These are my favorite 100 photos of 2007. That I took, anyway.

They’re not really in a particular order. That was far more complex than I could fathom creating! Enjoy.

Quick shout-out to Doug and Lizzie at Malt and Vine.  They’re holding a wine tasting on Jan. 19 that is wedding-specific:

Saturday, Jan 19: Wines for Weddings
2:00pm to 5:00pm
Gorgeous flavors for the right price. We can help you find the perfect wines for your special day.

I went to their December port tasting, and I highly recommend that you check them out!  They’re so friendly and helpful, and they have EXCELLENT taste! 

Happy tasting!

Holy cats, batman! Molly Bennett Creative was just accepted into the Wedding Photojournalist Association!

From their website:

Leading the way in Wedding Photojournalism, WPJA represents the most discriminating talent around the world technically, creatively and visually. Qualified members hold industry-leading standards, skills and business integrity.

The Wedding Photojournalist Association grants membership to the most talented professional wedding photographers in the industry–photographers who focus solely on using their photography skills in documenting weddings.

The WPJA is an extremely competitive association; so many people apply that they only contact you if you’re actually accepted as a member. They have strict membership guidelines, and only the very best are selected to be members. I’m sort of falling all over myself with excitement right now; it’s a huge honor to be accepted!

Happy Black Friday, everyone! In honor of today’s unapologetic consumerism, I’m posting my list of recommended gifts for the people on your list this year. Happy shopping!

Lara Swanson, of A Softer Image Photography in the Washington DC area, interviewed me for a blog article about my post on inclusive wedding documents.  This is exactly the kind of grassroots change I was hoping to get started by writing that post.  Other wedding pros reading this—please let me know if you’d like to implement changes like I did!  I’m more than happy to help. 

For now, though, go check out the article and interview!

Here’s a list of my currently-available photo session dates. This list is for weekends only—as those are the dates for which I get the most requests—but weekday evenings are also a possibility. Please email me (mcb@mollybennett.com) to schedule your photos for 2008!

Summer 2008 availability:

• 6/8
• 6/14
• 6/15
• 6/28
• 6/29
• 7/5
• 7/6
• 8/23
• 8/24
• 8/30
• 9/13
• 9/14
• 9/20
• 9/21

The girls started out their day getting their hair done at this rockin’ little hair salon called “The Hair Station” that is attached t—are you ready for this?—a GAS STATION. So cool.

Hey, Tomi, you’re so “stuck up!” Just kidding.

Tomi’s sister stopped to look at some celeb mags (a total secret obsession of mine), and stopped on this page with (heartthrob!) Seth Green:

Tomi decided to have her make-up done at the MAC counter in the Alderwood Mall. She wasn’t the only one with that idea—I couldn’t believe how many brides were there doing the same! Even more surprising though was that I was the only photographer there. Oh well, at least I didn’t have to compete with other people’s flashes going off!

Tomi’s make-up artist was so nice and funny. It was a pleasure to watch her work.

Tomi and her sister…

Just look at all that love in her eyes…

Okay, so Nikki gave the best toast EVER. It was so funny and interesting. This woman could have a career in public speaking! Seriously, she knew how to keep an audience’s attention. I think the best part was when she was reading from the paper and she said, “Tomi is so nice, sweet, caring, loving, talented, pretty…hey, Tomi, what’s it say here? I can’t read your writing.”

Tomi and Kevin adopted three little kittens this summer, and they were all about two months old at the wedding. So cute…and just the right size to go home with guests as a wedding favor!

Talk about chemistry, look at them sizzle!

Snohomish, WA: Tomi and Kevin…where do I begin? I’ve known Tomi for almost a year now because she and Holly (my partner) used to work together. When it came time for Tomi to start planning her wedding, she called and asked me to be her photographer! Heck yeah!

The couple recently purchased a house on five acres up in Snohomish, and they decided to turn their housewarming into a wedding by having the ceremony and reception LITERALLY in their own backyard. How cool is that? It made the whole event feel very homey and comfortable. I think the best part of the ceremony was that Tomi and Kevin ad-libbed through some of the serious parts and kept cracking eachother up. You can see some of that in the slideshow, below.

Thanks, Tomi and Kevin, for including me in your day!

Click here to order photos from this event online.

The recent announcement by Jerry Sanders, mayor of San Diego, that he would approve a measure legalizing gay marriage reminded me that I’ve been sitting on a post for awhile about using inclusive language in documents that I give to wedding clients.

One thing I rarely hear other wedding professionals talk about is how to make sure their services and businesses are welcoming to LGBT couples. While the US is in the midst of large-scale public debate about the legal status of gay marriage, LGBT couples continue to make public declarations of their love and commitment in large numbers. LGBT couples are having weddings despite the lack of legal protection for their relationships. As a queer woman myself, I am heartened and excited by the increasing regularity that I see these ceremonies.

One way I can participate in the marriage equality movement is to make a concerted effort to photograph the weddings of LGBT couples. As a photographer, I have the opportunity to increase the visibility of the unions that LGBT couples are making to one another simply by taking photographs of these unions. However, while that’s a wonderful step, I recently decided that it wasn’t enough. I don’t want to simply capitalize on the new “gay wedding” market. I want to be a pioneer of social change!

That may sound like a tall order, but there are some very simple things that those of us who work in the wedding industry can do to make sure our business and services are welcoming to LGBT couples. While we may not have any images or examples of LGBT couples in our portfolios, one very simple thing we can do is to erase gender-specific language from our business documents.

Now, I say “simple,” but actually this is not the easiest task to accomplish! I recently took a close look at all of the verbiage on my website an in the printed materials that I give to wedding clients, with an eye toward making sure the language was inclusive of LGBT couples, and it was really difficult to find word substitutions that didn’t make things that much more confusing. To give you an idea of some of the difficulties I encountered, here’s some of the roadblocks I faced:

• If there’s no “bride” or “groom”, then do we still have “bridesmaids” or “groomsmen”?
• If a couple has two brides, and their attendants are a mix of men and women, what do we call them?
• If the couple is two women, are both “brides”? Are two men both “grooms”?
• Who gets their photo taken with the flowergirl? What about the ringbearer?
• If I want to use the same documents for ALL of my couples, how do I use language that isn’t gender-specific without either becoming confusing or alienating the heterosexual couples that I work with?

Those were just some of the questions I asked myself during the process of making by business documents inclusive. Part of what sparked this pursuit was a wedding that I photographed a few years ago in Toronto for a lesbian couple shortly after Canada legalized gay marriage. While it was wonderful that gay marriages were legal, their marriage documents had not been updated to reflect the change. It amused the brides that one of them wrote her name under the space for the “groom,” but not everyone would have a sense of humor about it. I don’t want to run the risk of alienating any of my couples while we plan for one of the most important days of their lives, and I definitely don’t want to leave LGBT couples feeling like their relationships are an afterthought.

After a lot of thinking and brainstorming with friends and colleagues, I was able to come up with some solutions. (Big thanks to Cheryl and Jane!) Rather than referring to people as “brides” or “grooms”, I am leaving space for people to write in their own names. On my list of formal wedding photos, each person has the same list of individuals (or groups) for potential photos, and they can check boxes to let me know who is being photographed with whom. On my wedding contract, I no longer have spaces for the “bride” to write her name and the “groom” to write his name. Instead, there’s spaces for the couple to write their names, give me their phone numbers, and tell me to whom the numbers belong.

Going through the exercise of making my documents welcoming to all my wedding couples—regardless of gender or sexual orientation—may seem like a hassle, but it’s one that I think is important to face. I invite any other wedding professionals reading this to take a look through my new, inclusive wedding documents for ideas on how to make your own paperwork accessible to your clients, whatever their orientation may be.

Looks like I might have competition!

The back of Katy’s dress…

The poem Katy wrote for Jason…

The woman who performed the ceremony (the couple’s friend, Angel) was hilarious, and opened up by making everyone present comfortable…

Jason wasn’t quite as tall as his groomsmen…

Favorite!

Some of you may remember this image from Katy and Jason’s engagement photos…we did a replay at the wedding! I’m totally obsessed with classic cars, so I was thrilled that Katy and Jason were using Katy’s 1962 Buick Skylark convertible as their getaway car! I have to say, though, I think I like the one from the engagement session better!
Cupcakes

Wedding (cup)cakes, complete with vegan options!

Looks like Jason liked them!

Katy and her bridesmaids, looking oh-so-flattering!

July 7, 2007—Well, I’m finally back to blogging! Whew, I’ve had so many things on my plate this summer (not the least of which has been getting this new website up and running!) that I haven’t been able to keep up with blogging. But that’s all about to change, starting with this wedding from early July!

Katy and Jason got married on what was probably the most popular wedding day this decade! I was thrilled to photograph their wedding for so many reasons. I’ve known Katy casually for many years, through our mutual friend Kathleen, and when she found out that I had finally made the move to full-time freelance photography, we started talking about wedding photographs! I knew Katy would be fun to photograph…I love having brides/grooms with tattoos and funky style, and Katy’s got style in SPADES. She’s one of the owners of Cafe Venus, one of Seattle’s best hang-outs. Adding to the funky style is Katy’s car: a 1962 Buick Skylark convertible! Anyone who knows me knows that I LOOOOOOOOVE old cars! I was thrilled when I found out that Katy and Jason were going to make their “getaway” in her awesome car.

Thank you, Katy and Jason, for including me in your “lucky” day!

Click here to order photos from this event online.