This was our first Indian fusion wedding, and it ran three days across half of Madison. Cooper’s Tavern on Thursday, the Memorial Union and the Capitol and the Tinsmith on Friday, Lake Windsor Golf Club on Saturday. Janki and Zach also asked us to shoot stop motion alongside the photos, which turned out to be the right call for a weekend with this much movement in it.
Kelly and I spent a good part of Friday in Ubers, meeting the coach bus wherever it managed to park. Somehow it all worked. For a group this size moving between that many locations, Janki and Zach had the logistics figured out better than most couples do with one venue.
Thursday: the mehndi party at Cooper’s Tavern
Thursday’s photos: the mehndi artist working through the bridesmaids’ hands in the upstairs room at Cooper’s Tavern, the Capitol dome through the west windows, and Janki and Zach in their first set of outfits.
The upstairs at Cooper’s Tavern held nineteen people that afternoon, and it’s hard to think of a better room for it. The end of the space faces the Capitol, so the light comes in clean and you can see the dome right there through the window. Layout, location, and light all doing the same job at once.
The mehndi artist worked through the bridesmaids one at a time while everyone else ate and talked and moved around her. Zach hung out with Janki while her henna was being done, which is the kind of unhurried stretch that photographs better than almost anything scheduled. Grandmothers held granddaughters. Kids ran between the tables. Both families were in the room together and the whole thing stayed loose.
Indian weddings let a groom dress the way a bride usually gets to, and Zach took full advantage across all three days. Thursday was a teal and pink floral suit with bright yellow shoes, and it paired with Janki’s pink ombré floral dress better than anything either of them could have planned separately.
Friday: Memorial Union, the Capitol, and the Tinsmith
Friday’s photos run the whole day: the first look under the arches at the Memorial Union, wedding party portraits on the lake side, the full group against the white stone at the Wisconsin State Capitol, and the welcome party at the Tinsmith that night.
They did their first look under the arches on the south side of the Memorial Union. Those columns are one of our favorite spots on campus, and the trick with them is that they stay quiet even when the rest of the building is packed. Walk around to the terrace on a Friday afternoon and there are people everywhere. Under the arches, they had it to themselves.
Both of them wore purple and white. Zach’s suit came with a heavy statement necklace, Janki’s dress had white lace running through the purple, and they matched without looking like they’d tried to. From there we moved to the lake side of the Union for photos with the full wedding party.
The party was one of the biggest we’ve photographed. The guys wore salmon kurtas over khaki, the women wore teal and salmon with gold, and against the plain white stone at the Capitol the whole group looked like someone had turned the saturation up. We usually keep group photos out of these posts because that’s not how we work, but a few of these are going in anyway. You need to see the outfits.
Then the Tinsmith, which we’ve liked for a while and liked more after this. It runs several connected spaces, and one of them reads like a garden, so the night moved between indoors and outdoors without anyone having to decide which one they were at. They ran their rehearsal in one of the smaller rooms and had dinner in the main space.
Two caricature artists worked the room all night, drawing couples in their Indian attire, and the results got passed around and laughed over for the rest of the evening. There was a magician doing close-up work. There was a table where guests picked out bangles and bracelets to add to what they were already wearing. Ross Thorn played acoustic guitar through the night.
Saturday: Lake Windsor Golf Club
Saturday’s photos: getting ready at the Doubletree, the first look on the course, the ceremony under the pavilion beside the clubhouse, and the tented reception with Felix and Fingers running the dance floor.
The morning started at the Doubletree on the east side near the airport, in a room with enough light that getting-ready photos came easy. Janki wore red and gold. Zach went with a sharp blue suit and a red tie, the most traditional look of the three days and a deliberate shift toward the Christian ceremony ahead.
We hadn’t shot at Lake Windsor in years, and it fit them. The ceremony happened next to the clubhouse under a white pavilion, with florals across the top and the building behind it, and fans set out on the chairs for the guests. The fusion showed up in the details: groomsmen in blue suits, the women in pink and gold.
The reception went up under a tent out on the course. Deanna Wheeler planned the weekend and kept two hundred and forty people moving without any of it feeling managed, which is harder than it sounds across three days and six locations.
Felix and Fingers played dueling pianos, and that’s when the night turned. Two players, going hard, and within twenty minutes the grandmothers were on the dance floor and stayed there. The dessert spread at the end was enormous.
Congratulations, Janki and Zach. Three days, two traditions, and one of the best weekends we’ve had with a camera.
Planner: Olive Branch Events Co., Deanna Wheeler
Venues: Cooper’s Tavern · Memorial Union · The Tinsmith · Lake Windsor Golf Club
Florals: Garden Laurels, Donna Sager
Music: Felix and Fingers (Saturday) · Ross Thorn (Friday)
Catering: Blue Plate Catering (Friday) · Lake Windsor (Saturday)
Desserts: Batch Bakehouse · Greenbush Bakery · Fun Factory Sweets
Hair & makeup: Be Inspired Salon
Bride’s outfits: Vama Designs (Friday, Saturday) · Neha Chopra (Thursday)
Wedding party attire: Nazranaa
Jewelry: Glimour
Invitations & programs: The Paperie by Aman
