The gurdwara is not a location
Cover your head before you are asked. Sit where you were told. No flash during the laavan. The Guru Granth Sahib is not background colour and it is not cropped out for a tighter face. Four circuits, one chance each. A long lens from the side aisle is how you are close without standing in the rite.
What happens outside
Chooda at home is quick and emotional: hands, bangles, a mother’s face. Sehra bandi is the groom before the street. The baraat ends at a threshold with rules. Milni is a list of men meeting, and also a father meeting a father. The reception is often a different building that night or the next day. Cut them as a journey, not as one ballroom.
What not to promise
Do not promise an Anand Karaj on a manor lawn unless the family’s gurdwara has agreed, in writing, to bring the Guru Granth Sahib and you know where the paalki enters. Most families will do portraits and dinner at the house, and the laavan at the gurdwara.
Where to stand
- Chooda
Hands, at home, quickly.
- Milni
Names if you can hear them.
- Anand Karaj
Four laavan. No flash.
- Doli
The leaving is not a second stage.
Questions worth asking
- Can a Sikh wedding be filmed in a hotel?
- The reception, yes. The Anand Karaj is held in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib, which for most families means a gurdwara. Confirm with the family and their gurdwara before you write the call sheet.
- Where should the camera stand during the laavan?
- Where the committee told you. Usually to the side, never in front of the Guru Granth Sahib, never walking the circuit with a gimbal.