Ben Lau

Ben Lau I eat donuts, drink bourbon, and know many things. I also take pretty wedding photos :).

Brittany originally went to this gym with one rule:“Don’t talk to anybody….like, EVER.”Meanwhile Joe recognized her from...
06/04/2026

Brittany originally went to this gym with one rule:

“Don’t talk to anybody….like, EVER.”

Meanwhile Joe recognized her from another gym immediately and apparently opened with enough oddly specific questions to trigger at least a mild fight-or-flight response.

Which honestly made hearing the story from Joe even better.

Because somehow what should’ve been a 45 second explanation turned into a beautifully chaotic journey with side quests, detours, callbacks, and enough context switches to make me completely forget where the story started in the first place.

And I mean that affectionately.

The whole session kinda felt like that too in the best way possible.

Dogs sprinting down the beach. Ice cream. Boats. Lighthouse stops. Wandering through LBI trying to make this feel like their version of the shore instead of recreating anybody else’s.

And of course, documenting what is easily the most dangerous bike gang in all of Long Beach Island.

One thing I really loved: Joe originally planned to propose in Italy, but ended up proposing here instead because this place was already part of their story.

I think that stuff matters more.

Not every meaningful place has to be dramatic. Sometimes it’s just the town where you met, where you spend summers, where you know the side streets already, and where getting ice cream together somehow becomes part of your relationship lore.

and started this session looking like they belonged in a Jane Austen reboot.Quiet garden paths. Fancy columns. Soft li...
06/03/2026

and started this session looking like they belonged in a Jane Austen reboot.

Quiet garden paths. Fancy columns. Soft light. Romantic little moments.

Then approximately 14 minutes later, we were belly bumping, peeking around columns like children, discussing Nacho Libre, and eventually finding ourselves next to a giant cow at .

Honestly? The emotional range of this session was incredible.

One of my favorite things about these two is that they’re deeply unserious in the best possible way. They fully committed to every silly idea I threw at them, which somehow made everything feel even more real.

Less “perfect engagement session.”
More “this is exactly who we are together.”

Also…any couple that ends their engagement session with ice cream immediately wins the award for best engagement session of the year.

Van Vleck House & Gardens into Applegate Farm was an elite combo.

Somewhere between the hotel lobby, puddles in Central Park, and running around DUMBO in the rain, and ’s session stoppe...
06/03/2026

Somewhere between the hotel lobby, puddles in Central Park, and running around DUMBO in the rain, and ’s session stopped feeling like “taking engagement photos” and started feeling more like a really good date night.

Which is usually when the best photos happen.

Also, at one point I taught Joe how to say cha siu bao (roast pork bun) because apparently that’s the kind of educational experience included with my engagement sessions now.

Rainy NYC sessions are wildly underrated.
Foggy skyline.
Wet cobblestones.
Clear umbrellas.
Tiny pockets of quiet in complete chaos.

Honestly…my kinda session and my kinda people.

About five minutes into the session, Gregg pulled out the guitar, I jokingly started singing “Remember Me” from Coco, an...
06/03/2026

About five minutes into the session, Gregg pulled out the guitar, I jokingly started singing “Remember Me” from Coco, and then both of them casually started harmonizing together because apparently I was photographing theater kids disguised as music therapists.

Then we wandered through the , chased pockets of shade, and eventually wrapped everything up in downtown Somerville where I learned what orange blossom mead was.

Honestly, this is my kinda session for all the right reasons :).

A lot of places are pretty.Very few are meaningful.I’d choose meaningful every single time.Kathryn and Dave basically sp...
06/03/2026

A lot of places are pretty.

Very few are meaningful.

I’d choose meaningful every single time.

Kathryn and Dave basically spent the night giving me their personal version of Cape May. We weren’t running around trying to “maximize locations.” We were just wandering through town looking for things.

- Pockets of light.
- Random neon signs in the basement of a hotel.
- Giant rubber ducks for absolutely no reason.
- And at one point, a public restroom because apparently Hugo spritzes and old fashioneds eventually come for us all.

Which honestly felt very representative of the entire session.

Nothing felt overly planned or performative. It just felt like hanging out with two people in a place they genuinely love, following whatever caught our attention along the way.

And I think that’s precisely why the photos worked.

One of the things I love most about NYC engagement sessions is that they stop feeling like “engagement sessions” after l...
06/03/2026

One of the things I love most about NYC engagement sessions is that they stop feeling like “engagement sessions” after like 15 minutes.

You start the morning next to a giant ship at South Street Seaport. Then somehow you’re wandering through Chinatown talking about old apartments, family history, neighborhood lore, grabbing random photos in souvenir shops on Mott Street, and still manage to squeeze in a neon Fight Club sign in a boxing gym.

Which honestly feels significantly more representative of real relationships anyway.

Also, Kelly being from Philly and Justin being from NYC created exactly the energy you’d expect. One person walks at a reasonable pace. The other…not so much.

And somewhere in the middle of all this, we may or may not have also briefly posed as newlyweds outside the Marriage Bureau so we could use the steps for photos. Wearing white dresses with a photographer in tow typically takes care of that problem.

Nobody got arrested. Everybody won.

These are the kinds of sessions I think people actually remember years later. Not because every photo is “perfect,” but because the whole thing genuinely felt like them.

Amanda + Kevin⁠ are getting married. Nimbus and Mabel (keep swiping) are as excited as two pups can be about it. They ma...
06/02/2026

Amanda + Kevin⁠ are getting married. Nimbus and Mabel (keep swiping) are as excited as two pups can be about it. They may have thought this session was for them.

Tonight’s soundtrack at has been a mix of Polish music, laughter, rain hitting the windows, and me periodically sneakin...
05/24/2026

Tonight’s soundtrack at has been a mix of Polish music, laughter, rain hitting the windows, and me periodically sneaking Knicks score updates to during the reception.

Big smiles every time.

To be fair, the Knicks are in the playoffs.
But he also happened to marry a doctor today, so I’d say things worked out pretty well for him overall.

70 people. No giant production. No chaos. Just a room full of people who actually know each other, a rainy day over White Plains, and the kind of wedding where everyone feels close enough to yell song requests across the dance floor.

Also: shoutout to the random umbrella I just happened to have in my car. Rain wasn’t winning today.

Congrats and !!

Venue:
Photo:
Video:
Planner:
Hair:
Cake:
Make-up:
Entertainment: .events
Florals:
Officiant:

I first met Hanhe & Harrison at a tasting event at Maritime Parc.And honestly, Harrison probably knew he was booking me ...
05/23/2026

I first met Hanhe & Harrison at a tasting event at Maritime Parc.

And honestly, Harrison probably knew he was booking me before we even spoke.

Not because of my portfolio.
Not because of my website.
Not because of my sales pitch.
But because I was wearing a Knicks pin on my suit.

He looked at me and said (not verbatim): “Anyone with that level of commitment, in the face of constant disappointment…is a winner in my book.”

Which honestly might be the most New York male bonding sentence of all time.

Fast forward to their wedding day at Maritime Parc, right at the tail end of cherry blossom season. The weather was beautiful, but also aggressively windy. The kind of wind where you start questioning every life decision near the waterfront. So instead of fighting Mother Nature trying to force photos by the water, we stayed closer to the venue and leaned into the softer spring colors, the movement, the chaos, and honestly, the vibe that already felt very them.

Because this wedding was never about perfection.

It was about personality.
And these two have a LOT of it.

Turns out it’s surprisingly difficult to come up with dad jokes for oncologists.Like…there are plenty of professions whe...
05/19/2026

Turns out it’s surprisingly difficult to come up with dad jokes for oncologists.

Like…there are plenty of professions where the jokes just write themselves. Cancer doctor is not one of them. My brain spent this entire engagement session in Central Park trying to come up with something that wouldn’t immediately get me canceled.

Meanwhile, Sim and Pierce absolutely crushed their session despite the aggressive heat, the 8am call time, and approximately 847 other couples taking photos in Central Park at the exact same time. Sim’s forest green dress was the real MVP though. In a park full of white dresses, it popped immediately.

We wrapped things up at their favorite UES coffee shop, and somewhere around iced coffee number three, I finally landed on my oncology joke:

Why are oncologists never late for their flights?

Because they like to catch things early.

Wocka wocka wocka, lol.

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