Pooja & Kyle

We photographed Pooja and Kyle's wedding on January 23, 2022, and the day began quietly, in a lamplit room where Pooja sat in a white satin robe while her makeup artist worked close by the glow of a single warm lamp. Her red and gold silk saree hung waiting on a gold rack behind her, catching the low light like a promise of the day ahead. By late morning she was laughing in it, draped in gold temple jewelry and fresh mehndi, stepping past a white garden wall into full winter sunshine.

The ceremony sat on a hilltop lawn in Ventura County, where string lights swung between two great trees and the mountains stacked up blue behind the mandap, the valley's farmland spread out far below. Under the white canopy with its garland of roses, Pooja and Kyle sat with their parents beside them as the priest tended the sacred fire, rose petals scattered the length of the aisle runner. Kyle wore an ivory and gold sherwani and turban, Pooja her crimson silk, and the whole ceremony glowed against a cloudless January sky.

Afterward the families gathered on the lawn in saris of orange, purple, and teal, everyone lit by that clear low winter sun through the branches. As night fell the party moved into the clubhouse, its amphitheater steps banded with light and its arched windows glowing like lanterns, globe chandeliers hanging over the sweetheart table and its spray of pink roses. Pooja changed into a gold sequined lehenga, and we photographed the two of them grinning with family at the flower-topped greenery wall, the neon behind them saying exactly what the whole day had already proved, better together.