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Nikitaa and Durgesh’s Haldi and Mehndi Night at Top of the Town in Arlington

The Team


Nikitaa and Durgesh celebrated their Haldi and Mehndi night at Top of the Town in Arlington, Virginia, a rooftop venue with a view of the city that became the backdrop for one of the most joyful nights of their wedding weekend.

There is a specific kind of energy to a Haldi and Mehndi night. It is not the ceremony itself, and it is not yet the reception. It is the in-between — the night when family who flew in from out of town finally sees each other, when the outfits that have been planned for months come out of garment bags, and when a couple gets a rare minute to simply look around a room and register who showed up for them.

What happens during a Haldi and Mehndi celebration

At Top of the Town, the rooftop was set with pink and gold drapery, marigold garlands, and gold lanterns, all of it framed by the Arlington skyline behind it. That setting mattered, but it was never the whole story. The real content of the evening was in the details around it — the application mehndi, Nikita’s father Rajesh reaching in to press haldi onto Nikita’s cheek, guests in yellow and green and pink kurtas laughing their way through the games that always seem to happen at these nights.

Dhol player Ganesh Jagtap kept the energy moving, and the food from Bollywood Bistro fed a rooftop full of people who had traveled to be there. Vendors like these do not show up in most of the photographs, but their work shapes the rhythm of the whole night — the same way it did for Kavya and Kyle’s wedding at Stonewall Golf Club, where a vendor team working in sync made everything else possible.

Why the small moments matter more than the wide shots

A Sangeet or a Haldi night can absolutely be photographed as a room full of color and choreography. That is not wrong. But years from now, the photograph that stops someone in their scrolling is rarely the wide shot of the whole rooftop.

It is a mother leaning in. A hand resting on another hand. Someone laughing just outside the frame. The particular expression Nikitaa made while her friends and family were celebrating all around her. The way Durgesh looked at her when nobody was asking him to look at anything.

By the end of the night, when the whole rooftop erupted into flower petals thrown into the air over Nikitaa and Durgesh, the picture told the truth of the evening better than any posed portrait could have — a family and a room full of friends all in one frame, mid-laugh, mid-throw, completely unposed.

This is the same instinct that shaped a night we photographed at Shatakshi and Madhu’s Sangeet at The Omni Homestead Resort — the belief that a sangeet is really a collection of small, in-between moments wearing a big, colorful night as a disguise. It is also why we tell couples, the way we explored in Isha and Kevin’s wedding story, that the best photographs often happen in the gaps nobody planned for.

Why this matters for the family, not just the couple

When Nikitaa and Durgesh first hired us, The Regeti’s, they said they were drawn to the vivid, timeless quality of the work and were trusting us with their wedding. After their first preview arrived, Nikitaa’s father Rajesh sent a message calling the photographs their precious memories, and told us he would be sharing them with family and friends back home.

That sentence has stayed with us. Because the job was never simply to hand two people a gallery of photographs. It is to preserve pieces of a family carefully enough that those pieces can travel — to another home, another country, and eventually another generation who will look at a rooftop in Arlington and understand exactly what it felt like to be there.

A joyful beginning to the weekend

The Haldi and Mehndi night at Top of the Town was only the opening chapter of Nikitaa and Durgesh’s wedding weekend, but it set the tone for everything that followed — loud, colorful, and full of people who came from far away simply because they loved them.

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    Caught this guy sneaking through our tripod legs in literally a split second — and honestly? He earned his own spot on the feed. The greenery collar, those eyes, the little bit of ceremony chaos happening just out of frame... this is why we always keep our cameras ready between the "official" shots.

Every wedding has a moment like this if you're paying attention. Got a four-legged member of your wedding party? Tell us about them in the comments — we want to hear!
    The real question to ask is to train or not to train... but honestly, sometimes a girl just has to say yes to the train! 😄 That sweep down the aisle, dad's steady arm, mom walking equally just beside her because gender roles are becoming less and less of a thing, and this Momma earned every step — this is the kind of walk that takes years to get to and mere seconds to happen. This has been life for us for 21 years now and  we still love capturing it, poof and all.

Got a dress with drama we need to document? Let's chat — drop a comment or DM us to talk about your big day!

@poplarspringsmanor
    This is what happens the second the photo is 'done' — the boys pile in and it turns into a full wrestling match of love. He's trying to keep his composure, they're absolutely not letting him, and this is the shot we snagged. The posed photo is nice, but THIS is the one that gets framed.

Tag a groomsman a groomsman that you love 👇

@poplarspringsmanor
    This shot stopped me in my tracks. There's a whole wedding party moving around them, string lights overhead, everyone laughing and talking at once — and these two are just looking at each other like the rest of the world hit pause. That's the moment I'm always chasing. You can pose a group all day long, but you can't fake this.

This is why we shoot the way we do — staying ready for the split second when the noise fades and it's just them. Got a wedding coming up and want photos that feel this real? Send us a DM, we'd love to hear about it.

@poplarspringsmanor
    What if I told you he won her over with a little bit of puppy love? It's true — this good boy showed up in his own greenery collar and absolutely stole the show (and every heart at this wedding, including mine). I love when couples bring their pets into the day, because that's family too, and years from now this is the photo that'll make them laugh and tear up all at once.

Got a four-legged family member who needs to be part of your wedding day? Let's talk — DM us or book a consult and we'll make sure they get their moment too.

#SouthAsianWeddings #IndianWeddings #WeddingPhotographersInVirginia #IndianWeddingPhotographersInVirginia #WeddingPhotography #RegetisPhotography #DogsOfInstagram #WeddingDog #VirginiaWeddingPhotographer #RealWeddings

@poplarspringsmanor
    Florals do SO much more than look pretty in photos. The blooms a couple chooses — the colors, the texture, whether it's a wild garden-gathered look or clean and structured like this one — tell us (and every guest, and every future viewer of these photos) exactly what kind of day this was. This bouquet? Classic, soft, a little romantic with all that trailing greenery. You can feel the whole wedding just from these flowers in her hands.

We notice this stuff because it matters — florals photograph completely differently depending on light, venue, even time of day. It's one of the many little things we're paying attention to on your wedding day. Curious what we'd notice at yours? Drop a comment or send us a DM 👇

@poplarspringsmanor
    Did you know?

At a Hindu wedding, a setup like this isn’t simply decoration.

What may look like coconuts, fruit, leaves, rice and metal vessels is actually part of the ritual language of the ceremony.

Many of these items are used during puja and wedding rites as offerings, symbols of abundance, purity, prosperity, fertility, nourishment and blessings for the couple beginning married life together.

The coconut, for example, is one of the most recognizable sacred offerings in Hindu ceremonies.

Bananas and other fruits are commonly offered as symbols of abundance and nourishment.

Leaves—often betel or mango depending on the tradition—may be used as part of ritual offerings and sacred arrangements.

The kalash, or ceremonial vessel, is also deeply symbolic and is often associated with life, prosperity and divine presence.

And then there are the smaller items that can be easy to overlook: rice, thread, flowers, powders, sweets and other offerings that become part of specific moments throughout the ceremony.

But here’s the important part:

Hindu weddings are not one universal ceremony.

What is used, when it is used and what it represents can vary tremendously by region, community, family tradition and the priest guiding the ceremony.

Which is exactly why we believe photographing a Hindu wedding requires more than simply knowing where to stand.

You have to understand that the objects matter.

The hands reaching for them matter.

The sequence matters.

And sometimes the photograph that seems like “just a detail” is actually documenting a ritual a family has practiced for generations.

That is why we photograph these things too.

Not because they are pretty.

Because they are part of the story.