One of the nice things about shooting engagement sessions is that you really get to know your couple before the wedding. As a photographer I get to see beyond the facts and connect with the couple not as clients but as a bride and a groom in love and on this little mini journey to the wedding day. You get to find out where they met and what they do, or the stories behind the things that brought them together. One of those “things” is the dog they both cherish.

When Amanda asked if they could being her I thought it was an awesome idea.

I wanted this one image because I’ve never had a pair of sunglasses that I REALLY like, so I’m always a little bit envious of people with killer shades.

It’s the guy that usually needs a little convincing by his bride-to-be prior to the shoot. And it’s also the guy that realizes “wow, this isn’t such a bad deal after all. We can shoot THESE kinds of pictures any time you want, Ben.”

I just LOVE the look on her face! She’s like: “are they done yet?”

Ben Vigil, stay tuned for… Monica & Rich

I’ve known Meghan for a couple years now. She teaches at my son’s school and she has helped out Pure Fashion in various capacities, which I also help out by doing photography. She’s also BFF with Christina who I blogged about two posts ago. And Nick is the brother of one my wife’s best friends’ husbands. And he handles I.T. at the school. Meghan and Nick are getting married in December at the Ritz-Carlton Reynolds Plantation, which I am so looking forward to.

It turned out to be a really hot day but they were so very low stress and easy to work with especially in the “down” moments when I’m [supposedly] not snapping away, like this one.

This one is so cute to me.

They had a blast poking around in the water and it actually took quite a while for them to get up to the waterfall and back without killing themselves.

Love the light on these!

Ben Vigil, can’t wait until December.

These images have been “embargoed” for a little bit so David didn’t see his bride-to-be before the time was right — so I’ve been waiting to post these! I’m resting a bit after Laura and David’s amazing wedding yesterday but I wanted to take a moment to post these images.

Isn’t Laura just stunning!

Since this is my blog I get to start with my favorites first

If you’ve been to more than one or two weddings in Atlanta, you’ll recognize the setting immediately. This is the Imperial Ballroom at the Biltmore Ballrooms in Atlanta where their wedding reception was held yesterday.

Ben Vigil, honored.

As I write this post I’m thinking back to Peggy and Price’s wedding where Christina, my assistant back then, was being hit on by two different groomsmen and she had a guy calling her on the phone named “Garcia”. This former wasn’t unusual. She seemed to get hit on by VERY eligible groomsmen with clockwork regularity but the stalker guy (whom she had barely met) calling and leaving multiple messages on her phone was different. Kinda creepy, yeah, but different.

But I guess it’s not surprising that Garcia… er, Mike, kept calling because anyone who knows Christina knows that there’s no man on this planet that deserves her. See, I’ve known her since she was 12 years old and we all thought she was going to become a nun. No, really, a nun. Her oldest sister is a nun. She has two brothers who are priests. So it’s not so far fetched as it may seem in this crazy world we live in.

But now she’s all grown up and getting hitched… and I couldn’t be happier to be shooting their wedding in a couple months. It means that she’ll be back in Atlanta full-time and she can start assisting me again. Yeah, and I’m happy for Christina and Mike too. (You’re laughing right? That was a joke.)

Okay, enough about me — Christina and Mike:

Ben Vigil, shooting saints…

Sometimes it really important to double-check just to make sure…

:)