Shounak and Liz have a backyard Indian wedding ceremony

On a day that the local weather gods decided to give us all a break from the almost constant rain, Liz and Shounak had a fantastic wedding ceremony in the backyard of Shounak’s house in Redmond.  There was some doubt right up until the afternoon of the wedding whether or not the ceremony would need to be held indoors, but I guess we simply lucked out.

When I arrived at Shounak’s house, Liz was still getting ready.  Indian wedding clothes are gorgeous, but the sari is a bit more complicated more complicated than the typical Western style wedding dress.  Especially if you are not used to wearing a sari!

Shounak’s mother was there to help, and along with help from her own mother Liz managed to get the sari fitted correctly, as well as all of the gorgeous bracelets and necklace.  The henna work on Liz’s hand was incredible!  You’ll see some close up shots of her hands and jewelry below.

Once Liz was ready, we moved outdoors where Shounak was waiting for his First Look of his bride-to-be in her wedding garb. Then it was time for the actual wedding to begin.

I have photographed a couple dozen Indian ceremonies (you can see one of my Seattle Indian Wedding Ceremonies by clicking here), and they are always a lot of fun.  Very different from Western ceremonies, they typically take 2-3 hours or even longer to complete.  Liz and Shounak decided to do a condensed version, designed to take about 30 minutes, a bit of a hybrid mix of Indian and Western traditions.

Once the ceremony was over everyone moved indoors for a fantastic lunch of Indian food.  It isn’t very often that I get a chance to eat goat meat; it is quite tasty!

After lunch everyone headed for Meydenbauer Bay Park for some group photos.  We had to endure some pretty severe winds, with gusts easily hitting 20-25mph.  But otherwise the conditions were great for photos, some of which you’ll now have a chance to see below!