TJ and Ritika’s Nepalese-American fusion wedding in Madison, Wisconsin, was something to behold.

Bringing two cultures together to create a day filled with different traditions is challenging. Ritika and TJ were able to create an Nepalese-American fusion wedding in Madison, Wisconsin that included the best traditions from both worlds.

Originally from Nepal, Ritika really wanted an authentic Nepalese traditional ceremony while making it a bit more realistic. Typically, Nepalese weddings last days, which is quite a bit longer than most wedding days. Ritika and TJ ended up with a morning that brought together the most meaningful parts of the Nepalese ceremony. Their afternoon was filled with American traditions while also highlighting some Nepalese traditions as well.

The ladies got ready at an Airbnb close by the wedding venue, The Tinsmith.

The guys hung out at Hotel Indigo until it was time to start the Janta, a Nepalese traditional arrival of the groom. This Janta was about 2 blocks long and consisted of almost every wedding guest meeting at Hotel Indigo before walking to the Tinsmith. The Janta consisted of a boom box, speakers, drums and other instruments as well as a TON of cheering. It was an incredible thing to capture!

After the Janta, the traditional Nepalese wedding ceremony officially began.

There was so much color and meaning behind every part of the ceremony – it was so fun to photograph and highlight different parts. After the ceremony, the couple mingled and we took some candid group photos before they left for a mid-day break.

The reception part of the day was so beautiful with stunning design by the bride and Olive Branch Events.

I loved seeing their vision come to life! The couple had a quick first look in their reception outfits before taking a few family photos. Guests began to arrive and cocktail hour began shortly after! There was such a buzz in the air through the whole evening.

After dinner, I snuck them out for some quick portraits in the gorgeous blue hour! We didn’t have a lot of portrait time for the day, so I knew I had to maximize this short window.

Dancing began shortly after starting with the first dance, groom’s dance and bride’s dance before opening up to everyone on the dance floor!

Here’s what Ritika and TJ had to say about their experience working together:

Anya was a real pleasure to work with. When we had our engagement photo shoot in a December storm, she made it fun and she took incredible photos.

She helped us finalize our timeline to ensure we had enough time for specific photos. She even came to our ‘rehearsal’ to get a better idea of what our unique ceremony would look like.

We were with her for 8+ hours on our wedding day, and she was so professional and calming. She was great at instructing us at what to do during portraits.

We got our ‘sneak peak’ of photos the day after our wedding, which was incredibly fast! It was so fun to have a few to post on instagram right away. We got the rest of the photos from her a couple weeks later and oh my god, they were better than I could’ve imagined. Beautiful post-processing, amazing candids and portraits. She captured everyone at our 150+ person wedding and did it so well.

We can’t wait to get our printed and bound photo album she offers with the ‘love story’ package.
We highly recommend her for your photography needs!
– Ritka and TJ