Tanvi & Joseph

Tanvi and Joseph did not so much have a wedding as stage a festival, and it began at a restaurant table piled with henna cones. We photographed Tanvi in green silk with a red dupatta, grinning across the tablecloth while an artist worked on her hands and guests drifted behind her in every color the afternoon could hold. Soon she was in yellow for the haldi, fresh flowers at her ear and floral strands at her neck, and the plain white wall behind her did what Florida winter light does best, which is glow.

The wedding day itself moved in two languages. Joseph came in first with the baraat, an ivory sherwani stitched with gold, a maroon velvet stole and a jeweled turban, his groomsmen flanking him under the columns of the resort entrance at Omni ChampionsGate near Orlando. Then the courtyard turned quiet, and Tanvi appeared in a white gown and long veil on her father's arm, palms and December sunshine overhead, Joseph waiting at the end of the aisle with a boutonniere and his composure barely holding.

When the ceremonies were done we stole the two of them out onto the golf course, where Tanvi had changed into a peacock blue Banarasi saree and the sky obliged with a pastel sunset behind a live oak strung with Spanish moss. The reception carried the night from there, a hand sewn backdrop of a bride and groom worked in fabric and sequins, kids claiming the dance floor, aunties in silk close behind. The last frames are the quietest ones, Joseph's lips at Tanvi's forehead as they swayed over scattered petals, the ballroom soft and nearly empty around them, three days folding down into one slow dance.