We all know it’s important to dance with your beloved. But don’t forget your friends! Not only does it make for good photos, it makes for good memories.
photo: Gia Canali
Archive for the 'Inspiration' Category
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Merry Christmas, friends. I hope the holidays are dazzling and warm for you this year.
photo: Gia Canali
Your wedding is not the ultimate statement of who you are as a couple. I mean: your wedding should certainly reflect you two more than it reflects just the idea of wedding. Of course. But—and I know this is hard, and that my husband and I didn’t quite manage it ourselves when we wed—don’t let yourselves get out of hand. Weddings are really just a public acknowledgment, an affirmation, marking the beginning of the adventure of your (official) partnership—kind of like a bon voyage. Our parents and grandparents had such different weddings. They walked to the county courthouse, or married at a neighborhood church, with a party in Grandma’s back yard. These weren’t grand affairs, at least not in my family, but I have such romantic ideas about them: my parents and grandparents have beautiful photographs by which I still imagine those weddings.
Weddings are now so much bigger and more splendid and more extraordinary in design and scope than I possibly could have imagined when I was a little girl. When we all were. But. How you live your married life, each and every day, or rather the sum of your days, eventually becomes a much more powerful testimony of who you are as a couple. So, plan the wedding you imagine, great or small, near or far, lavish or serene. I hope it is a wonderful and honest celebration (and that the photographs are fantastic, too!). I’m just saying, I hope your marriage is even more marvelous. Were it up to me, and were my husband and I so extraordinarily lucky, I’d rather let our fiftieth anniversary than our wedding be that ultimate statement of who we are together.*
photo: Gia Canali
p.s. My husband says I should say that perhaps the “tip” here, if there really is one, is to plan your wedding for the couple you want to become.
I found this photo while I was digging through my archives, searching for something else. It’s such a happy find! LA is a bit dreary today, even though we are all pretty thrilled about the rain (we wait for it ever-so-long …).
photo: Gia Canali
This is just for fun! Sometimes weddings (and soon-to-be-wed couples) can take themselves a little too seriously. I love when a groom has the panache and playfulness to pull off a polka-dotted tie.
photo: Gia Canali
This past weekend, I stumbled upon an exhibition of Lillian Bassman photographs here in LA. The photographs were stunning—and, as Emily Dickinson would say, I felt as if the top of my head were taken off. I couldn’t believe I’d never seen Bassman’s work before. Each woman she photographed was a classic beauty in the way people used to describe old-time movie stars and models. Long necks and long evening gowns, gloves, hats, and silk and lace lingerie certainly added to the effect, but there was something else that made the women and their photographs so extraordinary. I think I’d still be hard-pressed to articulate exactly what that is. The word that comes to mind is grace, or maybe poise. These women knew how to hold themselves. And Bassman knew how to present them. Gloriously. As I left, I felt dazzled by the photographs, but also wondered where all our glamour had gone. Like: were women only really beautiful in the 1940s and 50s? (We were puritans and pioneers before and hippies and porn stars afterward). Or, what in the world had the sexual revolution done to beauty? Did we lose something we should have saved?
A bride on her wedding day is a rare exception, the only one I can think of easily. A bride can be a classic beauty: feminine, graceful—in ways that seem ever otherwise out of place in our culture. A woman’s wedding day is the one day in her life where it’s socially acceptable to do and be the things those classic beauties, in their heyday, did and were. I just wish (sort of wistfully—it seems practically impossible) that we could feel more comfortable with a sort of everyday elegance than we really are nowadays, that we could somehow hold onto part of our once-in-a-lifetime bridal beauty knowledge in daily life. I am implicating myself here, too. I’ve worn makeup only about three times in my life (and not that makeup matters much in the point I am making, but I am embarrassed to say I don’t even know how to put it on). I digress. I am lucky I choose to photograph brides, for I get to photograph women on the day they are their most beautiful. This is just to say: brides, all of you are so lovely, true beauties, each and every one. Cheers to you!
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A quick read on Lillian Bassman’s career will reveal that she destroyed much of her body of work in the 1960s, and for decades quit altogether making photographs for fashion magazines. She was wholly frustrated by the new breed of models in the 60s; everything was different. Fortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever see that in my line of work and art.
photo: Gia Canali
Some weddings are so marvelously right. Julia & Eli’s was one of them. The equation might have read: happy couple + beautiful yard + perfect day + perfect night + joyous guests + “fireflies” = magical. We’ve featured bits of their wedding all summer, partly because I think this blogging real weddings thing rushes me much too much—as I prefer to turn over my photographic fascinations slowly—but mostly because we loved their wedding. Even the intangible things, like Eli saying his {vows}. Above, one of several Polaroid 55s I took.
{click any image to enlarge}
We loved the whimsical florals and decor by Krislyn. The groom’s boutonniere was fashioned from a single (tiny) perfect echeveria ‘afterglow’. I grow them in my garden, and in just the right light, the pinkish rims really do glow. Below: celebrity stylists Nina and Clare Hallworth help Julia into her gown. Sweetest up-do ever by Chris McMillan. Chris did Julia’s hair three or four times that morning before he came up with the final look, which made me realize how essential it is to allow all the vendors at a wedding time to give a top-notch performance. (More on that later.) I never would have guessed tulips would have been “just the thing,” but they were, and Chris’s hairdo inspired lots and lots of my photographs of Julia.
I spoke with Nina and Clare for a few moments before the reception, and asked if they had any advice for my blog readers. They said it was so important to take time (by which they meant quiet time) to get dressed. The way they spoke of dressing, it seemed like dressing oneself and composing oneself were the same act.
Some details from the ceremony. The huppah was one of a kind, with peonies, branches, and a quilt the groom’s mother made by hand. Yifat Oren & her gifted crew, led by Amy Cain, masterminded the design and production of the whole affair. Great job, Amy!
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Nina and Clare reused Julia’s veil as a wrap during cocktails and dinner. It was not only a very inventive instantly “upcycled” accessory, but offered Julia a second glorious look for the evening. Bride’s gown, Carolina Herrera. Groom’s three-piece suit (♥!), Tom Ford.
Above: a few images from Julia and Eli’s hora. I love getting guests out on the dance floor (and before sundown if possible). It’s one of the few chances we ever have in a wedding day for truly energetic and totally camera unaware photographs of everyone who came out to celebrate your tying-the-knot.
Because it was so sunny and because so much was going on in both the front yard and back yard all day, we couldn’t do any outdoor portraits. So Julia and Eli agreed to sneak away for a quick walk after their first dances. So worth it!
Julia felt differently about the sunshiny day. She was thrilled to wake at six that morning and see the sun was out. Those of you who live in Southern California will know “June Gloom,” and Julia & Eli’s wedding day was the first day after our (particularly long) June Gloom ended this year. I laughed when she told me this: when I awoke on my own wedding day, I, too, jumped out of bed to see what the light was like, but was practically gleeful to discover a bright overcast morning!
Julia’s advice? She says to take a couple days to do relaxing things before the wedding. On the day of the wedding, she had no stress for the first time in the planning process!
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The End.
p.s. I left lots of stuff out. I want to have photographs to illustrate my “real” posts!
photographs: Gia Canali
I have all these rules and tips and tidbits in my head (hence the blog, I guess), but it’s quite a thrill when breaking those rules (like, no plastic hangers!) results in something I love …
