Let Them Eat Cake

The wedding cake is often the zenith of our pastry experience. Birthday cakes come and go, but it's not often in our lives that we lavish so much attention and thought into one confection. Whether a cake is modern and elegant, Rococo or fuly of whimsy, a great wedding cake will leave a lasting impression on your wedding day.

In fairness, I might be biased (sometimes I like to think of myself as a professional cake-eater who takes pictures, rather than a wedding photographer). Still, the wedding cake stands tall amidst our wedding traditions in New England even as others wax and wane with fashions. A wedding cake also looks amazing nestled amidst a wedding a album, a tower and edible work of art amidst the thousand other details that make up a wedding.

So how do you get the most out of your wedding cake?

Blog, Photos, tipsRyan RichardsonFebruary 26, 2012cake tips, massachusetts wedding photography, wedding cakes, wedding tipsComment

Be Mine: It's Not Too Late for Romance

romantic advice from a massachusetts wedding photographer graphic

Valentine's Day, love it or hate it there is no avoiding it when February 14 rolls around.

For those of us outside of relationships, most of the day is spent bemoaning how commercial the holiday is and how cloying everyone can be with their grand gestures of flower snad chocolates delivered ostentatiously to the office. Those within the warm embrace of a relationship - new or old - are faced with a different dillemma.

The spirit of romance is forced into the atmosphere like a cat into an embarrassing sweater and everyone is expected to play along. Like the cat, romance doesn't like to be forced into anything. It's best when it's spontaneous and enigmatic, coming at you by surprise. Valentine's Day is the opposite of that, it's the same day every year with virtually the same trappings hanging off it. Flowers, check. Chocolate, check. Red, check. Cupid, check. Hearts, check. Difficulty getting a seat at a restaurant, check.

Blog, tipsRyan RichardsonFebruary 14, 2012Valentine's Day, flowers, gifts, romance, rosesComment

Be Mine: Putting Your Best Face Forward

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

If my recent foray onto Pinterest is to be believed, the truth today is that a single lady in possession of an Internet connection, must be in want of a wedding. There are boards festooned with dresses, flowers and a million little pieces that will one day be whipped into a wedding like cream into butter. Unfortunately, one thing stands in the way for women in want of a husband and men in want of a wife.

Your terrible self-portraits.

Blog, Photos, tipsRyan RichardsonFebruary 6, 2012dating advice, massachusetts photographer, photography tipsComment

Book Excerpt: Advanced Sales for Wedding Photographers

The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming e-book - Advanced Sales for Wedding Photographers. The book will focus on getting photographers to take a holistic approach to sales starting with their presentation and ending at their pitch. This is the first chapter, that emphasizes the importance of sales in the wedding business.

In the last book we tried to make sales a little less intimidating for photographers. It isn’t enough to not be frightened by sales, successful wedding photographers need to embrace sales and their identity as salespeople.

Like it or not, the moment you put out your shingle as a photographer you became a businessperson. That means it isn’t just your job to take pictures, it’s your job to keep the lights on, make sure everyone gets paid, manage customers and a thousand and one other things that make sure that business can survive.

Blog, tipsRyan RichardsonJanuary 31, 2012amazon kindle, book, book excerpt, photography sales techniques, sales, wedding photography sales, writingComment

Snow and Bridals: Shooting the White Stuff

What do a Massachusetts snowfall and your bridal gown have in common?

In both you should avoid anything that comes in yellow. White is the traditional color for a bride to wear on her wedding day, and even as couples are creating new twists on the old tale it still predominates. There's just something about slipping into an elaborate white dress on a warm New England summer that turns a day like any other into a fairytale.