Tag Archives: Brian Steele

Jessica & Scott at Montaluce Winery – Dahlonega, GA

I first met Jessica and Scott at a bridal event at Montaluce Winery & Estates up in Dahlonega, GA last year. The event was sponsored by Modern Luxury’s Atlantan Brides magazine and though I wasn’t a vendor in the show, I really wanted to check out the winery because I heard so many good things about it. Afterwards, Rob and Jennifer (the then-owners of Montaluce), invited a number of us to stay for dinner (as an aside, I do have to say, dinner that evening was definitely in my top ten meals ever). Also at dinner that night was Rob and Amy Osaba from Amy Osaba Event Floral Design. Sitting to my right was Rob and to my left, between Amy and I, was our bride and groom… Jessica and Scott.

It wasn’t until months later that I got a call from them inquiring about having us cover their wedding day at Montaluce. The best part is that it took us a while to put two and two together that we had already met at Montaluce… total coincidence. As it turns out, Jessica had also hired Amy Osaba Event Floral Design who does just fabulous work as you can see below.

Montaluce Winery is about an hour north of Atlanta, beautifully situated in the North Georgia mountains with some breathtaking views!

Here’s her dress hanging next to her grandmother’s wedding dress. This is a special photo for Jessica!

Did I forget to mention that Raney O’Keefe, Extraordinaire, was on hand to doing hair and makeup?

Check out this awesome Cadillac from Classy Car Limo!

This is one of my favorites details of the day, captured by my second shooter, Brian Steele. What are the chances he could catch the flower girl running by in the reflection of the hub cap?!?! Amazing job!

Robert Rogers on bagpipes announced the beginning of the wedding ceremony and serenaded their exit. Highly recommended!

Jessica and Scott chose to have the ceremony in the production room where the wine is actually made. How cool it that?

Also, a shoot out to DJ Dobbs from Spectrum Entertainment who was in the house to keep the reception moving. Awesome!

Congratulations Jessica and Scott!

Jennifer & Jeff in Atlanta, GA

I knew from the day that I met Jennifer and Jeff that I wanted to shoot their wedding. Pretty much the entire wedding day confirmed what I thought when I met them… Jennifer was all about having a fabulous time on her wedding day and Jeff was going to make sure that happened. From the kids to the family to the guests, everyone had a great time!

This was the first time that I had covered a wedding at the Biltmore Ballrooms since their electrical fire the day before the last wedding I shot there. This was also my first time working a wedding with Ashley from Ashley Baber Weddings. We had worked other events together where Bold American had asked me to shoot decor imagery, but never a wedding together. As I suspected she would, she did a stellar job and made everything flow smoothly. [As an aside, I'm going to do a blog post soon about why you absolutely need to hire a wedding planner if you are a bride getting married.]

Check out these shoes that Bryan Scott shot. Do they have attitude or what?

Check out this bouquet by On Occasions of Atlanta

Food and decor was provided by Affairs to Remember

Okay, I have to admit that this isn’t the most artistic picture in the world, but wanted to include it because I was so impressed with the job that Celso’s did. This cake was immaculate!

Isn’t Jennifer STUNNING!

Here’s the exit shot that I’ve talked about before and that I’ve grown to really love and appreciate…

Congratulations Jennifer and Jeff!

Facebook readers: CLICK HERE to view the slideshow.

Vendors:

Planning Coordination: Ashley Baber Weddings
Ceremony/Reception Venue: Biltmore Ballrooms
Food and Decor: Affairs to Remember
Florals: On Occasions of Atlanta
Wedding Cake: Celso’s
Limo: Classy Car Limo
DJ: Lou Guzzo, Spectrum Entertainment
Hair: Salon Verde, Andrea Hess
Makeup: Ebony Crawley
Babysitting: Elegant Event Sitters

Atlanta Occasions Magazine Launch Party

Heather Vreeland has been working hard as of late! She’s the creator of the Atlanta Occasions website and as of last Thursday, she’s the publisher of a brand new magazine for event professionals of all kinds: Atlanta Occasions Magazine. And I must say, the magazine is beautiful!

ASIDE: Oh, and you may have noticed that my site has changed just a bit…everything is bigger, everything better… but I’ll get to that later.

Wow… what a launch! Heather asked us to cover the magazine launch and of course I was excited to help out. Atlanta Occasions took over the Foundry at Puritan Mill, Tony Brewer and Company provided the decor and Doc from Full Circle Lighting provided the lighting. Everything was all wrapped up in a package by Eliana Baucicault at By Your Side Events.

Check out these amazing treats from Mindy over at M Cupcakes!

These bottom-lit tables provided some fantastic ambiance.

The official welcome from Heather.

For event pros who are always behind the scenes, they sure didn’t have any problems on the dance floor!

Joel Rabe from Lethal Rhythms was on hand to keep the music pumping and everybody on the dance floor.

Here’s a plug for my new photographer buddy, Patrick Williams, his wife and his designer. We commiserated a bit after I dropped and broke my precious $1800 Nikon 14-24 lens.

Somebody’s having some fun…

Congratulations Heather!!!

Check out the slideshow below. If you’re looking for ALL the red carpet images CLICK HERE after you watch the slideshow.

Enjoy the show!

Jenny & Dave in Tuscaloosa, AL

Back in the fall of last year when I broke a bunch of toes and was couch-ridden for over a week, all I could do was watch tv and try to get some work done on my 17″ MacBook Pro (which my wife affectionately nicknamed my “precious”, a Lord of the Rings Gollum reference). That’s when Jenny emailed me about her wedding. So we emailed back and forth and 24 hrs later it was pretty much a done deal. Lysa Parker from Twisted Hip (awesome, awesome band, btw, you should HIRE THEM NOW) sent her my way because Jenny had hired them already.

Every step of the way since then. Jenny and Dave have been perhaps the nicest couple I’ve ever met, and THAT’S saying a LOT! I was emailing Lysa after the wedding and here’s what she said: Ben, you are DA MAN! I can’t believe what great shots you get. Thank y… oh wait, wrong part… here it is:

That had to be the nicest couple we’ve ever played for. So incredibly thoughtful from the start to finish.

And that pretty much sums it up.

Here’s a few from their engagement session the week before the wedding.

My associate, Huy Cat, was on hand to second shoot and Brian, who’s always THE MAN, was assisting.

Speaking of …, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before. All these photos have something in common. I’ll tell you what that is after you see the images.

Here’s the secret: every single one of those photos was shot by Huy or Brian. After every wedding we get the same two compliments: someone will say “man, you guys were everywhere… working hard”, then somebody else will say, “I can’t believe you get those photos, I hardly saw you the entire night.” My personal opinion is that it’s nearly impossible to do a wedding justice with just one photographer. Sure you can do it, and sure you’ll get “most” of the same images, but you end up sacrificing moments. The moments between the “important” parts. Sometimes it’s those moments that a bride cherishes forever.

That’s why with every wedding collection you book, you’ll get 2 full-time photographers covering your wedding, and during the important parts, probably 3, since my assistants can shoot too. In the end, I shoot 60-70% of the images but I process every single one myself — I don’t farm it out to some worker in a third-world country or a kid on the west coast.

Okay… sorry for the tangent. :) — back to Jenny and Dave.

Check out the slideshow… and don’t forget to watch it full-screen with the icon in the bottom right corner.

Enjoy!

Ben Vigil — Skotti & Tony (part 3) is up next…

Joanne & Dan at the King Plow

Congratulations to Joanne and Dan Garton!

They were both so calm, cool and collect on their wedding day. Okay, Dan was bit nervous but he wasn’t letting anybody know. One thing that’s nice about Jewish weddings is they tend to be much more relaxed by the time the ceremony rolls around because the signing of the Ketubah has already taken place, the jitters are gone and everybody’s ready to celebrate!

They got married at the Event Gallery at the King Plow Arts Center (the “Plow”), home of Bold American Catering, who handled the catering and decor. Like they always do, they did a amazing job. It been too long since I’ve worked with Susan Graham but it was just like old times. She was fantastic keeping everything orderly and on cue. It’s so relaxing when a good coordinator is on board.

My trusty associate, Huy, was along for this wedding and this is one of those shots that he is so good at:

I love this moment. It’s not the usual view of the cermony but…

Floral were handled by Eva Behrendt and her team at by Tulip. I’m always in awe of their work! You’ll see their work above and below and throughout the slideshow.

And a quick mention to my new friends with Atlanta Beat who provided great music for the evening. This same image is in the slideshow in b&w.

For the slideshow music, I chose to use the song that Joanne and her father danced to for the father/daughter dance. It’s the song “Sunrise, sunset”, which I was surprised to find in over 120 different versions on iTunes going back to the 1950’s. Don’t forget to watch it full-screen with the icon in the bottom right corner.

Enjoy!

Ben Vigil, photography at the King Plow Fine Arts Center, Atlanta