Marilyn and Ben:
The Gallery Venue at Tomas Wedding

I had a fantastic time with this wonderful Kentucky couple, and their friends and family at their Gallery Venue at Tomas wedding! We started out with a first look and some group shots of the wedding party at the NOPSI Hotel in downtown New Orleans before heading to The Gallery for the ceremony and reception.

The couple snuck out of the reception with me for a few minutes for some portraits in that perfect early evening light, and near the end of the night We Dat’s Food Truck showed up!

I loved the shallow rectangular dish that the bride supplied for the ring shot. The “getting ready” portion of the wedding day is a good opportunity to capture these kinds of detail shots if the couple so desires, such as jewelry, the bouquet, invitations, etc., though it’s important to allow sufficient time for these photographs, as they do sometimes take a while to set up. When I have a second photographer working with me, and if the logistics allow (primarily if the guys are getting ready at the same hotel), I’ll typically have her work on these detail shots as I’m shooting the girls getting ready, before she heads to the guys’ room for their getting ready shots.

For efficiency, it’s also a very good idea to have all of these various elements that you want photographed gathered in one place before I arrive. I very much appreciated this particular bride, who had everything in a box ready to go when I got there! She also included some loose flowers from her florist (known in the industry as “flat-lays”), which can come in handy when setting up these shots.

Wedding coordinator Paige with Beth’s Flowers was great to work with as usual.

Here’s what the bride had to say after the wedding:

Michael was a fantastic choice for us. His photos were beautiful, his communication was fast, and he was very professional. I would highly recommend him to everyone!!