I don’t use my blog as a chronological posting place for the weddings we photograph, opting instead to share highlights from each event on Instagram. I decided to memorialize Nima and Adhit’s wedding, however, because it is the first wedding I photographed in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt, including millions of weddings worldwide. To date, all of our 2020 weddings through the end of July were postponed to later dates. I even have others that were scheduled for August, September and October that have moved their dates to 2021.

Driving out to the wedding location yesterday, Nima’s parents’ home in Bloomfield Hills, I had butterflies. My associate Jack and I talked with uncertainty about what to expect. The nervousness was not about whether we would be safe, or if the guests would practice social distancing or wear masks. Nima and Adhit assured us that everyone would comply with the governor of Michigan’s mandates. My apprehension was more about the unknown of photographing a wedding under these conditions. It goes without saying that never in my life, nor anyone else living today, have we experienced anything like this.

As documentary photographers, we only photograph the unfolding story of the day. We do not coerce or direct our couples, we simply just let the day happen and allow our couples to celebrate in the moment. So that’s what we did. What was different this time was that it could not be avoided, nor should it have been, to photograph the tell-tale signs of the times…people taking the necessary precautions to protect one another from spreading the virus, specifically wearing masks. So much of what makes our style of photographs great are the wonderful, emotional and natural expressions we look to capture. Perhaps that was the concern for me…I won’t be able to avoid these tell-tale signs, so will it photograph in a way that is positive or negative?

For Nima and Adhit to decide to move forward with their originally scheduled wedding date, it meant making sacrifices. First, it meant having to scale back their guest list from what would have been in the hundreds, to maybe 30 or 40 guests. It meant requiring everyone to wear masks. It also meant drastically simplifying their wedding day plans, which would have included multiple celebrations throughout the day at the beautiful Dearborn Inn, to only having a wedding ceremony in Nima’s parents’ back yard. What would have been a fifteen hour day of photography was reduced to five hours.

Now that the day is behind us, I can share the following. Not having photographed a wedding in months, it was like riding a bike! Jack and I were at our best and it was a thrill to be photographing a wedding again! Our bride and groom, Nima and Adhit, were stunning in their traditional Indian wedding attire! They were a beaming bride and groom and were a joy to photograph! They proved once again that a wedding day is about one thing when you boil everything down. It’s about the love and destiny of one couple committing their lives together before family and friends. That’s what happened on their wedding day and here are some highlight photos to share their story.