Multi-Day Sikh Wedding Masterpiece
Most couples during Covid downsized their wedding to the bare essentials. Amarinder and Harnoor did the polar opposite. Hey, if you’re only going to marry once, you might as well do it right. Yes, the guest count was small. Majority of the events were outdoors and spaced out. Everyone came vaccinated. So they did follow all the restrictions. However, one of the nice things of having such a small crowd, is it doesn’t stop you from having a big event. Or rather, a long event.
This Sikh Wedding was the longest wedding I’ve done in my career. It was a full 7 days of traditional festivities. And the couple running the show was absolutely epic. They found me a month before the big event. Even when the week started, they were still planning the days to come. How they kept up with the planning, and the celebrations while keeping their sanity… I will never know. I’m sure they had their stressful moments, but no bride/groomzillas appeared that entire week.
I provided both photo and video coverage of each Sikh Wedding Event. In order to help keep their numbers down, I provided both services without any additional crew. So obviously, the video wasn’t meant to be fancy. It was mostly just as documentary coverage since some of the events weren’t attended by both the bride and groom.
Day 4 Maiyan and Jago
A Mayian Ceremony consists of friends and family rubbing a turmeric paste on the bride and groom. The traditional meaning of Maiyan is to cleanse the skin and create a glow. Traditionally this ceremony involves “cleaning” the bride and groom in preparation for their wedding day. The bride and groom are not to shower after this ceremony. And normally, they would not leave the house or see each other.
However, in this case, they followed this Sikh Wedding Tradition with a Jago. A Jago is simply a fun filled night of dancing between the couple and two families. Jago ceremony meaning is “staying awake”. The Jago ritual involves the relatives of the groom and bride, in their respective abodes, to stay up all night. The idea is to celebrate the wedding and make merry by dancing and partying. The aunt of the bride and groom takes an earthen pot filled with candles, places it on her head and dances. The pot is further passed on to other merrymakers as well.
Be sure to check out the rest of this wedding…
Shagun – Day 1
Chuni Ceremony – Day 2
Mehndi – Day 3
Mayiaanl/Jago – Day 4
Chura – Day 5
Ceremony – Day 6
Reception – Day 7
Oh, and their engagement shoot
