Unless you’ve been living under a rock you probably heard about Eva Longoria selling her wedding images for 2 million dollars to OK Magazine.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to shoot that wedding. As a photographer, I know that when you book a wedding like this you pretty much can’t tell anybody. It’s the booking that you want to tell EVERYBODY about but you can’t anyone. So on the online photography forums there’s been a lot of buzz about who might be shooting their wedding. As it turns out, it was shot by Bob and Dawn Davis, who are very well respected and couldn’t be nicer people both online and off. OK Magazine finally published the issue and there’s a teaser online…

What’s cool, is that we can take a look at their blog to get a “behind the scenes” view on what it was like and Gary Fong also posted a very cool and detailed chat session he had with Bob right afterwards.
So a big huge congrats to Bob and Dawn and I can’t wait to see all the amazing images you won’t see on the news.

Ben Vigil, all my brides are stars.

It was only a matter of time. This Sunday the New York Times ran a half-page full-color article (”Is This Any Way to Treat Vera Wang?“) about a trend that is finally becoming mainstream enough that most brides have at least heard of it: Trashing the Dress.

They even have a slideshow with some images from some of the best known photographers in our industry.

So what is Trashing the Dress?

Over at trashthedress.com they get that question all the time, and here’s their answer:

Go ahead, you know you want to. Trash it. Get it dirty. Get it wet. Roll around in the mud. Drench it in the ocean. Totally trash it.

Why? … Why not? You’ve made a commitment to your husband. He’s your one and only true love, right? Then you’ll never need the dress again. And no, your daughter won’t wear it in 20-30 years. So you have two choices:

1. Suffocate it in plastic and throw it in a closet
2. Show your husband how committed you are by trashing the dress, and get some great fun pictures while you do it!

There is also a great post from the bride’s prospective that pretty much sums up what most brides are thinking who want to do this. Some brides buy a second cheap dress to trash in place of their $8,000 Vera Wang dress. Some say the actual wedding dress is the only way to go. Keep in mind that frolicking around in the ocean or jumping in the pool doesn’t usually trash your dress, but rolling around in a gutter probably will.

Whatever the case, in the end, it’s all about the images.

So for just a few moments, imagine…

Ben

I wanted to give a BIG HUGE CONGRATULATIONS and a little blog love to Matt Adcock and Sol Tamargo who got married this past weekend.

Well, kinda.

It’s all legal now in the states but they are doing the big wedding bash down in Mexico later this year. Matt and Sol are both amazing award winning photographers who have become good friends. Matt has been one of the biggest influences on my development as a photographer (whether he knows it or not) — it was very refreshing to meet a photographer with his passion and who was eager to share information with the dork that kept bugging him with silly questions.

I know Sol is going get him all cleaned up and respectable.

Congratulations!

Ben

One of the cool little features of the stats software that I use for tracking usage on my site is this cool little map that shows where all my visitors are coming from in the last week. I can zoom in and out and drag the map all around the world like any other Google map and I often wonder what people in SPAIN, London, or Dubai, or Brussels are thinking as they browse my site. Or maybe those visitors from Italy are wondering if they should book me to shoot their wedding at the Vatican. Hmmm…

So which one of the little orange drops below are you?

Ben Vigil, International Wedding Photographer

This post has been a long time in coming. The embargo has ended.

I was quite flattered a few months back when Susan Graham (a local wedding coordinator who I have blogged about many times) asked if I could do her a favor — but I had to keep it a secret. Her and Sean were going to elope and get married in Mexico and they wanted me to come along and photograph it. As the mid-January date got closer they did end up telling their close friends and family but it was still a surprise to most people. But that meant that I couldn’t show the images until they had their big reception party this past weekend. I thought I’d wait a few more days so I could incorporate the reception images into the slideshow.

I had a blast in Mexico pal’ing around with Tom from SCG Productions (definitely one of the better video houses in Atlanta). It was quite an experience having Susan and Sean to ourselves for the better part of a week with some incredible scenery to play with, incredible hospitality everywhere we went and summer weather in January.

If you’re impatient ** CLICK HERE ** to view the slideshow! There’s just too many images to share so I think I am going to break them up into a few posts but here are a few to start with. I’m telling ya.. it’s tough when you have scenery like this everywhere you go…

We got started at the Hacienda Puerta Campeche in Campeche, Mexico which is about 2 hours south of Merida on the east side of the Yucatan peninsula. A few details…can you really go wrong when it says Tiffany’s on the box?

For the ceremony Susan and Sean had chosen Hacienda Uayamon, which is a collection of Haciendas situated among anchient Mayan ruins. The staff had lit the area with torches and candles we all joked that we had accidentally walked onto the set of Survivor. You’ll see more images from Uayamon tomorrow…back to the ceremony. By mid-way through the ceremony it was basically dark and the glow from the candlelight was the perfect ambiance…

(for you photogs out there, the last half of the ceremony was shot at ISO 3200, f/2.8 @ 1/20 sec.)

The next day we got more shots and even went back to the place where the ceremony was the day before. I’ll post those next time…

Katie Torres and Matt Yung were on hand to help me out at the reception and they got some stellar images. They had it rough eating some of the finest Mexican food Bold American can offer and sipping margaritas.

Check out these images from Matt…

Katie rocked too, even if she still shoots Nikons (sorry, dorky photographer humor there)…

Isn’t that mariachi just amazing???

Oh yeah… I took pictures at the reception too. Did I mention that it was at the tré cool King Plow Arts Center?

Cheers!

Ben

I got the great news today that I was accepted into the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA)!

Over the past year a few brides have asked me if I was a member and the honest truth is that I had never applied. There are a lot of advantages of membership so during the busy wedding season I had set a goal of applying to the WPJA before the end of year. Now, you don’t just join the WPJA. You apply and then they decide if you join or not, so I was really happy to get an acceptance email from them this morning. The WPJA is notoriously strict in it’s membership and strives to represent the “elite” of wedding photographers from all over the photojournalism world.

This is how the WPJA describes itself:

Leading the way in Wedding Photojournalism, WPJA represents the most discriminating talent around the world technically, creatively and visually. Qualified members hold industry-leading standards, skills and business integrity.

The Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA), an International, membership-based organization, represents professional photographers skilled in the documentation of weddings and events in a candid, unobtrusive style. The WPJA was founded to uphold excellence in the area of wedding photojournalism.

Candid. Unobtrusive.

If there’s anything we get complimented about, it’s how laid back and easy we are to work with. That’s because, as much as possible, we try to capture the candid shots in the most unobtrusive way possible. The moment your photographer starts bossing you around it’s no longer your day. I can’t tell you how many times people have accidentally walked in front of the camera and then apologized. Or they wait until they think it’s safe to pass. But I always smile and tell them, “Don’t worry! Just ignore us. Pretent we’re not there.” And every time I say it, I truly mean it! It doesn’t take but a few minutes for us to blend into the scenery. And people get it, and they appreciate it.

But my favorite is when I’m capturing a pensive moment or a serene scene and the person you’re shooting sees you and tries to “get out of the way” saying, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to ruin the shot.” I look them all funny and say, “But you were the shot!” They usually let out a chuckle, and now they get it too.

Your wedding day is not about your photographer, it’s about you!

Ben

I’ve been wanting to post on this topic for a long time and the opportunity finally came up.

I had a wonderful meeting last night with a potential client at a local restaurant called Goldfish. The food was quite good (grilled salmon…hmmmm) and I had a great time getting to know them. I’m gonna shoot their wedding. I just know it. I can feel it in my bones.

Aside: I’m tragically un-hip. I don’t watch tv. I don’t own a tivo. But I did buy my wife an iPod, so that counts for something I guess. Anyway, if you ask me anything that begins with “Have you seen that new show…”, chances are we can cut to the chase because the answer is no. But when a restaurant has a one hour seating wait and is jam packed on a Wednesday night with loads of people that are clearly more hip than me, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know it’s hip.

Well, we got on the topic of the value (or not) of wedding coordinators and planners. Having been at all kinds of weddings, I can say this: except in one case, the weddings where the bride and groom have hired a coordinator have gone smoother, had less mishaps and been less stress on the bride and groom. One of my past grooms that I did a video interview for an upcoming project with, put it this way: “The stress of the groom is directly related to the stress of the bride. When you hire a wedding coordinator, the bride is not stressed. When the bride is not stressed, the groom is not stressed. And I like that.”

I’m going to pick on Susan Graham of Bella Sera Weddings and Events. If you’re following my blog, I’ve mentioned her before and I’ve had a chance to work with her a few times. And before you ask, I don’t get any kickbacks/referral fees from other vendors and I don’t give them out. I know that some people operate that way, but I don’t think it’s ethical or in the best interest of the bride and groom when money is flowing behind the scenes. But when I come across a great videographer like Ben Morgan and his team at Sanctified Crack Gorilla or amazing caterers like Lisa Hill and all the folks at Bold American Catering I like to plug them.

This is what a wedding planner/coordinator will do for you…

They walk you through the game plan, keep track of everybody and keep everybody on time and on the same page.

So while they’re working you get to really relax and enjoy your day.

When the flower girl rips the flowers out of her hair, they take care of it.

They are there to make your dad look his best for his little girl on her wedding day.

When is starts to drizzle during your wedding photos…

And how’s this for an endorsement — a bride and a former bride turned bridesmaid.

Of course, she’s going to kill me for posting that photo but I’m fairly certain she’ll get over it.

So I guess you know by now how I feel about the matter. After you’ve chosen the best photographer to shoot your wedding , if you can swing it, make it happen. You won’t regret it.

Ben

More Valentine’s Day fun!! Here are some more stats I just ran across, curtesy of The Wedding Report

These stats are for Atlanta, GA (30308):

• 4,810 estimated weddings (30308 only)
• Total wedding cost: $31,500.00
• $2,164.00 on Wedding Attire
• $2,747.00 on Wedding Ceremony
• $1,298.00 on Wedding Favors & Gifts
• $1,336.00 on Wedding Flowers
• $2,044.00 on Wedding Jewelry
• $1,084.00 on Wedding Music
• $3,125.00 on Wedding Photography & Video
• $16,093.00 on their Wedding Reception
• $951.00 on Wedding Stationery
• $662.00 on Wedding Transportation.

The total estimated Georgia weddings in 2005 was 53,960!

Ben

The first of a couple Valentine’s Day posts. A fellow photographer posted this on his blog that I thought you brides-to-be might find interesting…

Here are some interesting wedding statistics according to a recent article published on CNNMoney.com:

• weddings cost an average of $27,852
• the average age for a bride is 27, for a groom it’s 29
• average household income for a bride and groom is $74,000
• engagement period average is 14 months
• 2.3 million Americans will get married this year
• each weekend will see 44,230 weddings (that’s a lot of photographers! )
• there will be 380 million wedding guests
• 16 % of all couples are choosing a destination wedding — a 400% increase in the last 10 years!
• the average cost of a destination wedding is $25,806 with an average of 63 guests
• 15% of all proposals happen in the month of December
• this year only 30% of all weddings will be paid for entirely by the parents of the bride while 32% of brides and grooms pick up the tab themselves
• 99% of the brides were proposed to (does this mean 1% of the grooms were proposed to????)
• 81% of brides will take their husband’s last name

Ben