I have photographed a lot of weddings with a vintage cab in them. Elopements, a Capitale wedding, a Brooklyn Winery wedding, an Angel Orensanz wedding, an engagement session earlier this year that happened in the rain. Here is what I have learned about how they actually work on a wedding day.
It holds two people
Two comfortably. Three in a pinch. That is the whole capacity, and it is the first thing to understand before you build a timeline around it.
If you want me riding with you between locations, nobody else can. If you want your wedding party and your families moved, you need something else for them. One car does not do what a bus does.
Instead, it gives the two of you time alone. Getting on a bus with twenty people feels different from sitting in the back of a cab together with the doors closed. Some couples want that stretch of quiet in the middle of the day and do not realize they can build it in.
Does it fit your wedding?
This is the real question, and it is worth sitting with. A vintage cab has a specific character. If the rest of your day is running in a different direction, the car will feel like it wandered in from somewhere else.
When it does fit, it fits completely. New York is a modern city. Glass, steel, scaffolding, a Duane Reade on the corner. Put a car from another era in front of all that and the two things argue with each other in a way that is good to look at. It is a throwback and a twist at the same time, and it works in almost any neighborhood.
It does double duty
This is why I think it is worth it even for a short distance.
The car is transportation, and it is also a place to photograph. Doors open, doors closed, the two of you inside, the two of you leaning against it, the car parked on a street with the city behind it. You are paying for a ride and getting a location out of it.
Most couples use it for the exit, or the stretch between ceremony and reception, or for portraits at a stop in between. Some book it purely for photographs and never really go anywhere. All of those work.
The condition matters more than the color
The yellow is not the point. What makes a car photograph well is the shape it is kept in.
The exterior has to be clean, and so does the interior, which people underestimate. A lot of the frames from a car like this are shot through an open door with the two of you in the back seat. Tired upholstery shows.
Who I refer the most
Every vintage cab wedding I have shot has been in Peter’s car from FilmCars. They have been around since 1983, and their vehicles have been in When Harry Met Sally, Mad Men, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which tells you the standard they keep.
Peter is one of my favorite vendors in this city, and I work with him constantly. The car is immaculate inside and out; he shows up when he says he will, and he understands what the car is there to do on a wedding day.
Planning a New York wedding
If you are putting a day together in the city and want to talk about how it photographs, get in touch.
