Because of the service I sell and the way I sell it, my clients and I always get to know each other before we ever start a business relationship.  We get to pick each other.  My clients pick me and I pick them.  Which means, I really enjoy all of my clients.  This wedding was no exception.  In fact, Hugh and Meghan are extra great clients because they are super casual and fun and Hugh is a very talented designer.  He designed all of the printed materials for his wedding, you will see them in the images at the serving tables, etc.  It is always liberating to have a client who is artistically inclined because they are always encouraging of you as a photographer to take certain risks and push the envelope.  And they never want anything traditional, which I appreciate.

The Inspirador has a nice room for the bride.  Many places don’t have much in the way of a bride’s room, but I was very pleased with the brides room here.  Every angle in the room was a nice angle with well thought out decor.  That’s always helpful to have the bride dressing in someplace other than a bathroom.  Although, here is an interesting note: beautiful and expensive dresses always come with an ugly plastic hanger.  You would think that it would come with a nice hanger, something delicate and pretty, but it comes with an ugly one.  And the Bride rarely thinks to bring a hanger for the dress, so I have to either find one on location (at a resort hotel, there is always a nice wood hanger, which isn’t delicate, but it doesn’t distract from the photo) or, I always have an extra one with me, just in case.  Anyway, if you are a photographer, you should always carry an extra hanger for the dress and if you are a bride, consider buying a hanger that is unique to you to hang the dress on when it is being photographed.

I love this kind of veil.  They are so beautiful.  I think it is because of the way it divides the eyes from the cheek bone.  It helps to define the face and subdivide it.  Plus the texture and pattern is extremely beautiful on its own.

As I mentioned, Hugh designed all of the printed material for the wedding and it was very good work.  I saw a lot of people really paying attention to the printed designs.  When you put that much effort into the design of your wedding, people really to pay attention.

We shot a lot of the portraits before the wedding, but we also shot a few after the ceremony, but of course, it was dark.  So we needed to light it.  This front gate at the Inspirador is quite beautiful, so we shot there with one off camera flash.  Setting up large flash equipment for each shot is just not feasible because we need to move around a bit, so we simply use a Canon 550 EX with a set of Pocket Wizards.  My assistant is standing off camera by about 30 degrees.  That’s the entire lighting set up.  Nothing fancy, but it certainly makes for a dramatic photo.

The ring shot is an opportunity for me to take a break from the wedding and all the distractions and just design something interesting.  When I worked in a commercial studio, I shot a lot of jewelry with lots of equipment, now I am challenged to do some interesting shots of the rings without all of the equipment.  In this case I am using candles for light, napkins for bouncing light and place cards to block the light in certain areas.  Of course then I do a little more burring and dodging in Lightroom (the computer) and we have a ring shot.  By the way, the rings are lying on the wedding program designed by Hugh.

Ah, the luck of the Irish: there was a definite Irish theme to the wedding.  The wedding was a few days after St. Patrick’s Day and Hugh is Irish.  It was fun.  Lots of green.  And Meghan even had a little porcelain horseshoe on her flowers.  The problem with a horseshoe on your flowers is that you MUST always keep the flowers upright, so the luck won’t spill out of the horseshoe.  I like having the bride hold her flowers down, I like setting the flowers in different places (not always upright), so this became a challenge throughout the day.  But I always like a challenge.

Good luck to you both Meghan and Hugh.  It was an absolute pleasure to be with you on your wedding day.