Alternative asian Mehndi and wedding in Tatton Park

25 Feb

So then, there are small weddings with just a handful of guests, then there are larger weddings. Typically, I’d say the average wedding I tend to shoot last about 10 hours, and has about 120 guests. With that in mind, there are also much larger weddings, and *then* there was Anooshe and Edmunds wedding… Wow. You could call it an asian wedding, on the basis it started with a Mehndi, but this was certainly an alternative asian Mehndi and wedding in Tatton Park. They didn’t want posed, staged images throughout the day, they wanted a story to their amazing adventure. Music, actors, supermodels, bollywood superstars, politicians, it had it all.

There I was waiting for my food with a cold drink in a beer garden in Nottinghamshire (where I’d just arrived to photograph Annabelle and Matt’s beautiful wedding the following day) and I got an email through asking me to shoot an alternative asian Mehndi and wedding in Tatton Park, and 4 further days in some of the most opulent venues in the country. The venues were none other than Tatton Park in Cheshire (a place I knew from my childhood, with the bride being from my home city of Manchester), London’s legendary hotel Claridge’s, an all night party in Park Chinois and two days in The Dorchester. No biggie then.

On the train we went, off to Cheshire for the amazing alternative asian Mehndi and wedding in Tatton Park, among the deer. Four hundred guests slid elegantly into a huge hall, decked out in a stunning Punjabi style to await their hosts. Anooshe, a fashion blogger based in London was decked out in a stunning Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla ensemble, with husband to be Edmund in a short Sherwani style outfit. After donning her family jewels, Anooshe and Edmund arrived to pounding drums under a canape carried by their families, for the first of many dances involving many friends, family and even the couple themselves. There was a confetti cannon! At a wedding! It was that good. After that, my superb second shoot Maria and I danced through the crowds until the small hours, snapping some of the best dressed guests in the world at that very moment in time. By the way, Edmund’s dad is older than you, and he can party much harder than you.

The following Thursday I was back in London, for the civil ceremony at London’s legendary Claridge’s. A more familiar affair in terms of service, Anoosh looked incredible in a Ralph and Russo dress, matched by her maid of honour sister. Whilst rubbing shoulders with Bollywood royalty Sonam Kapoor and her father Anil Kapoor, the pair partied into the night on the first of four consecutive days of festivities.

Day three, or rather night three, saw Maria return to my aid as we snapped the night away at a huge party for the welcome dinner in Mayfair’s Park Chinois restaurant and nightclub. The crowd were greeted with fine dim sum and jazz standards, rubbing shoulders with politicians and pals, before heading downstairs for a late Friday night shindig. Anooshe danced with Sandeep Khosla, whilst wearing another of his numbers.

Alas, due to the later nature of the booking, it meant I was unable to photograph the grand 4th day at The Dorchester (although I did have a whale of a time photographing Bethan and James’s riot of a wedding at Sunbeam Studios in Ladbroke Grove, no rest for the wicked wedding photographer). Day five however, was at the same venue, so I didn’t entirely miss out. It was described, simply, as “brunch”. Brunch in this case meant fine sashimi, pancakes, traditional English, Sunday roasts, more cakes than the finest delicatessens in Mayfair, SO MUCH CHEESE ON A TABLE DEDICATED TO CHEESE and much much more… I don’t want to say I’m motivated by food (I mean, this was day five of five fantastic days of food) but… wow. I was told to help myself. That last hour of photographing was hard, but so so worth it.

Will I ever shoot a wedding like this again? Possibly, but an experience like no other. Anooshe and Edmund were still looking fantastically glam on the last day, heading off to Rome and Sicily for some much needed relaxation.