Ladywood Estate Hindu Wedding Photography || Shinal + Ravi

Hindu wedding photography at Ladywood Estate

OMG, we’ve got soooo much love for these two beautiful humans. It makes us a little bit sad that their wedding celebrations are over. However, this week we’ve had the pleasure of looking back at their day all over again on our editing screens, and we’ve never smiled so much! This was our first time photographing a Hindu wedding at Ladywood Estate!! So much happens at these wedding celebrations, I don’t know where to start!! But let’s try starting in Madrid!

Pre-wedding Photos

Ben travelled with Ravi & Shinal to Spain for their connection photoshoot and despite the slightly horrible weather, they had such a great time and Ben got some truly beautiful images in Madrid. It’s always great to be able to spend time together before the wedding. Whether it’s with a camera in our hand or over a beer and pizza, it’s great to get to know our couples. As a result, the wedding day is waaaay more fun and it feels like we’re just hanging out with friends on the day. In turn, this makes for much more relaxed photographs.

So with Indian weddings here in the UK, you have to have a civil ceremony element to the day and have an official wedding in front of a registrar so that all the paperwork is formalised…forever! Some people opt for a simple registry office, but not these two. The had a full English civil wedding, and that was just the start!

Civil Ceremony

So, next we were off to Winstanley House for their civil ceremony and celebrations, Shinal looking so beautiful and glam in her wedding dress and Ravi scrubbing up well too! You can read all about their civil wedding day on our blog.

Home Ceremonies

A month or so later Ben headed off to Shinal’s house in Leicester for the home ceremony where the priest joins them for the Puja & Haldi ceremonies. Here at the Puja, they welcome the gods to the wedding and the families pray to remove all obstacles from the couple’s life path. Shinal is then covered in turmeric, a symbol of well being. They had already done the Mehendi the day before – it looked beautiful.

Then 2 days later the Hindu wedding ceremony at The Ladywood Estate. I’ve been looking forward to this day for ages. I love spending time with these gorgeous people and having met lots of their friends and family a couple of times before we knew that it was going to be a seriously fun day and man…… it didn’t disappoint!!!!

The big fat Indian wedding!

As the alarm woke us up at 4am, we got packed up and headed off to the venue. Ben joined Shinal for her bridal preperations with her hair and makeup being expertly done by Sandie Basra. Shin was looking gorgeous in her traditional red dress – I think it weighed more than she did!! In the meantime, I was photographing Ravi in a hotel down the road. He got ready in his ceremonial gear, with an extra pair of shoes in his bag, just in case Shinal’s girls stole the ones he was wearing – sneaky!!! A wise man. The sun was shining and it was gearing up to be a beautiful day. OMG it was a beautiful, one of the hottest and nicest days we’d had so far this year.

The Jaan Arrival

We all headed to Ladywood’s for the Jaan arrival. The dhol player was on form as Ravi’s family made their arrival known to everyone!! Singing, dancing, happiness – Just amazing!! This is Ben’s absolute favourite part of an Indian wedding – the Dhol drumming. He flippin’ LOVES it!! I often turn around and see him doing a little jig while it’s all going on. Honestly, if he could have a Dhol player follow him around in day to day life, he’d be a happy man!!  To be fair, it is awesome – it created such an atmosphere! After a little dance-off between the two families, it was time to go in and get ready for the marriage!!

The Wedding Ceremony

The Mandap was gorgeous – they had gone with an enchanted forest theme – there were trees, leaves and logs everywhere. They did all the usual lovely rituals, the Vidhi, Antarpat, Kanyadan, Hasta Melap, Varmala, Saptapadi, Mangal Phera, Saptapadi, ending with Akhand Sobhagyawati.

Loads of great food followed…  I had the best little baby sweetcorn I’ve ever had! We love that there’s so much food at Indian weddings too! Then out into the grounds for a couple of photos of Ravi & Shinal, some of the family and big group of everyone together!! Easier said than done with over 300 guests in bright midday sunlight, but we got there with a super wide 16mm lens and it was worth it to see everyone together! Then back into the orangery for the Vidaai.  The Vidaai is the traditional part of the day where the bride’s family bid farewell to the bride as she drives away, so it was inevitable that there would be lots of tears.

Following this is the good bit (well for the girls anyway) as we head out to the car where Mitesh is forced to fork over lots of cash to the bride’s side, despite Ravi’s dad insisting they’d all had enough! 😂

Evening reception

Time for a little break, a change of outfit for Rav & Shin and into the evening celebrations – the biggest cake, more great food, a choreographed bride & groom first dance, some great speeches and even a surprise dance from the groom and his groomsmen – best thing I’ve seen in ages! As if we didn’t love Ravi enough…then he goes and does something like that!! Amazing.  Now time to party and boy can these guys DANCE!!! Holy crap, they can dance. Shin and Ravi’s friends and family piled onto the dance floor and I don’t think we saw it empty all night. Loved the dance-offs and the live sax to really bring the party, and that was it – Dancing until we were all kicked out and the day was over! One of the best 18 hours with a camera in my hand we’ve had in ages – Thanks so much guys!

We’d like to say a special thank to all of Shinal and Ravi’s friends and family. We’ve not photographed a Hindu wedding before and they all really looked after us. I think we must have been asked if we needed food or drink a million times and we really appreciate that as we have a tendency at weddings to forget to eat and drink and you have to prise the camera away from our faces for 5 minutes.

Everyone is soooo lovely and I just want to do it all again and come and hang out with you all once more!!

Here’s a little preview while we finish up your full gallery of photos!

Turn it up LOUD – Hit FULL SCREEN,….and Enjoy! xx

A little about the Ladywood Estate

Nestled in the heart of the Leicestershire countryside is the Ladywood Estate. Whether you’re having a small intimate English wedding or a supersized Indian wedding, this place is perfect. They can cater for between 50 to 450 wedding guests and with some on-site accommodation and a beautiful bridal suite, it really has lots to offer everyone. There is a large and light pavilion which is perfect for larger Indian wedding ceremonies and they even have a helipad in case you fancy making a grand entrance! Best of all, they pride themselves on not being a conveyor belt wedding factory. They only host 1 wedding there per weekend so you can really spend time making it your own, or if you’ve got multiple ceremonies spread over 1, 2 or 3 days, it’s perfect.

As a photographer, there is lots on offer too. The sun sets beautifully over the lake view and means that you can get some beautiful golden hour sun flares into your lens to create those dreamy bokeh shots of the bride and groom. There is also a small area of woodland which is great for some intimate portraits away from all the wedding guests.

Honestly, give them a look if you’re having your Hindu, Sikh, Jewish or English wedding any time soon – We’d also love to be your photographer and work there again in the future! 🙂