This week’s blog is a doozy! Our couple is Nisha and Akshay and their two-day Atlanta wedding at The Foundry at Puritan Mill.  As an Atlanta wedding photographer I love Indian weddings!  They are colorful and full of beautiful attire and multiple fun ceremonies.  

All the ceremonies were held at the historic Puritan Mill.   It was built in 1921 and was operated by a Puritan chemical company.   In 1996 the property was bought and turned into a mixed use facility.  The wedding venue portion of the build is 12,000 square feet.  This large space can be easily converted for any occasion. 

The first night was the Sangeet, the word means sung together from Sanskrit. It is one of the many pre-wedding events that happen before a Hindu, Punjabi and Gujarati wedding.   This ceremony has been adopted by regions of India and is a celebration for the wedding to come. It is a joyous celebration, it is one of my favorite ceremonies.  The guests perform for the bride and groom.   You will sometimes see dance routines inspired from Bollywood movies.  That night there were a couple of dances by the aunts and uncles.  There was also a beautiful song sung by the bride’s uncle. After the performances the guests danced into the night.

The next morning started early at the groom’s room at the HIlton downtown.  There he and his brother had a professional turban wrapper come to the room to make their turbans. Once the brothers had their turbans we headed over to the Puritan Mill.  There the bride was still getting ready and they were still decorating.  After about a half an hour people started to trickle in from the hotel for the Baraat.  The baraat is a celebration of the groom’s arrival to the wedding.  It is where all the guests parade and dance on the way to the wedding.  For this event the DJ was DJJazz who had a specially made van with speakers and played music in front of the prade.  He even had a drummer who had a Meinl drum with a hammer stick.  These drums are often used in celebrations in India.  They danced and arrived at the wedding where the groom performed an akshat which is a special rice toss ceremony where he is presented garland from the bride's family and his family.  He is also presented with a lit lamp or arati and he is administered a talak or dot on his forehead. After that the guests took their place for the wedding ceremony.

The groom and his parents were escorted to the wedding mandap or wedding altar which is a tent-like structure adorned with flowers and drapery.  Under the mandap are a set of chairs on each side for the bride’s parents and the groom’s parents.  In the middle of the mandap is usually a small altar where there is a flame that is burning and different elements are added to it during the ceremony.  There was a sheet put in front of the groom so he would not see the bride when she arrived.  The bride came in escorted by her uncles and walked to the mandap with her parents.  Once the bride was in place,  the sheet came down and she was revealed to the groom. There the wedding ceremony was performed and the couple were joined together with a symbolic knot of cloth and necklace.  Rice”a symbol of prosperity” and the number 7 is represented a lot during this time.  There are 7 prayers, 7 stones and seven leaves are also represented during the ceremony.  Once the final prayers and blessings are done the couple are married and the guests rejoice! After the ceremony there are the family photos and everyone gets their photos with the bride and groom.  Then the wedding couple exited the wedding venue where they hopped into a sports car and the vidaai ceremony was performed.  The Vidaai is where the bride officially leaves her parents and is a symbolic end to the wedding festivities.  

Once the bride and groom left the wedding venue another team came to the Puritan Mill to set up for the wedding reception.  The team installed new decorations and a completely new table set up that encompassed the whole facility with food stations and two bars.  They even installed a new stage, lighting and a dance floor with lights built into it.  This team did that in 4 hours and were complete pros!

Around 6pm the guests started to arrive.  They ate hors d'oeuvres, looked at the seating and got drinks.  The couple arrived through a side door and we did their wedding photos during this time. The reception opened up and the guests filled the room.  Once in place the wedding party and couple were announced.  There was the customary bride and groom dance, the father daughter dance,and the groom and mother dance.  The master of ceremonies, who was the bride's brother, announced it was time to eat.  Once everyone was served the maid of honor and best man gave toasts.  Then there was an awesome dance presented to the guests and couple from the bridesmaids and the flower girl. Once this was done the roof was raised and the party did not stop until 1 am the next day! It was a busy beautiful two days full of family, friends and a celebration of love between two people.

Thanks for checking out this Atlanta wedding photographers blog! I hope you enjoyed the read and that it inspired you with some new ideas. Make sure you keep coming back to our blog to see what the Atlanta wedding photographers at Atlanta Artistic Weddings are up to! If you’d like to contact me go to the contact page and drop me a line at https://www.atlantaartisticweddings.com/contact-atlanta-wedding-photographer. I would love to hear from you!

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