thedelhibells: Post-Wedding Shoot

Find all the stories from my wedding (Sangeet, Wedding Reception, Honeymoon, etc) under thedelhibells series. This is post #16.

I was slightly nervous typing the words –

“Dear Snigdha & Vinayak, I’m a big fan of your work…in fact, your were on the dream photography team list for my wedding…”

I was composing an email to Snigdha Sheel & Vinayak Das, the husband-wife team of Photo Tantra, one of the top wedding photographers in the country. I’ve spoken about them on my blog before, but had assumed they were over-budget for my wedding so I’d not even tried contacting them when I was researching photographers last year.

Come March 2013, and I was sending them an email regarding my blog. I wasn’t even sure if they would see it, let alone respond to it, but a girl’s gotta try!

A few hours later, there was an email waiting in my inbox. It was from Vinayak!

“Dear Shinjini…We have been following your blog for quite some time. You don’t know this, but we had hatched a plan with Tarun of surprising you on your reception day by joining him for the shoot. However that did not work out as we returned very very late that day from our shoot…”

My jaw dropped, and I went through the lines once again.

One, they knew my blog existed.

Two, they actually followed it.

Three, Tarun Chawla, my wedding photographer, had actually planned a surprise with them to come shoot us!

OMG! Tarun had not even mentioned it in the last 5 months! I guess he didn’t want to disappoint me with the story of a failed surprise. But it was such a sweet gesture, I wish he would’ve told me sooner! THANK YOU, Tarun!

After some more back & forth via email, Vinayak said we should do a post-wedding shoot. And needless to say, I jumped (literally) at the opportunity! We decided on a date in May, and my countdown began!

A few days before the date,

Vinayak & I discussed location options. One of them was Zorba – a quirky venue on MG Road. It was one of the options I’d looked at for my Sangeet. However, we’d decided that it may be a tad bit small for our guest list, and so we had finally decided to look elsewhere. However, for the post-wedding shoot, it was perfect!

26th May, 2013

It was a hot May morning in Delhi, when my husband & I met Vinayak at Zorba. It was only 9 am but the air was already getting warm. I had chosen two outfits for this shoot – my Reception lehenga and a more relaxed red Mango top with black pants for the western look.

Why the Reception lehenga?

Because as some of you already know, I wasn’t super happy about my Reception day look. They were small things, and when I got the chance to re-do pictures in an outfit, this was an easy choice. I left my hair open this time around, and had no jewellery on. The lehenga is pretty heavy by itself, with the detailed threadwork all over the jacket and splashes of bling on the yoke, ends and the back. So the no-jewellery look actually brought the attention back to the lehenga itself. Which, by the way, I’m still in love with 🙂

Vinayak was really nice to work with. He didn’t make us work too hard 🙂 He’d send us off to a spot and directed us a bit with what he wanted. It was like he knew what he wanted, so he kept the shoot fairly structured. And he gave us a lot of space. By that I mean, he stood far, far away so we could chit chat to relax ourselves, and be comfortable. Since it was getting quite hot, he didn’t keep us out in the sun for too long. He kept giving us “breaks” to cool off in the shade! 🙂

Zorba provided plenty of great backdrops, that Vinayak quickly spotted and used to compose the shoot. A white staircase against a blue wall behind it, the sun streaming through the bunches of flowers atop an arch, the fallen leaves from a gigantic tree – we used it all!

Vinayak kept us giggling throughout the shoot, and was very patient with getting the right shots. If at first we didn’t succeed, we’d try over and over again till we got it right. Seeing how patient & determined he was to get good shots, my husband and I also felt motivated to keep going 🙂

Finally, we ended the morning in a cool white room (one of the many Zorba has on its premises). We were all stoked to get an air-conditioned area to sit in and cool down. We tried a few funny poses here, and the one below is my favourite!

It summarises our 1 year of married life so well! Haha! Him – constantly on the phone for work. Me – well, I don’t think I need words 🙂

We did many more fun shots – one of which is the cover photo for this post! And here are a few more that I put together for a collage –

Funny much?

We had the option of going to a second location for clicking more pictures, but we all decided to call it a day at Zorba itself. It was too hot, and we were all exhausted! What followed was a late brunch at Amici, and over pizzas & salad, I was transported into a different world. Vinayak & I chatted about different people in the wedding world, and I was so happy to talk to someone who knew all the names I knew. I don’t exactly bump into people from the wedding industry in my daily life (atleast not back in May!) and I left for home that day feeling more connected to the wedding world. Vinayak was an absolute gentleman and professional when it came to the post-wedding shoot, and my husband couldn’t stop appreciating him either all the way on the drive back home! Thank you so much, Photo Tantra. These pictures mean the world to us – they’re beautiful memories that will last us a lifetime. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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Photographs by Photo Tantra