Welcome to The Wedding Travelers!

I was looking through the archives for some shots for our new blog (coming soon!) and saw some photos I wanted to post here. I was thinking of going back through the whole trip and posting shots from each place. Who would be interested in that? Leave a comment if you want that!

For now here are those awesome photos:

 A traveler on the streets of Jaisalmer.

And another local from the streets. 

 From the Qutab Minar in Delhi.

 The Lotus Temple in Delhi.

 Hanging jootis in Calcutta

 Buddha sculpture from the temple at Krabhi, Thailand.

An awesome rhino from Kaziranga. 

Our boatman from Varanasi. 

Hope you enjoyed that little hodge-podge, but I'll keep things a bit more organized as I keep posting!

Also, I have gotten a couple emails regarding the Hindu Wedding article, and how it's not finished. Oops! I'll definitely try to get that finished up soon for you all!

Cheers,

Lauren :) 

Category: Adventures

Tags: architecture, bahai, buddha, calcutta, carving, delhi, fort, india, indian one horned rhino, jaisalmer, kaziranga, krabi, landscape, lotus temple, photography, qutb minar, safari, temple, thailand, travel, varanasi

We got this email a little while ago, and I really wanted to share it here. Since returning home we've gotten wrapped up in our wedding business, and haven't been able to work on the Wedding Travelers very much. But Tara sent us this email that really reminded us of the power and importance of what we're doing. Since we're still so new to photography we often don't realise how much of an impact our work can have on people, and it was really wonderful of Tara to write and tell us how she felt about our photos. 

Anyway, thank you so much to Tara for her email. We will be working a lot more on this website to try and share all that we have learned.

Here's the email (posted with Tara's permission, of course :)

"Hi Lauren and Rob,

 

OK, I had a fellow photographer tell me about your site yesterday. I am of Indian origin though have grown up in the US. I'm just getting started in the wedding photography world and was telling this photographer that I want a logo that kind of shows my background with a little Indian twist, but something less cliche. Anyway she mentioned you guys and your cute little elephant logo, so I just looked up your site. 

 

Breathtaking. Inspiring. Amazing. I find that a lot of photogs that shoot Indian/Hindu/South Asian weddings in general, are good at capturing color, but sometimes not so great at capturing the little nuances of the ceremony and the traditions. I understand this because its hard to understand the significance of every little moment if you don't know the culture well and have seen the many traditions a few times. I am floored by your ability to capture this moments and the way you have absorbed yourself into especially Indian culture.

 

I would be honored to meet you at some point in life and I am just _SO_ inspired by your work because I would love to do the same kind of thing but probably am too scared! If you ever had a photog workshop or tips or anything or even needed someone to carry your bags, I would be there in a second, because I would be so so so so so happy to just chat with you about your experiences, I'm so curious as to what you have learned simply by traveling (not even getting to the photography!).

 

Anyway, Seriously I have so much respect for you, and thank you. Thank you for describing and detailing my culture's traditions so well and capturing the heart of it. I'm sitting here so welled up with emotion from looking at your pictures and so happy to see photography that has so well illustrated so many traditions beloved to me. Someday when I get married, you have shot right to the top of my list of possible photographers.

 

Regards,

Tara"

And I wanted to share a few photos that show some more of the beauty of India.

Three beautiful children that loved to smile at our camera from the seat behind us on a bus ride to Jaisalmer.

Details from a Jain temple just outside of Jaisalmer.

A incredible alleyway in Jodhpur.

And an early evening shot of the main clocktower in Jodhpur.

That's all for now. Picking out and editing those photos has made me deeply, deeply miss India right now.  

Lauren  

Category: Check this out!

Tags: architecture, carving, children, india, jainism, jaisalmer, jodhpur, photography, portrait, street life, sunset, temple, travel

Are some of you out there dying to see more from the weddings and portrait sessions we did while in India and Vietnam? Well, we finally managed to get through all the photos and put some up on our website. So if you head on over to www.robandlauren.ca, click on "weddings" and then go into the "photos" gallery you will see a ton of listing in our "international flavour" section! Lots of previously unseen photos in there, so go and check it out!

To whet your appetite, here are some previously unseen photos from India.

Enjoy!

Lauren :) 

Category: Weddings

Tags: aarti, assam, destination wedding, flowers, hinduism, india, indian wedding photography, jalandhar, photography, portrait, punjab, sikhism, travel, weddings

Hey everyone! 

So we just finished our very first wedding of the year back home in Edmonton. It was a South Indian wedding, and I think we'll certainly have to post up some shots of that soon, because there were some really new traditions! But we ended up shooting for 18 hours yesterday, so we're obviously still a bit worn out! So that will come soon! For now I'll post up a couple new photos from the Taj Mahal shoot with Megha and Chakshu to tide you over!

Hope you enjoyed those! And check back soon for those new wedding pics! 

Category: Adventures

Tags: agra, indian wedding photography, photography, portrait, taj mahal, travel, weddings

Hey Everyone,
Thanks for dropping by! We returned home from our travels on the afternoon of April 5th, 2008. A common question asked of travelers is “What was it like?”. I smile at this question and think about how much things have changed for us and how different we have become simply by traveling from one place to another. I can really only suggest that they start this blog from the beginning to answer that question (a special thank-you to those of you who followed us all the way, shared in our laughter and provided encouragement when we were left without words or photos). I feel that our time spent in India has certainly provided great insight into a very beautiful culture, and that we will most certainly be drawing inspiration from this trip for many years to come—probably our lifetimes!

Anyways after traveling for so long we have a ton of great photos that would look great hanging on your wall! Man, that sounds cheesy! The truth is that right now our new house is pretty empty and we plan on filling a lot of the walls with beautiful prints and canvases of this trip. We figured a few of you out there might enjoy a little Wedding Travelers souvenir yourself so we’ve put together a gallery of some of our favorite photos available for purchase. Photos will be printed on either professional Kodak Endura Lustre paper or super awesome canvas and shipped to whatever cool place you call home. As mentioned before we will be donating 20% of the profits from these travel print sales to the Multiple Sclerosis society of Canada. Just click on the following link “I want a print!” , pick a few cool photos and then go find some warm cozy wall space for your new prints. If there is a photo found somewhere on this blog that you would like to purchase that’s not listed in this gallery then drop us a line and well make sure to add it. Also if you’re a graphic designer or would like to use our photos for any sort of commercial purpose than a hi-resolution file can be licensed and made available for download!

I know they've been posted already, but I just couldn't help posting a few of my favorites below that I think would look awesome as prints

We're never going to be able to decide what to get printed! Again, click here to see the whole gallery.

 With our wedding season about to take off we’ll be shifting our focus back to our regular photography blog. Please direct your attention there for a continuation of the mind blowing Rob & Lauren photography experience (I can’t say that with a straight face, who could?). All of that said, the Wedding Travelers will still receive regular blog updates (albeit less frequently). We would like to start featuring other cultural weddings. If you’ve shot a cultural wedding and would like to provide an article and a few snazzy snaps then we would love to post it on here! Please e-mail us to let us know what type of wedding you've shot and the details that make it so beautiful. We will also be posting little travel tips, maybe some short travel photography tutorials, as well as reviews from the places we’ve traveled. I think next winter we might try for either WT: South America or spend a couple months in Bombay (again!) so if you’re in either of those areas and interested in wedding photography be sure to get in touch with us.

It’s been a blast.

Cheers,
Rob & Lauren

Category: Check this out!

Tags: photography, weddings

Greetings all,

I thought today I would share a bit of a review of some of the gear we traveled with. The following video is pretty long, so unless you're a photographer or someone seriously interested in how we traveled with our equipment then I might suggest passing over this one!

A couple extras:

- One thing we took with us that was essential was a rocket blower and a great microfiber towel. Using your gear on a daily basis means it gets dirty fast (especially in India) and you need the tools to make sure everything stays clean.

- Those WD pocket drives are from Western Digital. The apple sticker on it was just something I threw on so that I could distinguish between all the drives.

- We did take a remote release cord which is pretty much essential when working with the tripod or gorillapod-- nobody likes waiting for the 2-10 second timer!

- We also took a couple demb flash diffusers with us which we sometimes use for indoor flash work.

If you have traveled with your gear, I would love to know what you felt was the most important piece of gear you brought with you. Also if you haven't traveled with your gear, what do you think would be the best thing to take? When we left on this trip I thought I had everything perfectly figured out, but after being gone for so long I realize that there must be a ton of great ways to travel with your gear. Leave a comment or send me an e-mail!

Cheers,

Rob

Category: Photography Tips

Tags: photography, tips, travel gear

So we woke up this morning to a really fantastic surprise! Our little video of Jodhpur, India (which incidentally was our favorite place we visited on our whole trip!) is featured on the front page of Viddler! Viddler is the really fantastic website we use for all our videos, so to be put on their front page is extremely exciting!

Make sure you visit the site today to see us on the front page! Just hit up www.viddler.com for a little extra dose of The Wedding Travelers!

Category: Adventures

Tags: photography, travel

Finally the time had come, and it was the day of the marriage ceremony. With Sikh weddings, the ceremony is supposed to be finished by noon, which always means an extremely early morning. We were up and ready and at Kimmi’s house by 6:00AM….We barely were even functioning! But we were able to get a really cute shot of this. It is tradition that the bride is lifted from the washroom by her uncle and brothers (and when I say brothers, I mean brothers in the Indian sense, which is really just any male cousins around her age).



Then as she ran off to the salon to get ready all the boys had their turbans tied. It’s really a funny process and I enjoyed getting to see it done! (I'm usually with the girls side, and have never seen it before!)


A quick cat nap for us as everyone finished getting ready, and then off to the location! It was just flat out incredible, an enormous colourful tent full of majestic benches and fans taller than a person!



The ladies were all waiting anxiously for the groom to arrive.



And when he arrived he arrived in style! There was a marching band that brought him in, complete with bagpipes, which were a bit strange to see in India, but neat nonetheless.



When the groom arrives his face is covered by the Sehra, which are garlands made of tinsel, beads, or sometimes even fresh flowers. He also carries a long sword, and I think he looks absolutely downright impressive!



Then the band threw up some ribbons and petals and marched around Harsimran and his mother as they greeted Kimmi’s family.



A nice shot of that sword.



Then the Milni took place. It involves the corresponding male members from each family (ie. Kimmi’s maternal uncle and Harsimran’s maternal uncle) greeting each other, putting flower garlands over each others neck…



And sometimes they take turns to lift each other way up in the air!


A close up of those garlands


Harsimran’s brother looks so happy in this shot, I love it.



And as this all went on Harsimran looked on.



Then, after the Milni was finished, it was time for the gals to have their fun. All the sisters and female cousins strung a long ribbon across the entrance to the tent to keep Harsimran from getting in.



He then had to bargain with them to get in. I’m not sure how much he had to pay, but in the end the girls all cheered loudly so I’m sure they were well compensated ;)



After everyone had some great breakfast the close family and the army of photographers and videographers headed off to the gurdwara for the actual marriage ceremony.



A few details from the ceremony. This is a chaur sahib, which they use to fan the book.


And the book itself: the Guru Granth Sahib. The text is treated as the eternal Guru of the Sikhs. It is not an object that is worshipped, but rather it guides Sikhs in prayer and worship. The text contains over 5000 shabhads, or hymns, that are set to classic music, which is why there is always music during Sikh ceremonies.


Here are the musicians playing.



One of the important parts of the ceremony is when the bride and groom walk around the book. This is similar to when they walk around the sacred fire in the Hindu ceremony, but here the bride is lead and helped along by her brothers as she makes her way around.


A neat shot of them walking.



Kimmi looked so happy and peaceful.



And the setting was so lovely.



One great thing was that all of the women were wearing different shades of pink. It looks so beautiful.



As I've just learned, there is no such thing as a priest in the Sikh religion. Rather, there is what is known as a granthi, who is someone who reads from the Guru Granth Sahib and takes care of it. Anyone can be a granth, as well as either gender. This is the granthi from Kimmi and Harsimran's ceremony. You can see that the Guru Granth Sahib is always covered overhead, and is on a raised platform. Everyone sits on the ground, at a lower level than the book, to show their respect.



Two of Kimmi’s fathers friends, who are holy men, attended the ceremony and blessed the new couple.



A neat shot of the whole setting.



Then after the ceremony was finished, the couple returned to the tent to see all of their guests. This time when they entered Kimmi was alongside Harsimran and his family.

It was a spectacular entrance. Kimmi told me she had wanted a ton of flower petals thrown on her, and she certainly got that.



And, of course, there was a bit of dancing.



But even though so much of the wedding is full of happiness, these weddings also have a ceremony marked by strong emotions. It is called the Doli, and it signifies the bride leaving her parents house to join her husband. We have, on many occasions, had a Doli that wasn’t too sad, but in many cases, as in this one, the couple plans to move very far away from home (these two are moving to California in a month) and so you can imagine how intense the feelings were. Kimmi was definitely overtaken by the emotion.



She and Harsimran sat together as they were fed sweets. But now that they were married they were finally able to hold hands.



And then they walked outside. Kimmi threw puffed rice behind her to signify prosperity, and the returning of what her parents have given her over all the years.

Then she got into the doli, which was carried by her male cousins. Her brother stood at the front to carry his sister away.



It was certainly very emotional, walking down the street as she was followed by her whole family.



Harsimran walked along beside her.


Kimmi and her father hugged goodbye.



And her brother led her to the car.


But not without a last hug from her mother.



Everyone was caught up in the emotion.



And then as the car drove off all her brothers and cousins pushed it away.





And one last one of the grandmas just hugging each other, a sweet way to end such a wonderful wedding.

At the end here I'd like to say an enormous thank you from Rob and myself to Kimmi, Harsimran, and their families for allowing us to be a part of this, and to Kimmi's family for taking such good care of us throughout the whole week. We were once again treated just like family, and always well looked after, and we couldn't have asked for more caring hosts. To our friends, the Mahajans, who let us stay in their palacial home, and were so kind and giving, an enormous thank you. And to everyone we met there, thank you for your friendship. I'm positive we'll all meet again some day! 

And that’s a Sikh wedding. I’ll probably be adding to this once I get home, since there are many more photos to add, but I hope you all learned something and enjoyed this! And as always, if you see anything that I got wrong, or anything I should add, please feel free to let me know! We’re all learning here ☺

Anyway, Rob and I are probably on a plane right now on our way home back to Canada. We really can’t believe it’s over already, and at the same time we can’t believe how long we’ve been gone from home. Things won’t end here, as we have much more to add to this website. We have reviews from our travels, of our gear, and where we stayed. We have hundreds more photos to share with you, and more descriptions of different weddings to fill you in on. So please stay tuned, and give us a shout if you have any suggestions. We can’t believe all the support we got throughout this whole trip, and want to extend a very heart-felt thank you to all of you who read along, even if you never commented! We weren’t doing this blog for ourselves, but rather to maybe spread the word about how cool Indian weddings can be, and how gorgeous this whole world is. I hope we succeeded!

Huge hugs and kisses from us, and when you hear from us next we’ll be back home! Yay!

Love,

Lauren & Rob

Category: Weddings

Tags: doli, gurdwara, guru granth sahib, india, indian wedding photography, jalandhar, photography, punjab, sikhism, travel, weddings

The next day was one of the most fun parts of an Indian wedding: the mendhi! Mendhi, more commonly known as henna, is a form of body beautification. A paste is made up of dried leaves of the henna flower, and then it is applied to the hands. When the paste first goes on and is wet it appears dark green.



As the paste dries, it turns black, and gets hard.



In order to let the colour get darker, you need to leave the paste on as long as you can. You can put on a mixture of lemon juice and sugar to keep the paste moist and sticking on the skin.



The designs are always different, and each hand is different. It’s really good fun to see all the ladies going around and comparing their patterns.


Here’s a shot of me that Rob really likes and wanted me to put up! You can see that I got my hands all covered in mendhi too, my favorite part of Indian weddings :)



The house was looking fab.



Then the girls started getting ready for the Maya. They made up a decorative design out of coloured powder to place in front of Kimmi’s feet.


It started off with Kimmi’s mom putting some oil in Kimmi’s hair with a small bunch of grass.



Then everyone took turns applying a paste made up of turmeric powder (which is called haldi in Hindi. If you’ve read my article on Hindu weddings you’ll realize that this Maya ceremony is essentially the same as the Haldi ceremony, just a different name for Punjabis!) and water.



Even covered with yellow goo, Kimmi still looked gorgeous and oh-so-happy.



Her mom tied a special bracelet around her wrist.


All the female sisters and cousins helped out.



Then it was time for the Chura ceremony. The chura are the special red and beige bracelets that a bride wears. Generally they are worn for as along as possible after the wedding. For some brides it is for a few days, for others it is a few months. Here the male uncles all touch the chura as they sit in a bowl of milk.


Then the brides maternal uncle puts the chura on.



And by now you should know what comes next. Party! Kimmi and her dad had a great time dancing together, with her mom looking on between them.


Even the grandmas get into the action.



Wedding houses are always lit up with gorgeous lights. Check out how spectacular the house looked.



And finally the kalirehs were tied on by the female cousins and sisters.



Kimmi hits her kalirehs above the heads of her un-married cousins for good luck, in hopes that they will get married soon.



According to a Indian bridal magazing we picked up here in Delhi, the shape of the kalirehs has a symbolic meaning. The top is shaped like a coconut, to show that the bride will always have food in her new home. There are metal pieces hanging from it, to show that she will always have wealth.


And a final shot of her gorgeous chura against her beautiful mendhi.



At this point all the events leading up to the big day had been completed. You could just sense the anticipation, as people tried to head to bed early for the wedding ahead. That means that dinner was held at 9:00 PM, instead of 11:00 PM! Lol. Indian people definitely tend to stay up late! We ducked out early, since we knew that we’d be getting up around 5:00 AM, and needed a ton of sleep. And it was well worth it, because the next day was just spectacular. Stay tuned for that!

Category: Weddings

Tags: chura, dancing, haldi, indian wedding photography, jalandhar, kalirehs, maya, mendhi, photography, punjab, sikhism, travel, weddings

The next day we got to rest during the day, which was much needed after the very long first day. And then it was time for the ladies’ Sangeet. Here everyone was really dressed in his or her finest and ready for a fun evening. Originally the Sangeet was only for the ladies, but these days both men and women attend, although the groom generally doesn’t come.

They started off the evening with a great round of dandia, a dance where they hit sticks together. I know that sounds strange, but it really looks like great fun.



This time the colour scheme was bright pink.



Kimmi’s younger brother was a fantastic dancer.



And everyone enjoyed bopping to some bhangra


Then they enjoyed the Jaggo dance. Here the ladies take turns holding a pot with lit candles on top of it, as they dance and twirl.





There is always great music and rhythm for these events. On the right side of this shot you can see a guy playing a dhol, and on the left side of the shot you can see a woman who is banging a stick against a big wooden tray. Tons of noise and fun.



Rob loves this shot. These guys asked for a posed shot, but we got this instead and find it so much more energetic. It’s like they are bursting out of the photo.



And to end off the night Kimmi’s brother (the one in the red) hopped up on stage and treated us all to a song.



And that’s the Sangeet! A time for everyone to have fun together, eat some great food, and dance and laugh before the wedding starts and everyone is stressed about getting things done on time.

Next up: the Mendhi, Maya, and Chura ceremonies

Category: Weddings

Tags: dancing, india, indian wedding photography, jaggo, jalandhar, photography, punjab, sangeet, sikhism, travel, weddings

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

Hey everyone!

Right now we're in Jalandhar, smack dab in the middle of our Indian wedding. It's been crazy so far, and we're enjoying every minute of it. There will be some photos coming up really soon, we just need to find free time, which is ever so scarce during a wedding :)

For now we'll show you some random photos and videos from the past few days!

Here are a couple videos from Amritsar that we didn't get to post, due to incredibly slow internet connections.

First, a little video from the Golden Temple. We’ve shot a couple of Sikh weddings in Edmonton, and I’ve always deeply enjoyed the ceremonies because of the use of fantastic music. At the temple it was no different, as 4 men sing and chant continuously, reading from the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib. Here’s a video to give you a sense of the music and the setting.

Amazing isn't it?

And then for something that can only really be described via video: the border closing. We showed you photos, but honestly it's not enough. It was the most hilarious sight, really. The guards would stamp their feet, kick their legs insanely high, and then speed walk like-you-wouldn’t-believe towards the border. I’m so glad Rob got a great video of it going on, because it’s something that photos alone just can’t properly describe.

Now for the photos let's start off with Holi. Holi is a huge festival in India. It is known as the Festival of Colours, and basically consists of people running around, throwing paint and coloured powder on each other. It is celebrating to signify the coming of spring. Generally people can get pretty wild, so we kept a low profile, but did manage to get a few shots of the crazy young men covered in colour.

Then we made the drive from Amritsar to Jalandhar. Here are a few neat photos from the drive.

I find this absolutely hilarious, and I think many of my friends will as well. But if you don't get it, don't worry. :)

It's crazy how the men will ride on top of buses speeding down the highways.

And they share the roads with cows, bicycles, motorbikes, and even huge tractors!

Then we made it to Jalandhar, and met up with the family hosting the wedding. We've met them before in Canada, so it was absolutely fantastic to see so many familiar faces! And one of the funniest things is that they have a copy of the very first album we ever made (which is still the album we show to all our clients, believe it or not!). It was a pretty weird situation to see all these people here in India looking through the album that we have looked through hundreds of time back home.

Then while we were waiting we were taken for a tour of the nearby Kidney Hospital, where the father of the bride works as a kidney specialist. It was kind of weird, to be taken to all the Restricted Access areas of a hospital (including the ICU, NICU, Blood Storage Room, and the Kidney Stone Crushing Machine Room....no, that's not the technical term). But it was very interesting to see what an Indian hospital is like (albeit a private Indian hospital). We just took a couple of quick snaps but here ya go anyway.

Then while we were waiting to head off to a function, I took a quick shot of Rob wearing some snazzy new clothes he got for the wedding. Doesn't he look great? And for only $31 Canadian for the shirt, pants, belt and shoes. Rock on.

And finally we hopped in a car, and were driven to a wedding, hosted by friends of the family we are staying with. Honestly, I can barely even describe it, it was mind-blowing. More than we had ever seen or expected. First off we saw what we had dreamed of seeing - an elephant at a wedding!

Then we walked inside and just couldn't believe it. It was enormous, with probably around 1000 people there.

The groom is the one with the tall feather on his turban. 

Just crazy.

So there's a few photos to tide you over until we get some up from this wedding. Hope you are all doing well. We'll be back home in less than two weeks now, and honestly can't wait. We really miss our cat, Scooter!!! Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen??

Who wouldn't miss that cutie?? (Photo credit to Steph, my sister, who sent us this while we were traveling. It's currently our desktop background, and we say hello and give him pets all the time.....yeah we really miss him!) 

Category: Adventures

Tags: amritsar, border closing, elephant, festival, golden temple, holi, india, photography, sikhism, travel, weddings

After all our time in Delhi doing major photo shoots we were pretty photo’ed out. It’s been nearly 3 months of traveling and shooting, and we’re definitely starting to get pretty tired. So when we got to Amritsar I don’t think we took out our cameras for a couple days! It was nice to spend some time just wandering and shopping (we bought some pretty cool stuff, but we’re going to keep it a surprise until we get home and show our family! They aren’t going to believe how crazy we are, lol!)

Anyway, it’s definitely not like there isn’t anything to shoot in Amritsar, and once we mustered up the energy to do some shooting, we saw a pretty amazing thing. But let’s look at the photos, shall we?

First, since we keep talking about train travel but haven’t shown you anything, I’ll show you a quick snap from our train trip between Delhi and Amritsar. It was the first time we were able to book a 1AC seat. The classes on trains start with 1AC being the most luxurious, then 2AC, 3AC, and then 2nd class, which is completely unreserved, free-for-all seating. We’ve traveled in 3AC (not so fun, and pretty cramped), 2AC (better, with more space) and 1AC (totally awesome!). We never got up the courage to do the whole 2nd Class business, especially with all our expensive gear. Maybe one day, but not on this trip! Anyway, this is 1AC, and a 9 hour ride in one of these cars cost around $60 Canadian for both of us. Not too shabby at all!



In the midst of our shopping we took time to go to the “classiest restaurant in Amritsar”, as dubbed by The Lonely Planet. It was definitely a really nice place, with great food. Since we’re talking money in this post so far I’ll give you an idea of what a fancy meal out costs here. We ordered two mocktails, a large bottle of mineral water, two appetizers, two main courses, a pot of amazing Darjeeling tea, and a sizzling brownie (shown in the picture below, a brownie on a really hot plate with sauce drizzled over it so that it bubbled and steamed, yum!). The total cost was around 800 Rupees, which is $20 Canadian. Still can’t get over the conversions for things here!



And then we packed up the cameras and it was time to see the main sight of Amritsar: the famous Golden Temple.



This is the most holy gurdwara (Sikh temple) in the world, and attracts pilgrims from all over. Our hotel is very very close to the temple, and so we always see constant streams of people walking down the street towards it. Upon entering the complex, you take off your shoes, cover your head, and wash your feet. Then you step inside to see the amazing golden structure in the middle of a huge pond of water.



The water even has a bunch of huge fish in it!



It’s really an amazing sight, and I thought it was one of the most incredible things I’ve seen this trip.



We went around sunset and were rewarded with some really cool sights.



One of the really great things about Sikhism is that it is welcoming of people of all classes. They have a huge free kitchen that cooks dhal (lentils), rice and chapattis (bread) for about 40,000 people each day.





The dome of the temple is made up of around 750Kg of pure gold.


It was a very serene and peaceful setting.




It was really a must-see stop in India.



The temple is connected to the outer building by a huge walkway that is continuously packed with people waiting to go inside the temple to pray and offer prasad (a sweet food that is blessed in the temple). No photos were allowed once we got on to the walkway, but here’s a shot showing you the front of the temple.



And then for something with a completely different feel to it: the closing ceremony of the India-Pakistan border. We took a taxi out to the border at Attari/Wagah, which is about an hour from Amritsar. It’s really a huge deal out there! The guards were all elaborately dressed, and extremely tall (some were probably close to 7 ft tall!) and towered over Rob who stands in at 6 ft.



It has become something of a competition between the Indians and the Pakistanis to celebrate the most for their country at the closing. On the Indian side there was dancing breaking out (you know you’re in Punjab when….)


A neat shot of one of the guards


The huge crowd was waiting with much anticipation for the ceremony to start


And then it was time! It was the most hilarious sight, really. The guards would stamp their feet, kick their legs insanely high, and then speed walk like-you-wouldn’t-believe towards the border.



They performed with such severity, and yet looked pretty funny at the same time, it was great.



The crowd was totally into it. The announcer would yell “HINDUSTAN!” (which means India) and everyone would respond with “ZINDABAN!” and throw their fists up in the air. It means "Long Live India!" or "India Rules!", and they were certainly having fun saying it! (love vibes to both Geeta and Manju for helping me out with the translation!)


I couldn’t believe how high they could kick. It was tough to get a good shot, since they did it so fast, but here’s a snap.


And then they lowered the flags.


All good fun! We drove back to Amritsar, and then grabbed our mini-tripod and headed back to the Golden Temple for a couple of night shots. I finish up the post with those.





And that’s Amritsar! Tomorrow we leave for Jalandher, to attend a weeklong Punjabi Sikh wedding. It’s going to be great fun, and we’re really excited. Hopefully we’ll be able to find both an internet connection and some free time while we’re there to keep you posted. If not, you’ll hear from us next when we return to Delhi on the 28th for a few last days in India before we fly to Singapore, and then home at last. I can’t believe I’m already starting to detail the end of this trip, especially when we just got so many new followers thanks to the Taj session, but don’t cry everyone. We’re hoping to keep posting a new shot every week, from our thousands and thousands of photos that we took and never blogged, so the fun will continue, even when we return home. And I have a few articles to write, so much more to come. Until then, we still have two weeks left in traveling, and thousands more photos to take, so it’s not over until it’s over!

Lauren ☺

Category: Adventures

Tags: amritsar, architecture, border closing, golden temple, india, photography, travel, wagah/attari border