With all the preliminaries out of the way, Day 3 of Ashmita and Kevin’s wedding was all about the main event. Their Northern Virginia Hindu wedding ceremony was everything that is special and fantastic about Indian marriage celebrations. It was a spectacle – big and bold and colorful and festive. At the same time, it was about the closeness and intimacy of family. About joining two families together. And about welcoming new members into the inner circle at the heart of a nuclear family. On what was the longest day in this nearly weeklong wedding, our Westfields Marriott Indian wedding photos captured all of this. All of the pageantry, all of the colors, all of the little moments and all of the emotions.
Getting Dressed for Northern Virginia Hindu Wedding Ceremony
We started with Ashmita and Kevin relatively early, capturing images of them getting into their wedding ceremony clothes. The photographic highlights of that part of the day included stunning bridal portraits of Ashmita, touching images of the bride’s mother arranging her daughter’s wedding sari and photos of the henna designs on the groom’s hand that featured Ashmita’s name prominently.
Once they were ready, the bride and groom shared a lovely first look in the Westfields Marriott’s unique atrium space. With its numerous mirrors and wraparound balcony, that part of the hotel offers some fun and interesting angles and perspectives. We then did a quick round of family formal pictures, followed by a few couple’s portraits of Ashmita and Kevin.
Traditional Sehra Bandi in Preparation for Hindu Wedding Ceremony
At that point, it was time for the more traditional wedding ceremony events to begin. The first was the sehra bandi ritual. For those unfamiliar with this part of a Hindu wedding, it is the attaching of a ceremonial bead veil to the groom’s turban. Like the haldi paste, the veil is there to ward off the evil eye and other bringers of bad luck. It also prevents the couple from seeing each other before the wedding ceremony.
Normally, the groom’s female relatives are responsible for putting the veil on. However, Kevin’s family was unable to come from France for the wedding due to COVID-related issues. So Ashmita’s family filled in. Kevin and the bride’s family gathered in a small conference room away from the din of the arriving guests. Ashmita’s father first placed the wedding turban on his son-in-law’s head. The hug and kiss he gave Kevin after were another reminder of how much he had come to view the younger man as his son. Then the rest of the family helped attach the beaded veil.
Arrival at Westfields Marriott Indian Wedding Ceremony with Festive Baraat
Once Kevin was fully ready to go, he and his best man headed outdoors for the baraat or groom’s wedding procession. Indian grooms traditionally arrive at their wedding riding a horse. Ashmita and Kevin put a fun (and for reasons we’ll get into later, romantic) spin on this by adding another horse and attaching both sturdy animals to a charming carriage. As we’ve mentioned elsewhere on our website, we are passionate animal lovers. So naturally, we tried to creatively work the horses into our shots whenever possible.
The best of those images (in our opinion) featured those horses in the foreground with the groom and his best man hugging the latter’s girlfriend in the background. Though the temperatures that day were not horribly cold, they were still brisk enough to be slightly uncomfortable. The best man’s girlfriend certainly struggled to stay warm, so Kevin and his best man pressed together to keep her insulated.
The cold also had the wedding guests more than ready to get the Baraat going. So as soon as Dynasty AVE rolled up with their van and sound system, the celebration began. The DJ and MC quickly got the crowd dancing and jumping with a mix of Punjabi and Bollywood hits. We waded out into the roiling madness and captured literally hundreds of pictures of guests announcing Kevin’s arrival through dance.
The party went up a notch when Kevin made it to the hotel’s front door. He descended into the crowd, where the bride’s family officially greeted him. In spite of the cold, Ashmita’s relatives matched the festive spirit of the groom’s procession beat for beat and dance for dance. Some of the craziest pictures we took during this entire Westfields Marriott Indian wedding came from that ten-minute period when everyone was letting loose in celebration.
Ashmita and Kevin’s Northern Virginia Hindu Wedding Ceremony
Once Kevin was inside the wedding venue, there was a brief ceremony in the atrium in which the bride’s and groom’s sides officially greeted one another. The meeting itself was short and direct. But it was also sweet, as all could see how much Ashmita’s parents already considered him a part of the family. The photographic highlight of that part of the day, though, came at the end. Ashmita and Kevin again took advantage of the Westfields Marriott’s unique atrium space. As the ceremony concluded, friends of the bride’s mother showered flower petals down from the aforementioned wraparound second-floor balcony.
After all this, it was finally time for Ashmita and Kevin to tie the knot. (As is always the case with Hindu wedding ceremonies, that happens quite literally!) Once the groom, groomspeople, bridesmaids, bride’s siblings and bride’s mother came in and got settled on the stage, Ashmita made her big entrance. The crowd roared as she and her father made their way down the raised runway and up to the sacred fire.
That festive energy continued throughout their Northern Virginia Hindu wedding ceremony. The priest bounced from the sacred duty of marrying Ashmita and Kevin, and the more lighthearted task of entertaining the guests. In our experience, there is a certain looseness to Indian marriage celebrations. But this one went to a different level. The guests laughed heartily and shouted answers to some of the humorous questions the priest posed.
What really stood out, though, was the love. This was no sterile exchange of vows. Ashmita and Kevin’s wedding truly was the coming-together of two families to form a new whole. The love and affection that Ashmita’s parents had for their new son was on a level we haven’t ever seen before.
Vidaai Sendoff in Romantic Horse-Drawn Carriage
The third day of Ashmita and Kevin’s marriage celebrations concluded with a traditional vidaai. In this traditional ceremony, the bride bids farewell to her family and goes to live in her husband’s household. The emotional tenor of this ritual is usually a bittersweet mix of joyful and sad. As happy as the bride is to start her new life, she often sheds a few tears as she says goodbye to those closest to her.
Ashmita’s vidaai, however, was nothing but celebratory. She and Kevin exited the ceremony ballroom with a crowd of relatives in tow. As is the custom at Punjabi weddings, the bride tossed puffed rice backwards over her head as she walked. Some of our favorite images from that part of their wedding ceremony day captured the grains of rice raining down into the camera.
Waiting outside for the newlyweds was the horse-drawn carriage from the baraat. The couple climbed aboard, posed for a few selfies and waved goodbye to their family and friends. They then snuggled together closely and enjoyed a romantic lap around the parking lot. As is often the case in modern Indian weddings, their vidaai ended exactly where it started. Which meant that they could get the post-ceremony celebrations started immediately!
The festivities really got going the next day during their Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles wedding reception, though. Read all about that here.
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