A Covid Wedding Story

In a year that has been very different for weddings of the world, this young couple altered their Covid19 wedding in beautiful fashion. Meet Shyaan and Abir, they were to have a two day wedding with 400 people in attendance, yes you heard correct, I said four hundred people! When planning for their wedding (before covid hit) the couple and I went over the details and we designed a three person team to photograph the wedding on day one and day two.

As the months went on and their wedding approached covid19 entered the picture, Shyaan and Abir decided to do the opposite of what most couples have been doing, that being rescheduling for next summer. Instead this couple decided it was more important to get married now, and in turn scale down their 400 person wedding to 30.

Shyaan was all smiles when he saw his soon to be bride for the first time in her wedding dress.

After the first look just steps away from the Blackhawk Museum we walked to several areas with beautiful backgrounds and all within steps of each other, which the couple appreciated considering they were in full length clothing and it was 90 degrees outside.

I tend to photograph weddings using lighting equipment as much as possible. Above and below I used a high powered studio strobe to match the power of the mid afternoon sun and create saturated images you usually see closer to sunset.

My team and I also photographed the couple in the ‘bright and airy’ style, below I set up the couple so that the background would blow out and the attention would be on them.

After the pre wedding bride & groom photoshoot we headed to the bride’s family home in Pleasanton to get ready for the backyard ceremony.

Abir touched up her makeup while I photographed details of her wedding dress and decor.

I had just a few minutes to spare before the ceremony and quickly set up these two portraits, both were shot using natural light and a 50mm prime lens.

Then it was time for the groom and his side of the family to enter the backyard ceremony, followed by the bride and her side of the family.

Since this ceremony had to be smaller than originally planned the couple streamed the entire wedding to local family and family in Pakistan via Zoom.

Here I used a mirror to reflect a double image onto the cameras sensor.

An establishing shot is something we always do, sometimes the environment lends us the chance to make a five photo panoramic stitched picture, depicted below.

The mother of the groom was very proud of the couple as they looked into a mirror for the first time, which is customary in Pakistani weddings.

The bride’s brother gave the couple a ceremonial drink of tea.

and then they exchanged rings..

After the ceremony we photographed formal family pictures while racing the coming of nightfall; and quickly captured the bride and groom’s first portraits as a married couple.

As we were finishing up portraits in the front yard one of the family members rolled up in a new Porsche Boxster and handed the couple the keys.

We then made a few more portraits using a softbox in the backyard.

I learned something new during this wedding. In Pakistani weddings it’s a tradition for the friends, siblings and cousins to steal the shoe of the groom right off of his foot and to make him negotiate a price to have his shoe returned and his wedding day ensemble complete again.

As I followed the intense negotiation with my camera I couldn’t help but laugh at what I was witnessing, I looked around and the adults were laughing and eventually stepped in and coaxed the younger generation to wrap it up.

When it was all said and done the groom was several Benjamins lighter, a partial cash payment and Venmo sealed the deal and the shoe was returned to the groom.

The couple left their wedding and said their goodbyes to their parents and extended family.

but before I could let Shyaan and Abir speed off into the night sky I had to take advantage of the beautiful sports car parked out front and take one last portrait. Here I set up one strobe inside the center console of the car (Shyaan actually held the strobe for me) to light the couple and one was on top of my camera.

The very next evening the wedding festivities continued at the groom’s families house in Danville. They came up with a fantastic way to include more family and friends without putting themselves at risk to covid19. They had a beautiful photo station in the driveway for the arriving families to take pictures with the couple, followed by a take home box of desserts.

They also had an Indian and Pakistani food truck make every guest a take home dinner (it was delicious btw).

Once the bright backlit sun fell behind the hillside I was able to get in closer and attach a softbox to my strobe for this warm bride and groom portrait.

as the sun was setting we rounded the corner and looked for the last bit of warm sunlight and then headded back to the house.

but not before a quick game of hoop.

The night ended with the bride and groom’s immediate families having a warm weather backyard dinner while watching pre recorded well wishes from family on their movie screen.

Now this is one creative wedding Shyaan and Abir put together. They plan to still throw a big reception in the future when the time is right, but this photographer who has seen his fair share of weddings was impressed by their covid inspired wedding creativity.