A week-long Hindu wedding in Dubai

Nimesh and Rakhee's Dubai wedding was a week-long adventure that turned the whole emirate into a stage. It opened with a pre-wedding shoot deep in the sand dunes, then a spectacular Mehndi and Sangeet at a private Bedouin desert camp, complete with camels, Arabic coffee and dates, a Tanura dance show, belly dancing and mehfil singing. The Hindu ceremony unfolded on the lawns and private beach of the iconic Sofitel Dubai The Palm on Palm Jumeirah, the groom arriving for his baraat along the sand on a camel with the Palm as his backdrop, the rituals led by Kamal Pandey flown in from London. After a wedding lunch on the Sofitel's private lawn, guests were carried by private boat from the Dubai Marina Yacht Club on a tour of the city skyline, treated to a nighttime fly-board display against the lights of Dubai, and then, in the photographer's words, DJ H and Kudos Music took over and the party really got started. A desert camp, a beach resort and a yacht in one week means three completely different rigs and three power situations, none of them a normal ballroom. We plan a week like this backwards from the hardest load-in, which here was the boat. Kudos carried the energy across all three.