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Kimmi & Harsimran | Shagan

For the past week we have been completely wrapped up with the wedding celebrations of Kimmi and Harsimran. Like all Indian weddings, this one was a complete whirlwind and before you know it, you’ve spent 6 days straight with all these people, and suddenly it all just ends! Right now we’re sitting in the house, waiting to leave on our train back to Delhi. It’s a strange feeling, for the whole place is very silent, when just yesterday and the days before it was packed to the rafters with all the wedding-goers. But like all things it comes to an end, and we can just be happy that we were able to enjoy it, and have some pictures to remember it by!

I’ll be using this wedding as the main one to explain the Sikh ceremony. Once I get home I’ll probably supplement the photos with some more we have from other Sikh ceremonies we’ve shot. This post will eventually end up in the Weddings section, so you can always revisit it, and learn about the different events!

This Sikh wedding was in Punjab, which is a predominantly Sikh state. As such, I think you can expect most Sikh weddings to be similar (whereas Hindu weddings can be Punjabi, Bengali, Keralan, etc. and all are so very different!). But as always, we give the caveat that every Indian wedding will be different in some way, and you can only prepare youself so much, and then just expect anything ☺

We’ll start you off with the first ceremony we attended. It is called the Shagan, and is when the girls family take gifts to the house of the boys family. So the procession started early in the morning at the home of Kimmi’s parents, and the table full of gifts (including an iPhone!) was loaded up into the cars, and all the men (and me, the only girl!) set off.



When we arrived, the gifts were set on the table, everyone mingled a bit, the men sat in a room and chatted for a while, then we made our way into a beautiful tent to hold a small ceremony. With the Sikh religion, you must always cover your head when in the presence of the holy book, so you can see all the men and women here have their head covered.


As I mentioned previously, music is very important to the Sikh faith, and so there were these men playing absolutely beautiful songs.



Here you can see the priest sitting in front of the book, and if you look closely, you can see Harsimran in the back, in the yellow turban!



The women praying. With Sikhs the men and women sit on separate sides of the room.



In Indian culture the feeding of food is very important, in all religions we’ve encountered. Here you can see Kimmi’s dad feeding Harsimran. By the end of a wedding the bride and groom will have eaten more sweets than you can even imagine! Think of a Western wedding, just after the bride and groom have cut the cake. They then feed each other a piece. In Indian weddings, if they have a cake, generally they will feed each other, and then her mom with feed them both, then his mom, then her dad, then his dad, then all the guests…you get the idea! Basically they get incredibly full of sweets ☺




It was such a peaceful and emotional gathering, it was really great to have been a part of it.


And that was the shagan. We all ate lunch afterwards (of course! You can expect to never ever go hungry or thirsty at an Indian wedding. We probably gained 10 pounds while here!). And then we drove back to Kimmi’s parents house, and took the afternoon to rest. Next up was the Chuni and Ring Ceremony in the evening, which will be our next post! We will try to spread this wedding out over a few days, since we don’t have time to get the whole thing ready just now, lol! Plus this way you get more constant attention from us.

Hope you guys enjoy!

Lauren ☺

Category: Weddings

Tags: india, photography, shagan, sikhism, weddings