a simple, yet meaningful and emotional story of a man who traveled all the way from the US to Tirupati for his Son’s Upanayanam, to honour his departed father’s wish.
Our next wedding, Kavya & Karthik’s Tam-Brahm ceremony in Bangalore was the story of a bride stuck in patriarchal customs!
Next in line was Prarthana & Suthan’s Lingayat wedding in Bangalore - a simple, elegant affair with many familiar faces. We then traveled to Visakhapatnam for Nivedita & Sandeep’s Telugu Brahmin wedding - a groom with a weird sense of humour, a chilled-out bride and a balanced dose of serious rituals and equally serious fun!
Then came one of the oddest weddings of the year - Nirupama & John’s Hindu-Christian wedding at Virudhunagar with two hundred guests and zero rituals followed by a reception at The Taj Gateway, Madurai.
The following month we made a trip to Thailand where shot portraits of Edwin & Gist on the streets of Bangkok.
We had hit it off extremely well with Akshita & Pranay and their Kannada-Telugu wedding at Ganjam Mantapa was one of our most awaited weddings of the year after which, we made more new friends at Gargi & Archith’s wedding reception in Bangalore. Taarika & Felix’s Christian wedding at Palace Grounds, Bangalore needs a special mention - our second wedding under a tree this year and one of the most warm and musical weddings we’ve ever shot. Our next assignment - Preethi & Ganesh’s Tamil Brahmin Wedding at Karnataka Jain Bhavan, Bangalore - was all about fishing out quirky moments from a sea of very traditional rituals.
Next we traveled to Dharwad to document Lolitha & Anup’s Telugu-Lingayat wedding - a blend of small-town quirkiness and elegance of the city, with 3 days of events at Ocean Pearl Resort & Spa and Veerendra Heggade Kalakshetra.
As soon as we returned to Bangalore, we had Abilasha & Nivashan’s wedding reception at The Windsor Manor lined up for us - the crazy story of a boy and a girl who met in a shared Uber in New York.
The next wedding we shot was Sirisha & Sudip’s all-nighter Telugu ceremony in Bangalore and we ended the year oh a high, with Suchita & Sam’s quaint wedding at Temple Tree Leisure (Bangalore).
A big thank you to everyone who supported us and collaborated with us through this year - Creative Chisel, DreamWedz, Nishal Lama, With Love, Nilma, Manjeet Khehra.
Also, special thanks to our second shooters & cinematographers - Bhaktar, Nitin, Vijay, Bhushan & Mahesha.
Here are 100 of our favourite images shot in 2018!