first look , Indian wedding , with this ring
with this ring: ambika + cybil, part I // houston wedding photographer
Welcome into a small portion of Cybil + Ambika’s wedding week in Houston, Texas earlier this year. They got married in late February, right before so much about all our lives changed, so it’s especially interesting to look back on this wedding week full of so many people gathered together from all over the world to share in such a joyous celebration as Cybil and Ambika joined together as family. I’ve chosen to break the wedding up into two separate blog posts since I’ll be attempting to share three days worth of wedding festivities with y’all. So buckle your seatbelts. (That felt like a real “mom” thing to type. But it’s who I am so who am I kidding?) Here we go.
part I: Haldi
Ambika’s family (and friends-like-family) from around the world filled her parents’ living room to kick off the wedding week with a lot of tumeric and a lot of love.
part II: mehendi
That same evening it was time for henna and jaggo! See if you can find Cybil’s name hidden in Ambika’s henna (hint: it’s on the inside of her palm) done by Paisleys and Swirls.
part III: Hindu ceremony
Two first looks (a tear-filled one between Cybil and Ambika and then a second surprise one between Cybil and his pockets hahaha), BARAAT (which is basically like an epic, super-fun people parade of music and dancing to kick off the ceremony — so many GIFS I’m obsessed with from this part of the day) and their first wedding ceremony.
p.s. I always love looking at/documenting the bride and grooms’ family member’s faces on wedding days — there’s so much story/emotion there that I’m delighted by as I look back through these.
part IV: Utsav
Friends and family members perform choreographed dances (like, really good ones) and then it’s dance party central the rest of the night.
Come back next week to view some photos from the final day of Ambika + Cybil’s wedding weekend!
Wedding coordinator: Electric Karma
Venue: CityPlace Marriott Springwoods Village
Catering: Dawaat
DJ: Desi Junction
Decor: Dream Decors
Video: A&A
Bridal Hair and Make-up: Blush and Glow
Wedding party hair and make-up: Makeup by Shazia
Erin + Kevin were married in their very own neighborhood, surrounded by their nearest and dearest — friends, family and friends-like-family as well as their precious, flower-clad pup. I loved every single part of this day, not least of all the two people who were the reason for it all.
Enjoy some of my favorites from their Cliff House Dallas wedding, which started off with getting ready at the Renaissance Hotel and a whole lot of flower girl-ring bearer shenanigans in the bridal suite.
My trusty brother Jacob second shot this wedding day with me and I particularly enjoy the groom portraits he took of Kevin before they headed over to Cliff House.
When your friends react to your wedding look like this you know you’re doing something right.
And we’ll end on THAT BEYOND ADORABLE NOTE. Thank you for checking out the blogpost. Erin and Kevin, thank you a million and 87 times for choosing me to document this day for y’all. It was such a joy to be there and witness your love for each other.
Trent waited quite some time for this day, to marry Emily Hennessy. The first time he asked her out was in high school, to be exact. The timing must not have been right because her answer was no. Years and years down the road, after high school, after college, the timing finally seemed to be right . . . until Emily put him in the friend zone. And he waited there for her, the “friend” who invited her to take swing dancing lessons with him, until she realized she loved that steady friend of hers. Really, really loved him.
Waiting, in the moment, is not fun. It’s just not. It may seem sweet when I talk about it on a wedding day blogpost, but the reality of waiting is not an enjoyable task. But some things are just worth that perseverance, right Trent? I love the look on his face in this first image as Emily looks up at him. He’s living his dream, walking hand in hand with Emily, on the day they got married.
It was a sweet, effortless day. Emily’s sister did her hair and make-up. The flower girls made up of Emily and Trent’s niece and cousins ran around the bridal suite in awe of all things bridal. Emily and Trent’s first look was flooded by the most beautiful, golden sunshine. Their outdoor ceremony was only minimally interrupted by rumbling thunder but the rain itself held off until all the guests had made their way inside after the pronouncement of husband and wife.
I particularly enjoy the sequence of the next two images — Emily looking up at the sky as the thunder rolled ominously during their outdoor ceremony followed by her looking over at her sisters all “Here we are. Let’s see what happens.”
It was here, knowing the rain would inevitably start falling soon and our original plan for sunset portraits after the family portraits would not be a possibility, that I rerouted Emily + Trent from our original gathering spot after the ceremony to that bridge just a short ways away. I wanted to pull them away even if for a single minute to allow them to soak in what just happened and give them some portraits together after they were married. What followed were some of my favorite bride-groom portraits of all time mostly because what was happening in front of me was so real. I didn’t have to say a word beyond guiding them to the bridge. They just held each other, the storm overhead growing increasingly dark. It couldn’t have been more than two minutes we were on that bridge. But every second of it was beautiful.
Because I was exposing for skin above it made the sky appear much brighter than it actually was but here are some reference photos for what it really looked like in those minutes directly following the ceremony. Then came the rain.
I’m so happy for y’all, Emily + Trent. So dang happy.
 From the first time I met with Katy and Ryan to even discuss wedding photography I just knew we’d be a good fit. They’re so genuine and warm as all get out to everyone around them. I love when I get to photograph people who don’t try to tone down what they’re feeling to, say, a “socially acceptable level” (whatever that means), they just FEEL IT, danggit! And I am HERE FOR IT.
They got ready at The Adolphus before heading over to the Hall of State for their ceremony. Ryan just didn’t particularly care to have any prep photos taken of himself so we’ll start off this first portion of the post from the hotel room where Katy was getting ready. Goodness gracious, I could not stop photographing Katy and her momma’s sweet bond during that time. There are actually so many adorable photos of the two of them that I left out of this post because I was like “It’s Katy and RYAN’S wedding I’m supposed to be blogging, not just a slew of adorable momma-daughter pictures” hahahah but y’all just keep your eye out for Katy’s sweet momma throughout this post because she was so thrilled for her daughter’s wedding day.
Ok guys, then Ryan’s sons came in the room with some cards + drawings they had made for Katy to open on the wedding day and I honestly do not know if I’ve ever witnessed anything more precious. Just look how happy they are to be adding Katy to their family and how obviously they adore her!
Once we got to Hall of State we met up with Ryan and got some photos of this dapper trio.
In loveeeeee with all the florals by Kate McLeod Studio.
Just please, please do not miss Katy and Ryan’s facial expressions throughout the ceremony. This was my favorite part of the entire day.
Thank you, Katy and Ryan, for letting me document your beautiful love. It was such a joy and privilege of mine to document your wedding day story.
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