One-third booked!

Hey everybody!

With our latest booking, Roxi and Ryan, on June 6th, 2009, we've now reached 33 percent of our next year's bookings! We have two wedding fairs coming up in the next 2 months, so we're pretty confident (and excited, and grateful!) that we'll have another fun, crazy, and busy year next year!

Keep up the good work, everybody! We owe it all to you!
Talk to you soon,
Dale

Congrats to our latest couple!

Hey everybody!

Exciting news... Mere and I met with a table full at Noodles today and booked our latest Summer 09 wedding. So, congratulations to Casey and his fiance, Felicia! Meredith and I have some RANDOM things in common with this fun couple and we can't wait to photograph them! We met early in the planning process for two reasons: 1) we try to book about 12 to 18 months in advance, and 2) because of his crazy football schedule (he's the QB for the Hogs).

Felicia loved our new couture album, by the way, and has joined our growing list of brides who "must have it!" If you're a current bride and wanna check it out, just drop me an email or call me and we can go hang out for a bit! Maybe I can post pictures of it on here soon.

We also are excited that they've chosen J. Bailey Occasions to help coordinate their event! Every wedding we photograph that she plans goes so smoothly; her attention to detail goes a long way in our imagery! Not to mention, she's one of the sweetest people Meredith and I have ever met!

Thanks to all y'all for talking us up to your friends, families, neighbors, teachers, students, etc! Meredith and I appreciate your support!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Heather and John tie the knot...

Hey Everybody!

My two favorite new-Bostonians, Heather and John, were married two weeks ago in Northwest Arkansas. Yes, they already have their pictures; I'm just slow on the blog. But the gorgeous couple definitely deserves their post on here!

We're gonna bust this out story style, so here goes:

First, here's the sexy couple with the romantic rain pouring in the background (we'll get chronological next)...


Workin' on the hair - Heather is so funny!


After hair and make-up, the girls wanted to play around in the shirts Heather made and gave them...


After her dress, she put on the finishing touches...


I love this series of moments that followed...


Here are a few cool shots taken during the while we were photographing the family and formal portraits...


and the RB:


Then there was a wedding. With kissing, and singing, and rings... and here's a cool motion shot Mere got from the balcony...


After the wedding, it was portrait time. I LOVE the mod furniture for pictures!


Then it was time to rock the reception. Here's a beautiful first dance shot, with mood lighting from the band (The Jack Mitchell Band)...


And this one:


And look at the celebration on her face as she throws her bouquet.


Heather, I'll miss the coffee chats! I wish you two the very best in Boston! I'm excited to hear stories from Beantown!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Ellie's Birthday Weekend!

Hey everybody!

One my favorite things about being a dad is having birthday parties! This year, we had the help of social party expert Rita, aka Mimi, aka Mere's mom, to make the party a super success!

The event was not only a birthday party, but a tea party as well. A lot of planning went into the tea party due to Cynthia's (one of Ellie's cousins) dietary needs. It was worth it, however, to see the look on her face when we got to tell her, after she turned down the yummy snacks and cakes, that she would be able to eat everything she wanted. She immediately filled her plate like the other kids. I welled up at this, and thought it was so sweet for my mom and Mere's mom to work together to make every kid feel involved.

When it was time for tea, and for cake, Ellie served her guests. I'm always humbled by seeing how giving and patient Ellie is. I know when I was a kid I was looking out for numero uno, so I'm glad to see that she is so selfless.

After the tea party the kids we're getting hot, so they tossed off the party attire, threw on bathing suits, and hopped into the pool! Ellie has been working very hard on swimming sans floaties, and impressed the group when she swam from one end of the pool to the other floatie-less!

Enjoy the pics below!
Dale

P.S. We're off to Minneapolis to photograph Mitch and Maggie's wedding. You know, the couple who got engaged in Paris, and who hired us to photograph the fun? To jog your memory, click here

I'll try to post while I'm there, as there's PLENTY to post about. Stay tuned!

Emma's senior fashion shoot

Hey everybody!
I had fun photographing Emma Hays, one of our senior reps for Joplin High School, last week. She had a mountain of clothes we worked through in various locations. She brought some of her own ideas to the shoot which was fun, and I put our lives on the line at one point, which was also fun.

If you're a Joplin/College Heights/Thomas Jefferson senior and you know Emma, contact her if you'd like to book one of our senior fashion sessions! If you don't know her, but wanna book one anyway, contact me while we still have some left!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Teddy Gieger show in KC

Hey everybody!

When Mere and I went to Kansas City last month we saw Teddy Geiger play a show at the Westport Beach Club. I have been a fan of his since I first saw the quickly canceled Love Monkey starring Geiger and Ed Cavanaugh. I bought and downloaded all his music and when the mood is right, I pull up the playlist and chill out in singer/songwriter heaven.

When we were at the WBC, we walked in to find no tables left. However, Kristin (whom we did not know up to this point) invited us to sit with her. One minute into the conversation we found out she was from Siloam Springs! Leave it to the Arkansan to be generous!

I brought my gear and got some cool shots of TG, as well as a cool one of Kristin's daughter. Check out the pics below!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

P.S. My new wedding website is live, but at a different URL. I'll switch over the links soon and we'll have a little launch party here on the blog... stay tuned!!

New children dates announced!

Hey everybody!

As you probably know, I've been a bit busy! But Mere and I are being smart about it, and we're only taking new jobs if we know we'll be able to handle it with the same great customer service and attention to detail that you expect out of us!

Because of this , we went through about a 2 month period where we weren't taking any new customer portrait sessions. But that time is over... kind of!

We are opening the following dates for children/family portrait sessions:

September 10th, 2008
October 19th, 2008
November 3rd, 2008

We'll take 3-4 families per day, and will stop booking once we have 10 sessions. If you wanna snag one, email me and I'll get you hooked up! We'll arrange shoot details with you when you contact us. Also, this shoot will be one from which you'll wanna make your Christmas cards! I'm actually creating a custom Christmas card package with this shoot!

Below, I've put some pictures from a recent session of Maddox, whose parents wanted to use St. Catherine's at Bell Gable for the shoot (this location requires a 100 dollar donation to the church).

Maddox is a big Sesame Street fan (I mean, who ISN'T?!) and Cookie Monster had to make an appearance... ha ha!

Enjoy! And contact me to book the spots!
Dale

P.S. If you're a current customer and want to book a session for a different time, let me know right away... these sessions are for anyone, even new customers - so refer us to friends and family (you also get a very nice thank you gift from us if they book!)

Leah and Brent tie the knot...

Hey everybody!
Last week, Mere and I shot off to Little Rock for Leah and Brent's wedding. Which means, I can show you one of her bridal portraits - love the zebra chair!



This is when Leah first joined Brent... isn't Mom sweet?!


Here are a couple of my favorite portraits from the day...




For their "getaway" they were escorted in a sweet convertible. I love this motion shot!


Thanks Brent and Leah! We hope you love the pictures!
Dale

Heather's bridal portraits...

Hey everybody!
I've been holding on to these pictures for awhile now, and they've almost burned a hole in my computer! I've been waiting so impatiently to throw them up here on the blog for the world to see.

Without further adieu, I present to you the smashing Heather Applegate (as of this evening, Heather Paul)...


Here's a funny thing about Heather: she booked us to photograph her wedding even before she was engaged! We were flattered!


I was absolutely in love with her dress the very first time I saw it. It's a Pronovias dress from Spain, so it took extra time to get here, but it was totally worth it.


So classy and pretty...


And she was so great at posing naturally...


And one more with her gorgeous veil...


Thanks to the wonderful girls at St. Catherine's at Bell Gable, too, for making this shoot so successful!

Talk to you soon!
Dale

Price and package changes...

Hey everybody!
I'm so exited about how great everything has gone this year! We've grown tremendously this wedding season, so much so that Mere gracefully finished her tenure at Wal-Mart Marketing and joined me full-time.

Equally exciting, we've already booked 8 weddings for 2009! We've already met with many fun couples and we couldn't be more excited about what is happening in our lives!

Finally, there is one more thing we are excited about... we've added another line of albums to our collection that literally stole my breath the first time I saw it! (**Bree (one of my super-fun October brides), when you read this, comment below about the album I recently showed you!**) Because of this, I want to incorporate these new couture albums (they are literally couture albums!) in my top packages. I'll still keep my current albums that have been so so so loved by our wedding couples these past two years.

Our new prices will take effect with the release of my new website. This is currently scheduled sometime between Monday (July 14th) and Wednesday (July 16th). That means we're holding on to the current prices for only a few more days.

Thank you all so much for everything you do for us! We appreciate y'all spreading the word about Benfield Photography to your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, and random people on the street! Keep it up... it's working!!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

Rachael and Ted tie the knot...

Hey everybody!
A few days ago, I introduced you to Rachael and Ted (see "Steamy Sneak Peek" below). Now, I'm going to finish what I started by giving y'all the story of their day, in pictures.

Introducing the most fun and easy-going bride, Rachael...


Putting on her veil...


And she's all ready. Gorgeous right?!


Then, we headed off for a few relaxed portraits. I LOVE this background Meredith found!


Later, Ted joined us...


And then I took one of my very favorite images all year! This lighting is gorgeous! The sky was blue from the rainy morning, but the sun finally peeked through and lit the couple. Oh my!


After that, it was about time to get married. Rachael and Ted, with the help of One Fine Day, transformed the Fayetteville Town Center into both a ceremony and reception location.


And we captured this sweet moment after the ceremony...


And then it was time for the party to start...


To end, a great shot of the bride getting down...


Thanks Rachael and Ted! Y'all were so fun! Especially when y'all did that crazy dance at the end! What was that?!?!

Talk to you soon,
Dale