BAPS Chino Hills Engagement Photo Guide

This is a working Hindu place of worship first, opened in 2012, and nearly every surface is carved: each stone was shaped by hand in India, shipped to California, and fitted together here piece by piece. For photographs that means warm stone, pattern everywhere you look, and a clean sky above the five pinnacles. The palette runs from deep rose to pale pink, so coral and blush melt into the walls while teal and ivory stand clear of them, which is why Ashlesha's teal dupatta and Amir's ivory sherwani carry every frame.

Across the garden from the mandir, a walkway of deep rose stone runs through a string of arched pavilions, and it is where the session finds its shape. The arches line up one behind another, so a couple standing in the nearest one sits inside a frame of frames. One wide opening looks straight back across the garden to the pinnacles, and we like to place the two of you at either side of it, small against the stone, with the mandir glowing pale in the middle. From deep in the shade of an arch, the two of you become silhouettes beneath the tallest pinnacle and its flags.

We photographed Ashlesha and Amir on a golden morning, and morning suits this place. Low sun warms the rose stone toward coral, and in the shade of the arches that colour bounces softly back into faces, so a portrait under cover glows on its own. Above the pinnacles the sky stays a deep, clean blue, the backdrop for a silhouette. As the sun climbs, the open plaza turns bright and flat, so we keep to the shaded walkways. The campus opens at nine every morning, and an early start catches the low light.

The walkway arches lined up one behind another, made for a slow walk hand in hand or a twirl of the dupatta · The wide arch that frames the mandir across the garden, with a carved stone lattice along its foot · The carved wooden doors, golden brown against the pale pink stone and its rows of figures · The outer walls of the mandir, carved with figures and lattice screens, for a laughing portrait side by side · The carved pillars and scalloped arches, where the stone looks like lace against the sky

The mandir is a sacred place of worship, and its guidelines come before any photograph. No photography or filming is allowed inside the mandir, and phones may take personal photographs only from ground level outside it. The guidelines list engagement sessions, professional photography, tripods, and drones among the things that need approval from the mandir administration beforehand, by email or at the Visitor Center front desk, which we flag and arrange early. We plan the corners around their answer. Kissing and hugging are not permitted, and visitors are asked not to touch or lean on the carvings, so we pose you side by side: a hand on a shoulder, a laugh toward the camera.

Every visitor registers at the Visitor Center, the carved wooden haveli beside the mandir, and a strict dress code runs across the whole complex: tops must cover the shoulders, chest, navel, and upper arms, and hems must fall below the knee, so plan your lehenga or saree with that in mind. Bags stay in the car. Outside food and drink are not allowed, and neither is alcohol, though the Shayona Café in the haveli serves vegetarian meals and chai. Shoes come off before you enter the mandir. Darshan and arti run at set times through the day, posted on the mandir's website, so we plan around them and keep our voices low.

Ashlesha and Amir's engagement session at the mandir lives in full at the close of their San Diego wedding journal, twenty four photographs from the rose walkways to the carved wooden doors.