brian dorsey studios – new york wedding photographer – top 10 in the world – destination weddings

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I met Julie and Ian at a wedding that we shot in Anguilla in the spring and fortunately Matt and Ron were both still available for their wedding day.

They had such a great time working with Julie and Ian – they were all smiles telling us about the fun that everyone had that day.  Julie looked absolutely radiant.

In this shot, she awaits the moment for her father to walk her down the …

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Permalink: /index.php/2009/10/22/julie-ian-the-wedding-day-by-matt-and-ron/

Category: new york weddings

I don’t know what’s going on of late.  When I was a kid going to Bar Mitzvah’s and such there were never hora accidents.  People went up in a chair, they were bandied around a bit and then they came back down.  Simple tradition.  And with the exception of getting your toes stepped on pretty regularly – it was fun.

Recently, I’ve seen a number of hora accidents – including one bride getting tipped over and dumped head first right out of her chair from 7 feet up.  And we’re talking landing on her head.  Nothing kills a good hora like dumping a bride.  She was a real trooper and got right back in that chair and went up again.  But it had the possibility of being really ugly.

So in an effort to save everyone from the pain and embarrassment of dumping their honoree – here are the rules of lifting someone in a chair during the hora.

1.  Lend a hand.  Guys, it’s your responsibility.  You don’t have to be Jewish to pick up the chair.  And you don’t have to be a bodybuilder.   Don’t stand around  wondering if you’re going to get called on to participate – help.  You need at least six or eight guys of average strength per chair.  Preferably two per leg.

2.  Get a decent chair.  Never use a folding chair.  It really should be a chair with with arms.  If there are no arms, consider having your honoree straddling the chair and hold the back.  Note:  Moms don’t want to straddle chairs nor do most brides.  Go look harder for an arm chair.  Hopefully someone thought this through before the music started…

3.  Keep the chair tilted back slightly at all times.  Never let the chair tip forward or to the side.  This means that the people holding the rear legs can’t lift the chair as high as the guys in the front.  Pretty simple concept but pay attention to it.

4. Don’t overbounce.  It’s a celebration, not a mosh pit.  This is not an opportunity to show off your strength.  Don’t let a couple of cocktails make you an overeager bouncer.

5. Watch out for overhead items.  Don’t put the chair in the center of the dance floor if there’s a low hanging chandelier there.  Ouch.

6.  Slowly put down the back legs of the chair first keeping the same level of tilt that you had above.  Guys, be sure you don’t let the chair leg snag your jacket or pants pocket on the way down.

7.  Jew or gentile, if you’re not helping with the chair then you must sing.  It doesn’t matter that you don’t really know the words.  Few do in this country.  But there’s only 14 words in the entire song.   Learn to fake them with confidence.  They are:

hava nagila

The digraph ch is pronounced like the German ch after a back vowel, as in Bach.

OK, now let’s rejoice!

i learned something really interesting the other day when one of my potential clients (now officially a client) was viewing my portfolio.  they told me that they were under the impression that many of my images had been set up or staged when in fact, they were 100% true photojournalism.  so i thought it best to clarify this.  with the exception of the brief period of time that we’re out “taking pictures”, I don’t direct, “suggest”, or “do that again” to anything.

case in point is this shot from liliana and jeff’s wedding.

in this shot liliana is pinning her “something blue” inside her dress and her bridesmaids, sitting on the bed, are reflected in the mirror.  this looks like some painfully crafted set up – with each bridesmaid being told precisely where and how to sit when in fact, this is exactly how the scene presented itself.  the world does magical things on its own if you just keep your eyes open and react quickly enough to capture it.

below, the flower girl is trying unsuccessfully to make jeff disappear.

ok, for this one I told people where to stand…

There’s so much to share from Lynda & Michael’s wedding I almost don’t know where to start…

The wonderful invitations: which are so cool not only because they’re simply beautiful, but also because nowhere do they mention the words wedding or marriage – it’s all about love.

Lynda worked as an Art Director for many years for such prestigious publications as Vogue. And you can tell she brought her AD’s style eye to everything.

Of course, none of that happens without and awesome event planner/florist behind it all. The fabulous Claire Bean did all the work for Lynda’s wedding. Claire is one of the best in the Hamptons. She’s does flowers like nobody else. She shared with us this time how she flys overseas to develop relationships directly with the growers and has her flowers shipped directly to her – so they end up a couple of day’s fresher than if she went through the NY flower markets. The difference shows.

Wolffer Vineyards has this wonderful little gazebo in the middle of their vineyard. How cute is that?

Michael’s son played a song on the guitar and everyone joined in the fun.

But Claire’s flowers were the show stealers.

I mean, if you’re going to have a meal in a vineyard, this is really the way to do it.

Stunning, right?

And of course, the self-portrait studio was a HUGE hit!

We even jumped in for a shot:

That’s Kacy and Matt (our associates), Claire Bean (florist extraordinaire), Celeste (our producer and my better half) and some guy laughing like an idiot.

Is it too late in the season to show pictures wearing linen?

Thought I’d share a few shots from Mary and Adam’s wedding that we shot a little while ago.

She had on one of the most amazing dresses I had ever seen.

It had so much wonderful detailing.

It’s great to have a suite like those at the Waldorf when you’re getting ready. There’s enough room to find some great angles on what’s going on.

They looked so good that I thought I’d take a cover shot on spec. Just in case…

Just wanted to quickly get a few images up from Carrie and Brian’s wedding.

Didn’t she look great?

These guys rocked!

But alas, I did find a backstabber among the guests…

Not only are Joanne and Anthony a lot of fun, but their friends are a blast as well. They had their reception here in my neighborhood at Tribeca Rooftop and the couple left some time for pictures in the area following their ceremony and before their reception started.

Now, as a person who doesn’t really like having my own picture taken (having spent waaaayyyy too much time as a kid feigning a smile while waiting for my Dad to focus and push the button and – wait, hang on, I forgot to cock the shutter…), I’m really sensitive to others’ “in front of camera” time. I do my “formals” or non-photojouralistic portraits really quickly. I find that if I keep things moving and lively and fun – people really don’t have time to think about the fact that they’re in front of my camera. And because this is a day of celebration (and very often, there’s an open bar a-waiting) I don’t want to keep people any longer than the absolute minimum.

But the funny thing is that, if you make the entire picture taking process fun enough, people can actually enjoy the time they spend with you.

Joanne and Anthony and their wedding party took it even further – they didn’t want to stop.

I kept asking if they wanted to stop and they kept saying, “no, this is a blast, let’s keep going”. And who was I to say otherwise. So even though I would have been happy just to get a shot like this:

(will you just look at the expression on that flowergirl?)

They wanted to do more and so we got this…

and this.

I mean, when I saw T&A coffee – I just had to do something funny with the bridesmaids…

Tribeca Rooftop is a wonderful space for those looking for something upscale downtown – great views, a huge, fun, loft space, a roofdeck.

And check out the great “interactive” menus – those fun little folding paper thingys that you played with when you were a kid.

At this size you probably can’t appreciate all the great goings on in this shot but many of the expressions are priceless.