Saket Myneni Sri Lakshmi – International Tennis Player Saket Myneni’s Telugu Wedding in Vijaywada
We covered Saket & Sri Lakshmi’s wedding in December 2016. Indian Tennis Star, Saket Myneni has been conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Award in 2017 and represents India in Davis Cup. He won a Gold medal in Mixed doubles and a Silver medal in Men’s doubles event at Incheon Asian Games 2014.
When Saket proposed Sri Lakshmi over official Davis Cup dinner, it created headlines. And, then it was all about their wedding at Vijaywada and reception at Vishakhapatnam. It was absolutely thrilling to see how much they enjoyed throughout all the wedding rituals. The smiles didn’t stop, and we are ever grateful to Saket & Lakshmi for giving us the front seat to their wedding festivities. The shoot was led by our lead photographer Anupam Maurya and their wedding ceremonies were both intimate & totally heart-warming.
Meet the ever-laughing groom, Shreyas & and his pretty bride Shruti. And it was a real joyride to shoot their wedding in Mangalore.
Shreyas is an avid photography enthusiast himself. Checkout his FB page – A Pensive Polaroid for some stunning street photographs across the world. Now, coming back to our story. He wanted an amazing, creative candid photographer for his wedding, and so we were booked for his big day in November last year.
Shreyas & Shruti were batchmates in VIT, and that’s how their story started. Their relationship stood the test of time & survived the barrier of long distance relationship. And thereafter, the date was set. A true manglorean by heart, Shreyas always wanted his weddding to be in Mangalore. And after convincing his north indian fiance Shruti & the families – yes it did! The wedding happened in south indian style in Mangalore. Here goes their wedding story.
Day 1 – Mangalore is blessed with green surroundings & we had some time off before the wedding shenanigans began. So we made some fun couple portraits
Day 2 – The wedding day started pretty early, with the bride getting ready. Her dressing room was filled with happiness and anticipation. The wedding rituals happened as per kannadiga rituals and you cannot miss the happy faces of the bride & groom
Happily married! But that newly-wedded moments needs to be documented right? So we did this post wedding shoot, stealing some time off, and the bride & groom thoroughly supported. Time & again, we say this, please keep some time separately for your couple portraits, they are absolutely PRECIOUS, and you would want to thank us later for that! 🙂
We did a post wedding shoot at Shreyas’s farmhouse at Belthangady, and it was another beautiful experience from Mangalore. Thank you Shreyas & Shruti for trusting us, being so warm & giving us the opportunity to shoot your special days.
It is not everyday that your best friend ties the knot. Aditya and I have been inseparable friends since school times. So when you receive the news of your best friend getting married it brings many thoughts, it makes you nostalgic of all the good times spend together and how time flew that your friend is about to reach an important milestone in life.
So, Aditya was all set to marry the tall and pretty Sahiti. Aditya, an IIT Kharagpur alumni who is currently finishing his PhD, first met Sahiti, who was pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Health, in their college University of Minessota in US. I first came to know about Sahiti when he was planning to propose her. Subsequently we came to know that Sahiti loved our work and our documentary approach to wedding rituals and ceremonies along with blending couple portraiture and capturing fine details. I personally wanted to enjoy Adi’s wedding and not shoot it, but as both of them were keen on us shooting the wedding, we found ourselves travelling to Hyderabad in a train along with Adi’s family.
The whole family was quite exhilarated about the wedding. On reaching Hyderabad, we set out earlier for the venue Noma Kalyana Vedika while the groom’s party left later from the station after changing clothes at the railway station. We reached earlier so that we could set up our equipment and be prepared to capture the Groom’s side being welcome by the bride’s side. Typical of Telugu weddings there were a lot of pujas and as soon as every one settled down the puja started shortly. The key opening function was Kashi Yatra where the groom sets on a symbolic journey to Kashi to continue with his Brahminism while bride’s parents convince him to enjoy the bliss of married life. The important functions from the wedding happened like this –
Edurukolu: This is a fun filled event where the groom’s entourage is welcomed into the mandapam by the bride’s family and friends amidst traditional music played on the Nadaswaram
Jeelakarra Bellam: Amidst the chanting of sacred vedic hymns the bride and groom place a freshly ground paste of cumin and jaggery on each other’s head to signify their eternal bond
Talambralu: The bride and groom shower each other with Talambralu which is a mixture of rice with saffron and turmeric. This signifies the joyful beginning of a happy and prosperous life together
Saptapadi: The bride and groom take seven steps Saptapadi together and with each step they recite one vow. This symbolizes the beginning of their journey through life as partners.
As the muharatam was at 3.30 am in the night by the time the wedding got over it was already morning. After the wedding even though Aditya and Sahiti were completely exhausted they happily shot a lot of fun photographs together. This is one of our finest work in terms of documentary coverage of a wedding and its partially because of the support and love we got from Aditya and Sahiti’s family. We hope you could see the whole story of their wedding unfold through the photos.
Wedding Couture: As I often get messages from men and women who are interested to know where to shop for wedding clothes, here is where Aditya and Sahiti got their clothes from. As the bride and groom didn’t have much time they did their wedding shopping in Mumbai and Hyderabad respectively. Aditya headed to Santacruz in Mumbai which is the best place to shop for wedding clothes in Mumbai. Having explored most places in Mumbai myself for wedding clothes I would say this is the best place for guys to buy some decent and classy clothes – Manyavar, Jinam, Kora offer amazing collection for Men. Also a lot of designers have their outlets here, so a visit here is must.
