Picture This

With foreign locations, customised themes and budgets that run into lakhs, the pre-wedding photo shoot has become a whole new ball game.

- Arundhati Chatterjee

Gone are the days when couples chose photographs from their wedding ceremonies—with tired faces and adorned with more jewellery than mannequins at jewellery stores—to frame them for their bedside tables or post them on Facebook.

When Mumbai-based dentist Seema Mehta (31) was planning her wedding five years ago, she slotted her pre-wedding shoot a couple of days ahead of D-Day. A friend owned a DSLR camera and the steps of Asiatic Library didn’t pose much of a hassle in terms of permission. The photographs registered three-figure ‘likes’ on Facebook and gave wedding photography goals to all her friends.

This instance sums up the ever-changing paradigm of pre-wedding photo shoots in India. And the change is not only in terms of technology and budgets, there’s a rapid evolution of mindset too. “When I started wedding photography back in 2009, couples were not so open to the idea of intimate images since the parents were micromanaging every bit of the wedding. But over time, couples have become more adventurous about the frames they want for themselves,” says Pune based lensman Sarvesh Rajpathak, who recently shot a pre-wedding concept in London. He also stresses on the fact that social media’s involvement has stirred a change. “Couples want a special set of photos only for their Instagram and Facebook accounts. They do exhaustive research on Pinterest to find references,” he says.

Going places

Let’s rewind to 2010. For couples from orthodox families or those opting for an arranged marriage, the pre-wedding shoot was an alien concept. It was perceived to be an indulgence of NRI love birds. Typically, there was a set of clichéd poses, one venue and a maximum of two changes of attire.