Indian Wedding Photographer in Maryland

Surya Garigipati Photography & Films photographs Indian weddings across Maryland as part of a regular East Coast season: the Gaylord National, the hotel ballrooms of Bethesda and Rockville, the temples of Lanham, Columbia and Baltimore. The New Jersey studio has photographed more than 400 South Asian celebrations since 2013, is rated 4.9 on Google, and includes DMV travel.

At a glance

Studio	Surya Garigipati Photography & Films LLC, Flemington, New Jersey
Covers	National Harbor, Bethesda, North Bethesda, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Silver Spring, Lanham, Columbia, Baltimore and the rest of Maryland, with Washington DC and Northern Virginia across the river
Venues we know	The Gaylord National Resort, where Bharat & Bhuvana’s film on our films page was made; the Beltway hotel ballrooms; the Lanham temples; Baltimore’s waterfront rooms
From the studio	About three hours down the turnpike; the team arrives the day before
Travel	Within the DMV, included in every collection
Traditions	Hindu, Sikh, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati and fusion weddings
Experience	Weddings since 2013; more than 400 South Asian celebrations
Reviews	4.9 on Google from 38 public reviews: read every one
Pricing	By event, not by the hour: packages and prices

Maryland weddings, from the side of the camera

The DMV has one of the largest Indian communities on the East Coast, and its weddings have a particular shape: a ceremony at a temple in Lanham or Silver Spring, or on a hotel lawn with the Potomac behind it, then a reception in a ballroom big enough for six hundred. We photograph there as part of every season, three hours from our studio in Flemington, and this page is for couples in Bethesda, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Columbia and Baltimore who want to know how a Maryland Indian wedding photographs and what a photographer coming from New Jersey actually brings.

Where Maryland Indian weddings happen

• National Harbor and the Gaylord: the landmark. A glass atrium that holds a mandap under a roof with daylight pouring through it, a waterfront for the baraat and a ballroom for the biggest receptions in the region. The atrium light is beautiful and tricky, bright from above and reflected from the floor, and the ceremony is best in the early afternoon before the sun drops behind the building. We treat the Gaylord as a full weekend venue.
• Bethesda, North Bethesda and the Beltway hotels: most of the region’s big Indian receptions and many of the ceremonies, with a baraat along the hotel drive and a mandap in the ballroom. Hotel ballrooms need the mandap lit before the family arrives and a portrait location planned; we scout a park or a garden within ten minutes the day before.
• The temples: the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple and the Murugan Temple in Lanham, and the Hindu temples across Montgomery County, hold many of the region’s Telugu, Tamil and North Indian ceremonies, usually in the morning, with the reception elsewhere in the evening.
• Columbia, Howard County and Baltimore: the hotel ballrooms between the two cities, and Baltimore’s waterfront hotels and historic halls, brick and water and a skyline that is not Washington’s. The light on the harbour in the late afternoon is excellent for portraits.

How a Maryland Indian wedding weekend usually runs

When	What	Our note
Thursday	Haldi and mehndi at home or at the hotel	We arrive the day before; one photographer with each family
Friday evening	Sangeet in the hotel ballroom	Stage lit from the front; two photographers
Saturday morning	Ceremony at the temple or the hotel	Mandap lit in advance; baraat with the sun behind the groom
Saturday afternoon	Portraits by the water or in the city	Forty minutes, planned the day before
Saturday evening	Reception	Floor and stage lit; we stay to the end
Sunday	Brunch or a second reception in Baltimore	Added to the collection as one more event

Our guide to Indian wedding photography in Washington DC and Maryland goes deeper on each venue type, and planning a Hindu wedding in Virginia and the DMV covers the muhurtham and the three-day timeline.

The temple morning

Temple halls are lit warmly from above, and we set our own soft light around the mandap before the family sits down where the temple allows it; where it does not, fast lenses and positioning do the work. We follow each temple’s rules on flash, positions, footwear and dress, confirmed before the day, and the priest’s timing comes first. Our temple wedding photographer page explains how we work inside a temple, and the South Indian wedding page covers the dawn muhurtham that many Lanham ceremonies keep.

What a photographer from New Jersey brings

Two photographers and a film team travel together, the same people each time, and we arrive the day before to walk the venue and scout the portrait location. Surya is Telugu and grew up inside these ceremonies, so the moments are anticipated rather than explained to him on the day, and cinematography has been in-house since 2016, so one team works from one shot list. Couples receive a four-to-six-minute highlight film and a twenty-to-thirty-minute feature film with the vows and speeches recorded in full, and a licensed drone flies where the venue and the law allow. Travel within the DMV is included in every collection, and the proposal itemises the weekend to the dollar. Check your date and Surya replies personally within 24 hours; Northern Virginia and Richmond are on our Virginia page.

What couples wrote on Google

"Surya photographed our Chantilly wedding like he had been to a hundred of our family's functions. He knew which moments mattered before we did."

"Choosing Surya and his team for our wedding was one of the best decisions I have made. I was captivated by his work and wanted him to capture my two wedding ceremonies and reception." — Ashvini Yedla

Questions Maryland couples ask us