• Real Weddings

There's always a time for firsts. This was the first time that I didn't meet the groom or bride until practically the day of the wedding.  I met Atish for the first time one week before their wedding reception at Clos La Chance Winery in San Martin.  He was super easy going and was really looking forward to his big day.  Before then, I was talking with Atish's mother, Reshma, and their family friend, Ram, for the details the day of the reception.  It wasn't until the day of the reception that I met Ambika when I walked into the bridal room. She looked so beautiful and it was enhanced 100x over with her stunning traditional Indian dress and jewelry.
Clos La Chance was just a perfect place for their Indian wedding reception. There were about 300 guests and the size of the venue was just perfect. The winery itself had the entrance and dancefloor for people.  Going out to the raised patio, it looked over the dining area below and the beautiful vineyards all around.  With the sun setting, it was truly captivating and I could tell from the guest's reactions that it was unbelievable.
One of many highlights of the evening (that I especially loved) was the Bollywood performance by The Bellytwins from Los Angeles.  They have been featured on TV such as Academy Awards, Live with Regis and Kelly, The View, etc etc. They even offer exercise DVD so that everyone can learn bellydancing and lose weight at the same time!  Once they started to get into their performance the crowd was really paying attention to the great dancing and colorful costumes.
Another show stopper was the executive chef that cooked all of the food wsa flown all the way from Calcutta, India!  It was like having the reception itself back in India with all of the authentic Indian cuisine.   I could not rave enough how well they planned the event and how much they care about their friends and families. I'm truly blessed to have the opportunity to photograph this wedding reception with my husband Jeff Wong and Tony Lau who helped on the photo favors and documented the event, Andrew Hsu, who's my neighbor and also a very well known videographer from StudioMSV as my assistant.
Please stay tuned for the second part of this 2 day wedding reception...