Tag Archives: By Tulip

Featured: Elizabeth Anne Designs (& #marketing 2)

Some people I know in the wedding industry occasionally chide me for being so bad at marketing my own business. Aside from some of the practical matters involved — finding time to blog, editing and retouching images that sometimes might never otherwise see the light of day (in the case of personal posts), creating wedding slideshows, finding the perfect music, tracking down vendors for proper credits, etc., — you (or at least I) also have to deal with the strong aversion I have to being “sold”, to people who are always seem to have their sales hat on, and people who generally seem to have no problem with talking about themselves endlessly. And I mean END. LESS. LY.

Let’s face it, I’m a photographer because I love being the outsider looking in and experiencing the lives of others through the lens. I adore the idea that I can immortalize a moment and at the same time create a work of art. It’s just amazing that I can do that and at the same time remain relatively invisible. I like being invisible. I like it when people to look at me and see my work. Not me.

And that, my friends, is the problem. I don’t much like promoting “me” because I’m afraid I’ll come off like an attention grabbing narcissist. See, marketing in the photographic industry, with the help of the social media sphere, has rather swiftly morphed into the race to be the most liked, have the most fans and create the most buzz… and relatively little of that has anything to do with your work. In fact, a few of the photographer rockstars (the term “rockstar” is used in a derogatory way as much as it’s used in a complimentary way these days) have been to more workshops than they have shot weddings. Unfortunately the average bride would never know that.

So all that blabbering above is the reason I sometimes don’t like posting about my personal life and how great I am for shooting Usher, or Brian Littrell from the Back Street Boys and his wife, or this or that photoshoot. I love doing what I do and in the end I just want you to see the work. But I promise that I’ll try to do a little better in 2011.

All that said, this falls into the “stuff I never blogged” category…

Back in November we were featured on the Elizabeth Anne Designs blog for a photoshoot we did with a number of other vendors, all coordinated by Jeannine Kennedy with FAVOR Events. The shoot was at a private residence north of Atlanta and the blog featured a bunch of the images from the shoot…

In addition to a few larger images of ones that she featured on the blog, here are a number of my favorites they didn’t blog:

Here is a list of vendors that participated in the shoot:

Event design/styling: FAVOR Events
Florals: Tulip
Venue: Privately owned farm in North Georgia
Linens: BBJ Linens
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals
Invitations: Southern Fete
Jewelry: Anthropologie
Gowns: Chaviano Couture
Model: Angela Wolff with CLICK Models

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

Monica & Rich in Atlanta, GA

WOW! Wow! Wow!

That’s all I can say.

Okay, maybe not…. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to hang out with Monica and Rich all day. They are such a blast (you’ll see it in the images) and obviously just love life and live it to the fullest. When I met with Monica and Rich we hit it off right away and it turns out that we know a lot of the same people and walk in the same circles, so to speak. Rich is a youth minister at the church were I grew up (some of my family still goes there) and Monica works at a Catholic high school on the other side of Atlanta. Rich’s job explains all the young folk you’ll see in the slideshow.

Monica and Rich’s wedding was #3 in a row with the AMAZING Susan Graham of Susan Graham Signature Events and everybody at Bold American Catering. There’s a lot of eye candy in this show so sit back and relax while you watch the show — the music is a lot different than my usual wedding music but it fits Monica and Rich perfectly. Jason Spruill, a.k.a. Weddings by Jason, another amazing Atlanta photographer, came out to help me cover all the bases and did an amazing job. And again, my trusty assistant Brian Steele made anything possible.

This slideshow has a TON of images so unless you’re on a decent DSL/Cable connection I’d suggest that you click once below to start the slideshow downloading and then click again to pause it and wait a little bit (maybe 15 or 30 seconds) before pressing play again. Same goes for the full-screen version, which you can view by clicking the last icon on the bottom right.

Enjoy!

Here are the event details:

Ceremony: Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Reception: Foundry at Puritan Mill
Coordination: Susan Graham Signature Events
Catering/Event Design/Linens: Bold American
Videography: SCG Productions
Cake: Caryn’s Cakes
Florals: Tulip
Hair/Makeup:Josie La Bara, Maria Hekscher Salon / Michael Lynch, Blue Med Spa

Ben Vigil — Photographer, having a blast

Alice and Adam in Atlanta, GA

What an amazing and pleasurable wedding this was for me!

I must say, Alice and Adam take the award for the most relaxed and calm bride and groom of the year. It reminds me of that line in Pride and Prejudice toward the end, the father speaking to his just-engaged daughter, “You’re each of you so complying that nothing will ever be resolved on.” The entire day was such a pleasure.

Of course, Huy Cat was on hand to shoot with me and Susan Graham did another stellar job.

This is a new way that I will be posting these slideshows: right here in the blog so you don’t have to open a new window to view the show. You can also click through the images one by one and see a ton of them, not just a few that I chose for the blog. Of course, there’s also a FULL SCREEN option if you prefer — just click the little button at the bottom right of the slideshow and you’ll get to see bigger images.

Enjoy!

Here are the event details:

Location: King Plow Event Gallery
Coordination: Susan Graham Signature Events
Catering/Event Design/Linens: Bold American
Cake: Frosted Pumpkin
Florals: Tulip
Hair/Makeup: The Moore Agency, Steve Moore

Ben Vigil — Photographer, King Plow, Jewish Wedding