ELEGANT WEDDING DECOR

What stunning decor Mehdi and Amina created for Jaynika and Boney's wedding at the Hilton Washington Dulles Hotel!  Their company Event Envy specializes in furniture, fabrics, and lighting for Indian and South Asian weddings and parties in the greater DC metropolitan area.  

In contemporary wedding photography, it is important to document the wedding and reception decor artistically, since the overall setting and details are essential to the bride and groom's story.  Skillful choice of lens, camera settings, lighting, and composition enable the storytelling photographer to create images that invite the viewer back into those memory-filled spaces.

Jaynika and Boney's wedding was a Gujarati wedding.  The bride dreamed of a special mandap design with crystals and richly textured fabrics in colors complementary to her ivory and maroon wedding dress.  Mehdi and Amina designed the mandap around authentic Indian furniture.  They created a crystal backdrop framed by ropes of hanging crystals at each end.  To match the crystal motif, they crafted a custom havan kundi with a sparkling sheen and, as a final flourish, decorated each corner of the mandap with glittering silver mesh.  Truly a beautiful setting for a beautiful ceremony!

For the reception, the bride and groom wanted decor that was simple, open, more subdued in color, but still elegant.  Mehdi and Amina chose a gold, carved, French-style loveseat as the focal point and, for the backdrop, selected a complementary, gold sheer embroidered fabric with a neutral ivory backing.  Classically draped, the elegant fabrics provided the quiet luxurious look their clients wanted.  

Mehdi and Amina also designed the romantic uplighting, which beautifully enhanced and finished the decor.  

To preserve the lovely lighting and mood, I decided to photograph the rooms using the existing light only.  To capture high-quality images in subdued light, I placed the camera on a tripod and used a slow shutter speed and relatively high ISO setting.  Taking the time to do a custom white balance ensured that the colors captured in the photographs were true to life.  

I took photographs of the overall decor using a wide-angle lens set to a moderate aperture.  This allowed sharpness to be maintained throughout the important parts of the image.  I then took photographs of the details using a telephoto lens set to a wide-open aperture.  Using selective focus techniques, I created crisp images of the details isolated against soft, out-of-focus backgrounds.  Working to get a variety of strong images, I photographed the decor from different heights, angles and perspectives.  

When the setting is so beautiful and full of meaning for the bride and groom, one photograph is never enough to tell the entire story!