On the last two weekends of July, David & I shot Lavinia & Kuljit’s wedding with an interesting mix of sikh, baba nyonya and indian culture, a true epitomy of Malaysian multiculturalism. Kuljit is Punjabi and Lavinia is mix Chinese-Indian. Their professional background is an interesting one too! They both work in the same company but Kuljit is based in Algeria and Lavinia is based in Norway!

The eve of the wedding started in Segamat with the Mainyanh Ceremony, where the groom followed by the bride is seated underneath a patri, a red cloth held above by four female relatives. Married women of the household, led by the mother, rub paste of tumeric, flour and mustard oil on their faces, arms and legs.

The night proceeded with a number of interesting ceremonies and rituals – Choora is the ritual whereby a set of ivory and red bangles is worn on the bride her maternal uncles. It followed with the Sangeet, an Indian version of the Western bridal shower whereby both sides of the couple come together to enjoy a night of celebration with great food, dancing and singing. And boy, was there dancing!!! The DJs played lively Bhangra music, remixed to techno beats and EVERYONE was dancing! David and I were excited and thrilled by the photo opp!

The evening ended with the Mehndi ceremony whereby intricate henna patterns are drawn on the hands and feet of the bride.

The next morning was the temple wedding ceremony. The Sikh men wore turbans while the women wore scarves over their heads. We were not informed of this so we ended up wearing the temple bandanas!

Click here to see more temple photos!

A Chinese tea ceremony and a dinner reception was held the following weekend for the bride’s side of the family in Melaka. The morning started with the tea ceremony and the ladies looked elegant in their traditional kebayas!

The lunch prepared by Lavinia’s mom and uncle was to die for! The black soy sauce chicken was my favorite! (I haven’t had such good home-cooked food for ages!)

We were pretty lucky that their house was within walking distance to a lovely beach and we decided to take some portraits albeit the searing midday sun. Thanks to our ever-handy reflector, the photos turned out great! (Of course, we had great models to work with!)

Love this candid shot (on right, below) by David!!!

Here’s one of my favorite portrait shots – the sky was beautiful! (Again, I’m not surprised how cooperative the weather always is!)

Click here to see more tea ceremony and portrait photos!

The dinner reception was held at the Equatorial, Melaka, and the couple looked outstanding! Lavinia looked stunning in both the sarees she wore that night accessorized by the intricate jewelry and Kuljit looked stately in his sherwani.

Here’s my favorite shot for the night…

The evening ended with more dancing! (I love their families! They all love to dance!)