Meet David Cruz | The Drunk Wedding Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with David Cruz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I’ve been a film wedding photographer for a while under a different brand however, The Drunk Wedding Photographer came to me doing a very L.A. thing—while stuck in traffic on my way to a celebrity wedding.

On April 2^nd of 2022, I was driving on the 170 South and saw a banner on a bridge that read “Mexican Roofer dot com.” I was like “That’s smart, no way anyone can forget that name.”

Later that night at said celebrity wedding, the open bar had Mezcal practically on tap as a cocktail and since I was given the ok to drink to my heart’s content, I kept going back for more. After a while, the bartender playfully yelled, “hey! Drunk wedding photographer! The usual?”

Not long after I saw the van of the Mexican Roofer on the 14 North, and it felt like a sign seeing as my previous brand had reached a plateau at that point. It was at that moment, I decided it was time to rebrand with a name that would be instantly recognizable and easy to remember should you see it randomly on the freeway as I did. And in January of 2023, the year of the rabbit (I’m a rabbit, by the way), The Drunk Wedding Photographer was born.

Risk taking: how do you think about risk, what role has taking risks played in your career?
One of the biggest risks I took earlier this year was rebranding from a professional fine art wedding photography brand to a more culture-based, nonchalant brand. Many of my wedding photographer contemporaries criticized the move by saying it would make me look unprofessional to potential clients.

While they do have a point, don’t get me wrong, weddings are celebrations after all, and people tend to enjoy a drink or two at weddings, even at funerals. The way I see it, if you can’t have a dozen Mezcal shots with your photographer, why are we even here?

Because I believe those who don’t understand what The Drunk Wedding Photographer is about, were never going to book me anyway. On the other hand, those who resonate with the brand will say, “David is a freak, let’s book him!” Which is funny because I’m a very recluse and quiet person, especially in crowds, I seldom leave the house.

That said, it was challenging letting go of the idea of wanting a large audience to value my analog photography. As I mentioned earlier, my previous fine art brand wasn’t getting me anywhere, so I was like “eff it, I’m going to take the ‘this is me, take it or leave’ approach and see where it goes.”

Which is a very L.A. thing to do when you think about it. As one of the first things you see on my website is “I’m not for everyone.” Because not everyone will get it, and that’s ok. An approach I wish more creatives would adopt, and it was something I learned from Matthew Wengerd of A Fine Press, who says, “creative people are weird.” So why not embrace it?

What’s one piece of conventional advice you disagree with?
Following trends for social media clout. I get it, you have to pay the bills, but don’t dig yourself too deep into a particular style or trend that when you finally figure out who you are, you risk alienating your built-in audience. My philosophy is to take one for the client, take one for yourself and always work on a personal project. As Anna Wintour says, “trend is a dirty word.”

What’s the most important lesson your business has taught you?
Picking up nuggets of every possible topic I can think of because you never know who you’re going to bump into at a wedding.

Let’s talk shop. Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
To be honest, my wedding photography is no different from the next wedding photographer in Los Angeles even though I use 35mm film to photograph my wedding clients. However, what sets me apart is my dark sense of humor, my often politically incorrect takes on current events (thanks to my upbringing in the slums), my love for Mezcal and my dual identity of having lived in both Oaxaca and L.A.

That said, I keep things very simple because I believe simplicity is the secret to everything. The more you add to something, the more you take away. I don’t overthink, and I certainly don’t overwork myself at a wedding. As I mentioned earlier with trends, I don’t follow them.

In a nutshell, my portfolio is essentially a collection of glorified snapshots, as simple as it gets. It doesn’t fall into any one particular genre, as I take bits and pieces from each one to photograph a wedding in its entirety. I’m confident that’s what clients will value in the end—a simple documentation of this one particular day in their lives, imperfections and all.

I took this simple approach from the movie Beginners, starring Ewan McGregor, which showcased the sky, nature, the president, and how the characters’ parents looked when they got married in 1955—captured through a simple documentation in pictures. That’s what my wedding photos boil down to: what the sky looked like when my clients got married, what they looked like on their wedding day, how their friends looked, and so on.

I show up to a wedding and photograph things exactly as they are, out of respect for the wedding vendors, but mostly because, in the end, no one is going to remember the elaborate flat lay of details, the color of the flowers, or even what was served at dinner. But you know what clients will remember? The people they sat down with for that dinner, and that’s what and who I photograph.

In the short run however, I do lose a good portion of clients who want trendy wedding photos. But as chef Marco Pierre White said, “Serve your food hot, serve it quick, and keep it simple. Cook the food you want to eat, not what you think they might want to eat.”

Speaking of food, let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week-long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m not going to answer this straight up because! I’m currently working on some YouTube content that will cover this very topic. I’m from Oaxaca, Mexico and I’ve lived in some of the rougher neighborhoods both in Mexico and here in L.A., such as MacArthur Park, South Central and East L.A., and as we all know, that’s usually where THE best food comes from. So, it’s hard to give a quick list because anywhere in L.A. is a destination.

But I’ll give you three freebies—for breakfast burritos, Lucky Boy in Pasadena. Bring your own hot sauce of choice, get it with bacon and sausage and know exactly what you want ahead of time. Because the homie WILL send you to the back of the line if you’re not ready to order. Should go without saying I have been a loyal customer since 2007.

For tortas ahogadas, look no further than Chago Ahogadas in Montebello, very close to where the tornado hit earlier this year. And even if you’re not a fan of tortas ahogadas or very spicy food for that matter, it’s worth a visit for the retro diner motif.

For gorditas, you have to venture out to La Cocina in El Mercadito East L.A., located on the second floor. I’ve been going there for as long as I can remember, and I’m surprised by how consistently good and relatively affordable they have been since my parents first took me there in the early ’90s. Stick to carnitas and chicharron and visit on a weekend, either before or slightly after lunchtime, or late afternoon for prompt service. After enjoying your gorditas, you can treat yourself to some churros or homemade ice cream downstairs.

Here’s a bonus one, for cakes, Queens Bakery in Chinatown. As with La Cocina, Queens Bakery has kept its consistent quality and affordable prices since I first walked in also, in the early 90’s. And I have yet to try a cake that comes close to the cakes Queens Bakery whips up.

Lastly, I should mention that you should ignore the negative reviews for either of these places because people often don’t know what a gordita or a torta ahogada is, so they end up criticizing the place simply because they didn’t understand what they were ordering or a lack of so-called limited menu.

Also, they may have ordered something that the restaurant doesn’t specialize in. For some reason, that detail always goes over people’s heads—not ordering the house specialty. This ties back to what I always say about street tacos usually having only one, maybe two good meat options, while the rest are just for show.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
While technically I am a one-man band, there have been a number of people who have not only shaped the person I am today but have also, in some form or another, influenced my work over the years. It should go without saying that the person who deserves at least half of the credit for my success is Brian Wertheim, owner and lab technician of Negative Lab who painstakingly scans every single frame of film I send his way.

I also want to give a huge shout-out to my photography and business instructors from ELAC, as well as fashion photographer Tanja Lippert, who have all played a significant role in shaping my current photography style. Also, I’d like to thank Rebecca and Konstantin of Grays of Westminster Nikon Report on YouTube for keeping me up to date with all the Nikon-related news. A quick shoutout to Rebecca Hardy, by the way, for her recent book, “The House of Lost Wives.”

Lastly, as of this interview, I’m currently taking a long-form SEO course with Fuel Your Photos, and one of the instructors, Corey Potter, has not only made the complicated topic of SEO digestible but has also helped me become a much better writer than I could have ever imagined. Thanks to the community both he and Dylan Howell have built, I now have the confidence to write about the world I was born into. Of course, I can’t forget to mention my parents, who don’t fully understand what I do but support me nonetheless, as well as my Grandma back in Oaxaca who’s convinced I’m unemployed.

Website:  https://thedrunkweddingphotographer.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedrunkweddingphotographer/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedrunkweddingphotographer