Srishti & Vishal | Vedic Hindu Wedding | Isha Yoga, Coimbatore & Ooty

Srishti - "Elvin! We are getting married in Isha Yoga, Coimbatore and I want you to shoot our wedding."
Me - "So Cool! I would love to shoot your wedding."
Srishti - "But you won't be allowed to shoot the actual wedding." 
Me - "Huh?!!!"

So Srishti & Vishal are Sadhguru followers and they hired me to shoot their wedding in July. And I ended up shooting everything but the actual wedding. :) Instead, Srishti & Vishal invited me to attend their intimate wedding at Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore. Thanks to them, I got to witness one of THE MOST beautiful weddings that I have ever seen. Their wedding was conducted as per ancient Hindu customs. The setting, music and rituals were such that everyone just kept mum and participated in the wedding. Read more about this vedic Vivaha here.  Also, photos can not do justice to the statue of Lord Shiva at Isha Yoga. It's HUUUUUGGGGEEE!

Needless to say, the wedding was an emotional affair. Srishti & Vishal couldn't really hold back their tears. I get laughed at often for admitting this, but it's easy to get me all emotional. I have shot many a Vidaais with blurry vision (Thank God for Auto Focus!). This wedding wasn't very different. 

Srishti & Vishal did have some rituals as per North Indian customs at Coimbatore and later in Ooty, that I got to photograph.  Throughout the wedding, Srishti had an infectious but reassuring smile on her face. Vishal, on the other hand, had a calm demeanour. And they are both Doctors. So if I am ever ill, and I get doctors with faces like theirs, I know I would already be on the road to recovery.

Photography: Elvin Jacob
Wedding Film: Amal Roy Films
Jaimala Venue: Celebrity Resorts, Coimbatore
Wedding Venue:Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore
Pheras & Cocktail Venue: Sterling Ooty Elk Hill, Ooty
Special Thanks: Tanjul Sarkar and Pranjal Patel

Devika & Satyen | Hindu Kannadiga Tamil Wedding | ITC Gardenia & Bangalore Club, Bengaluru

Satyen's & Devika's wedding reaffirmed my faith in intimate weddings. They took their vows surrounded by close family and thick friends from all stages of their life. Speeches by their friends during the Sundowner left many teary-eyed and left some paralyzed with laughter. It was truly heart-warming to see the union of this 'two souls, one heart' couple :)

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Svana & Santosh | Hindu Kannadiga Wedding | Fiestaa Resort, Bengaluru

Svana & Santosh joined the gym separately with the sole intention of walking out fit. While they did walk out fully toned, neither of them expected to meet, fall in love and walk out of the gym with another fully toned person!

Spread over three days, the couple celebrated their coming together in front of an intimate crowd  of family and friends.  I've got to mention the bride's niece Zola here, who was the most popular girl (after the bride of course!) on those three days! We even discussed Peppa Pig, after the wedding! :)

Lastly, special thanks to Nilma Dileepan from With Love, Nilma :) Thankoo!

Photography: Elvin Jacob
Traditional Videography & Photography: Kumar NK & Venkatesh
Wedding Venue: Fiestaa Resort, Bengaluru

Elvin’s pictures of our wedding day will always be the best memories that Santosh & I love to relive again and again. When Santosh & I decided to get married in 2 months we had great help from my family to arrange everything within such a short time. Amongst all the important things to be arranged having an awesome photographer was so important for us. And we had just one month to "the day" when we found Elvin, and luckily he was available for our dates. 

I'm so happy he covered our big day because he managed to click all the happiest moments in the family that happened for 3 continuous days. I feel like he did not miss even one smile or even one moment. I've heard that sometimes photographers forget to click some important moments but Elvin not only covered all the scenes I think he managed covering behind the scenes as well and all single-handedly. Really after the wedding there is always this exciting wait for the photographs and video graphs. When our wedding photos and videos came out we were surprised and so happy with the quality of emotions in every picture. He is not overpriced like the other photographers out there and his talent is excellent too. Bangalore needs more wedding photographers like Elvin Jacob” - Svanna & Santhosh

Pooja & Jason | CSI Christian Wedding | CSI Christ Church, Vellore

Hearing the word '2015 Floods' brings bad memories rushing to the minds of those who were in Chennai at that time. But for Pooja & Jason, it's the 'official' start of their love story. I say 'official', 'cause they'd already met while working in California earlier. And Jason's heroic efforts to ask her out for a coffee had bombed. Not once but thrice. :)

So Pooja was stuck in office due to heavy rains and sent out a distress email to colleagues asking if someone was going towards Mandavelli, so that she could also tag along. Jason, being the gentleman he is, responded to the email and volunteered to drop her, since his Aunt too lived in Mandavelli. But Jason really had no Aunt living in Mandavelli! :) Classic Move, Jason! Classic Move, Mate!! Pooja agreed, but hit the 'Reply All' button while responding to Jason's email. And we all know how dangerous that can be! Next day, everyone wanted to know details of their first drive!

Fast forward two years, Pooja & Jason tied the knot at a cozy church in Tirupattur, Vellore this December. Jason's parents and even his grandparents had gotten married in the same church! So the wedding was even more emotional. During makeup, Jason walked in to steal a glance at Pooja. Seeing her dressed in a stunning wedding gown, I think Jason's eyes welled up a little. During the entire ceremony, I think Jason couldn't believe he was getting married to Pooja and hence kept looking at her - a fact well documented :) The sincerity in their love towards each other was easy to perceive. How nice it feels to see couples committing to each other for life, especially in this day and age of failing relationships!

And yes, I ate some kickass Ambur Biryani and watched NatGeo in Tamil during my time in Tirupattur. Highly Recommended!

Photography: Elvin Jacob
Wedding Film: Studio F3
MUA: Suresh Menon
Wedding Dress Designer: Ashwin Thiyagarajan
Wedding Venue: CSI Christ Church, Tirupattur
Reception Venue: Nandhini Mahal, Tirupattur

”What can we say? We were extremely lucky to have found a great friend who also happened to be our wedding photographer! Elvin is an amazing photographer and wonderful soul.

The first thing that I would like to thank Elvin for was for sending in our wedding pictures right on time and really fast.It was such a beautiful surprise to receive them when we were still on our honeymoon, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. We sat down by the pool by the sunset and reminisced over a bottle of wine about our amazing day! Seeing all the photos brought huge smiles to our faces!! They couldn’t have been more perfect and we could not stop looking at them over and over again.

We feel extremely lucky to have found him. We were hunting for photographers throughout social media and finally landed up on Elvin's page! As soon as we spoke to Elvin over the phone and saw his work, we knew he was the only man for the job and we certainly were not disappointed.All of his photos in the portfolio was just so natural and effortless. Our wedding was at a small village church and we were worried about the background a lot. But Elvin's work put us at ease and the moment we saw the pictures we immediately knew he was a true artist and could transform the pictures to go beyond limits. Whenever we post our wedding pictures on Facebook, Instagram or pass them along to our friends we received an overwhelming praise "Mind Blowing", "This looks like a movie poster" and "Stunning!!". He could alter the images from being just traditional into something creative by perfectly capturing the mood and atmosphere.On the big day of our lives, Elvin was the member of our family. We felt completely at ease with him and our families and friends loved him, he blended in fantastically!! His attention to detail and ninja photography skills has made the entire album look like magic! Elvin gave us something we will cherish for the rest of our lives.” - Pooja & Jason

Ruth's First Eleven Months - Family Documentary Photography

As some of you already know, my daughter Ruth will turn one this December. Despite being a photographer, I am terrible at documenting my own family. However, somehow I ended up taking a few photos of her & Rini. It’s only after I laid all the photos down last month, did I realise how important it was to capture a baby’s first few days/weeks/months. So I have decided to gift the same experience to five to-be-parents out there, for free, in 2018!

I am looking for couples:

  • Who are expecting a baby in the coming months and are willing to let me photograph them and their baby’s first few days.
  • Who don’t mind letting the beautiful and not-so-beautiful sights captured - after all, they complete the story together!
  • Who are not interested in candy floss shoots with props or cake smashes, but who would appreciate real, unposed moments being captured.
  • Who have an extra couch that I can crash on for 2-3 nights - I might end up shooting for 48-72 hours, or even more!

Please note that I will be only shooting babies below the age of six weeks as part of this project! :( I intend to shoot families with older babies in the second leg of this project!

Sharing a few photos of Ruth’s first year. I intend to produce photographs beyond the style spectrum, as seen in this post.

If you are expecting a baby or know someone who is, please drop me an email on ej@elvinjacob.com before Dec 31, 2017, explaining why/how this shoot will be important for you. Among the mails received, I will be selecting five couples and announcing their names on my Facebook & Instagram profiles, in January first week. And I hope to start shooting from February 2018.

Please share this blogpost with anyone you think might be interested! TIA!

Raghu & Niha | Kannadiga Telugu Wedding | Bengaluru

He noticed her first in college while she was playing volleyball and he was, you know, 'casually walking by' :) He took it a little far by falling in love with her. Little did Niha know that Raghu's intentions were waaay different from what she had feared. Few years later, he went ahead and proposed her! The result - a beautiful 3 day wedding in Bengaluru. 

This isn't the first wedding I am shooting in Raghu's family. Four years back, I also had the honour of shooting the wedding of Raghu's sister Shruti & Abhi. This wedding was equally fun, with an added advantage of some dance! 

Photography: Elvin Jacob
Sangeet Venue: La Marvella, Bengaluru
Sangeet MC: RJ Pijosh
Wedding Venue: Sathya Sai Samskruta Sadanam, Bengaluru

P.S. Raghu is a natural problem solver who's dedicated to eliminating parking woes of Bengalureans. His startup DIVRT is a cloud-based smart parking system, that allows users to reserve a parking spot via a mobile app. Download the app iOS or Android.

Priyanka & Paul | Arya Samaj Hindu Wedding | Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru

Bangalore Winters are cold enough for one to pull out their sweaters & cardigans. But this wedding, held over two nights in December 2015, warmed everyone up. It was the lovely coming together of two families - Priyanka's & Paul's. 

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Anna & Riju | Marthoma Christian Malayali Wedding | St Stephen's Mar Thoma Church, Bengaluru

You know that feeling you get when you are a senior in college, and you see a fresher/junior absolutely worth crushing on, walk in through the college gates? Most guys know exactly how this feels! Even if the guy musters enough courage to go speak to her, chances of something concrete materializing between them is quite bleak. Well, not in this case! What started off as a casual friendship, blossomed into a beautiful relationship between these two architects. I wish I could record their couple shoots because a good chunk of what they spoke would qualify as proper standup comedy material! :) But for now, I think the photos will suffice! 

Photography: Elvin Jacob & Ernest Edison
Make-Up: Wild Pink
Wedding Venue: St Stephen's Marthoma Church
Reception Venue: Park Plaza, Bengaluru
Music: Rijin Thomas

”Working with Elvin was an absolute joy!!!

While looking out for a photographer, we wanted someone who would really capture the memories without the added posing and fanfare, and Elvin truly did just that. Thanks to him we have a lovely album full of memories to treasure. He also did our pre wedding photoshoot and for two people who are mostly behind the camera clicking pictures of buildings this was the first time we enjoyed being in front of the camera. Elvin is someone who makes sure your comfortable with the camera and hes just there at the right place at the right time to capture just that ridiculous smile,the subtle gestures and everything in between.

Here's wishing you all the best in capturing a lot more precious memories” - Anna & Riju

Swetha & Vibin | Malayali Hindu Wedding | Hosur

As founder of Headless Hippies and one of the brains behind the brilliant packaging of brands like Paperboat Drinks & FreshMenu, Vibin is easily one of the most sought after creatives in Bengaluru. So when he told me about his wedding to Swetha and said that he wanted to onboard me as his wedding photographer, I was scared. I began to wonder how I could give his wedding photos an interesting spin, without disappointing him & myself. To add to the trouble, Vibin said he was open to experimenting with his wedding album! But the question was - how could I propose something interesting & creative enough for an artist like Vibin?

During one of our random conversations, I learnt from Vibin that he had gotten his wedding rings handcrafted by local artisans in Bengaluru. And that he was actually getting the ringboxes carved out of a single rosewood branch and even getting them laser engraved. He also told me about a book that he had been making for Swetha with adorable messages. This gave me the idea to capture Vibin's & Swetha's wedding story from a completely different angle. The photos that resulted could not be bucketed as the conventional 'Getting Ready' or 'Pre-Wedding Shoot' photos. However, they are something that I am happy to have created.

Photography: Elvin Jacob
Venue: KAP Kalyana Mandapam, Hosur