Janvi and Bhavik's Asian wedding celebrations at Northbrook Park

"The way Sanj captures emotions and candid moments in his photos is incredible and every photo captured at our wedding, each tells a special story" Janvi & Bhavik

Before Bhavik and I met, we knew of each other though facebook, and over the last five-ish years, we’ve worked together on many commercial projects and I’ve always been grateful for him for introducing me to many of my commercial photography clients.I’m inspired by Bhavik’s passion and drive in helping others through his charity work, his entrepreneurship (when it comes to his business), the way he adapts to different situation and his love of Indian religious/spiritual music (Bhajans), which I’ll go into later on.

I think it was at Bhavik’s birthday where I first met Janvi, she’s a super bubbly friendly person, and we discovered that we both have a LOVE for Nachos! I think between the two of us, we polished off a whole plate that night! It turned out that I may have photographed Janvi at an orientation event when she used to work for Accenture so I may her to dig those pics out for a laugh! Since then, Bhavik and Janvi have become good friends and it’s always fun hanging out with them!

When Bhavik proposed to Janvi I was super thrilled and I was overwhelmed when they asked me to photograph their wedding day, the pressure was definitely on!

Janvi and Bhavik’s wedding took place Before the UK went into lock down, I’m talking like, days before the official announcement! It was a beautiful sunny day back in March, we were blessed with awesome spring weather and I was extra excited as it was the first wedding of the season and after the wedding, I remember saying to Tejas that we’ve set a high standard for ourselves, little did we know how 2020 was about to pan out.

The wedding ceremony was taking place at of my favourite venues Northbrook Park in Surry. It’s an intimate venue in private surroundings and there are peacocks everywhere, one even decided to make an appearance before Janvi’s entrance!

The wedding day started off with Janvi’s Mandvo ceremony, which is a small blessing ceremony before the wedding. After the Mandvho, Bhavik and his family arrived in style with lots of noise, energy and plenty of dancing as both families came together, I knew what type of tempo to expect for the rest of the day.

With all Hindu wedding ceremonies, traditional songs are played (or sung) during different parts of the ceremony. I soon realised that Bhavik had sung each of the wedding songs and I was blown away like everyone else, it was such a unique touch to the ceremony and very personal.

I loved photographing the day as it unfolded and even though I was there as ‘the photographer’ I felt more like a guests with my camera. I felt a sense of proudness seeing two people I’m close with finally getting married and seeing my bro Meheer as one of Bhavik’s best men, added to that proudness.

The evening reception party was brilliant, an elegant setup in the Orangery at Northbrook Park, lots of food, booze, killer speeches from everyone and an awesome party to end the wedding celebrations…everyone partied as if it was the last party of the year (LOL)

Bhavik likes to give opportunities to young talent and it turns out that the Dj for the night (DJ Barai) was only 15, and he has some serous talent, so much so that he’s now signed up to Musical Movements who are one of the top Asian wedding DJ’s in the country, I cannot wait to see how DJ Barai grows over the next few years.

I earlier mentioned that Bhavik has a passion for Bhajans and over the summer, he managed to crowdfund over £18,000 which will help fund the recording of a 7 track Bhajan album with a modern twist, I’m def looking forward to receiving my copy. For more info, please go to https://www.bhavikharia.com and you can search for #keepbhajansalive on social media. Bhavik recently released his version of Hanuman Chalisa which has gone down really well and you can stream/download it on any major platform such as spotify, apple music etc.

Janvi and Bhavik, what can I say, it was my absolute pleasure capturing your wedding celebrations and I look forward to seeing you both develop as a couple. Pinki and I look forward to hanging out with you both again soon, eating Nachos and attending your future concerts!

Enjoy the memories guys
Sanj