Welcome to the Andrena Blog, where you'll find wedding images, musings, info about things I'm doing and a visual record of my extensive world travels.
If you're a new visitor, I love that you've stopped by and truly hope you enjoy my images. If you've been here before, I hope you know how much I love that you keep stopping by.
I love what I do, so I truly hope you enjoy what I have to share here. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy. (Scroll down to view images.)
ONE OF THE TOP 10 WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE WORLD: AMERICAN PHOTO
NEW: COLORPOP! 40+ COLOR & TONING ACTIONS FOR BRILLIANT COLOR
Who doesn’t love a ceremony on a cliff, overlooking the ocean at the beautiful Ritz-Carlton? Laguna Niguel decided to be a little bit foggy on Kareena and Ashwin’s wedding day, but no matter: The ceremony itself was gorgeous. And check out the Manish Malhotra lengha — so pretty.
A little more sangeet, because who doesn’t love a sangeet? I love how Kareena’s skirt looks in a twirl. I’ll be posting Part 4 sometime this evening.
The breathtaking sangeet decor, courtesy Alex and the team at Square Root Designs.
The spectacular three-day wedding of Ashwin Uttamchandani and Shobna Mirchandani (now Kareena) took place at the gorgeous Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, and this wedding was just off the hook from start to finish. Guests flew in from all over the world to see what surprises this stylish couple would serve up for their wedding events, and the dazzling array of food, surprises and ceremonies did not disappoint. The first surprise? Custom hotel room card keys with the couple’s names and event dates. Yep: Custom room card keys, which were just so cool.
The festivities kicked off on a Friday with a mid-day pool party. After a short break, guests were treated to a formal engagement ceremony at sunset, followed by a welcome party that rocked until the wee small hours of the morning. The party took place in room draped in white and featuring a water fountain in the middle of the room (with cool metallic spheres), and featured a crazy amount of custom food and chocolates. I don’t know how anybody actually woke up on Saturday morning, but wake they did, and families and friends gathered for Sindhi poojas (first for Shobna’s side, and then Ashwin’s side). After the poojas, Shobna retired to her room to have her menhdi done, and then took a break before coming back downstairs in a breathtaking Manish Malhotra lengha for her pre-sangeet festivities. Ashwin and his family entered later, carrying roses for Shobna and her family. The sangeet festivities started outside on a lawn, then moved indoors for the party. Alex and the team at Square Root Designs did an incredible job with the sangeet decor, which had a Moroccan feel and made fantastic use of color. Dance performances highlighted the event, as did a sumptuous buffet.
There was no sleep for the weary that night, though, as Alex and his team started on the ballroom decor a day before the reception, working around the clock to get everything set up. It’s always a pleasure to work with Alex, because he always has the ballroom decor ready early for photos, which enables us to do our very best job documenting the decor. It was also a pleasure to work with the delightful Ajita Chopra, who expertly coordinated a million crazy details into a truly breathtaking event.
The next day started with small oil ceremonies in the bride and groom’s respective hotel rooms. The wedding itself took place in a huge burgundy-colored mandap covered with flowers and fronted by vases filled with hued water. The foggy skies couldn’t compete with Shobna, who was once again resplendent in a Manish Malhotra lengha that suited her beautifully. The mandap itself was jam-packed with family on both sides, and it was clear that these families are inseparable. The reception room itself was just crazy beautiful, and a huge testament to the artistry of Alex and the team at Square Root. I don’t even know how to describe the ridiculously beautiful setup, which included mirrored tabletops, floral arrangements of all sizes, and a sweetheart table whose canopy looked like it was made for royalty. Shobna was renamed Kareena as part of the wedding ceremony, so she was introduced by her new name at the grand entrance, and is now, and forever, Kareena Uttamchandani (though formerly Shobna Mirchandani).
I’ll be breaking this stunning wedding up into six posts, so be sure to check back to see all the details. First up? The engagement ceremony and welcome party. Can’t get enough of this wedding? It’s featured in the 2012 Orange County issue of Ceremony Magazine, as well as in Square Root’s ad in the Los Angeles issue of Ceremony. Be sure to pick up a copy at your local newsstand, or to check it out online at www.ceremonymagazine.com.
Coordination: Ajita Chopra, Ajita Chopra Events
Venue: Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel
Floral Design & Artistry: Square Root Designs
Cinematography: Simply Cinematic
Hair & Makeup: Jaywant Thakre and Shahida Sheikh (India)
DJ: DJ Lloyd and DJ Sharad
Entertainment: Paris House Addict
Menhdi: Lishma Patel at Beauty by Lishma
Aerialist Bartender: Jena Carpenter at Dream Cirque
MC: Kubra Sait
Sangeet and Wedding Outfits: Manish Malhotra
Reception Outfit: Anjalee And Arjun Kapoor
Engagement Outfit: Natasha Kapoor
Got Photoshop? Images looking a little flat and dull?
I’m beyond excited to announce the launch of my new company — ColorPop — and our first offering: ColorPop Actions Volume I. This set includes more than 40 Photoshop actions for awesome color, detail, brightness and toning. It’s a year in the making, so if you’re looking for a great new action set that’s incredibly versatile and provides options for tons of different combinations, I hope you’ll check it out. People are always asking how I do my color . . . and this is how. 
The ColorPop web site includes four pages of befores and afters (providing visuals of everything except the prep actions, which help prep your images for color work), as well as a detailed How-To section. The actions are fully layered and masked (enabling easy adjustments), and the toning actions combine beautifully to create new looks. This is the action set I wish I’d had years ago, and early feedback has been great. (A huge thanks to all my fabulous beta testers.)
Looking to crank up your color? Click here to visit the ColorPop web site. Hope you all enjoy.
For this, the final post in my first-part blog-fest on Sonia Sharma‘s wedding, we focus on the shoes. And what amazing shoes they were. As a photographer, I’ll admit that I’ve seen some beautiful and unique shoes in my day. But I’ve never before seen shoes covered in succulents. I honestly couldn’t believe the incredible beauty of these shoes, which were the brainchild of Shawna Yamamoto and which went perfectly with the lush succulent walls at the Smog Shoppe.
The red shoes in the upper right hand corner of this image collection were created by by Shawna at Sonia’s request. Sonia chose artwork that paid tribute to the author and illustrator Edward Gorey, who was a favorite of Sonia’s when she was in high school. The resulting bottom-of-shoe illustrations were just lovely. But the succulent shoes?
I pronounce them Best Shoes of the Year.
By the way, if you’ve ever wondered where the “Yamamoto” came from, behold the photo of Shawna dancing with her super-handsome husband. And the tiny photo in the lower left? That’s makeup artist extraordinaire Jeannie Jeffries from Couture Beauty, me, Sonia and Shawna. I love working with this incredible team of talent. I hope you’ve enjoyed this five-parter on Sonia’s wedding. She’s an incredible event designer and coordinator, and a good friend, too, so being a part of her wedding was a true joy.
Next up: The gorgeous wedding Flor and Jerome in Quito, Ecuador. I’ll try to start my two-part post on this wedding tomorrow night, but I’m shooting a reception tomorrow (for the delightful Fizzah Raza, who is also a wonderful photographer), so if I get home too late, I’ll start their post on Sunday. And now, the shoes:
by Dina
1 comment
add a comment link to this post email a friend