The Perils of Being Too Snap Happy

Last year, my brother got married, and it was a glorious three-day affair — a small celebration for the immediate family, the engagement, and the nuptials. We have around 450 pictures to show for it. Last year, one of my friends got married too. And here’s the list of albums she now has: pre-pre-wedding, engagement, the five functions, rings (a collection of 50 pictures of the jewels on their perfectly-manicured fingers) and ‘candid’ shots (all images posed for, of course). Is this what our world has come to? Do we need every single moment of our lives, whether public or intimate, captured on camera?

Probably. Why else would companies offer packages that include clicks of the rings, the trousseaus, each layer of the bride’s make-up and the brawl between drunken uncles? The business of wedding photography has become so grand that people spend more time mulling over the perfect lensman to hire — the one who’ll come up with the quirkiest Instagram hashtag for the couple — than their vows. They make an extra effort to wear that 20-kg lehnga and sequinned sherwani several days before the ceremony, just to look regal for the many pre-pre-wedding shoots. And here I am, dreading the elaborate effort it’s going to take to dress up even for just the big day.

But it doesn’t stop there. I’ve actually had a colleague explain how the ‘official honeymoon photographer’ trailed her and her new hubby all around a beach in Thailand to click their googly-eyed moments on their first trip as spouses. Wonder what happened to the good old selfie though. Surely, you can have a vacation without a kabab mein haddi following you around — I definitely wouldn’t want someone shoving their camera into my face when I’m whispering sweet nothings into my husband’s ear.

What’s next…the suhaag raat shoot? For the sake of all humanity, I do hope that isn’t the future of wedding photography!