We’re looking forward to introducing you to David Cruz. Check out our conversation below.
Hi David, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
Gonna land running on this one huh? Well, I gotta say the biggest misunderstanding not so much with my business per se, but with the business around 35mm film wedding photography, is how the industry had the bright idea to label film as a luxury service, just like everything else they hijack. With MsheU shills charging $500 for two rolls of 35mm film, calling it a premium add-on if they even use film at all — or worse, digital-only photographers implying they use film with slogans like: romantic film tones, film-inspired, filmic storytelling, slapped all over their website like neon signs.
Perpetuating the idea that a film wedding photographer is automatically out of a client’s budget, because they’ve been conditioned by the industry to associate 35mm film with luxury. With Youtube shills gladly pushing that idea forward to the masses.
And it’s why I’m one of the few who say 35mm film is not, and should not be, a luxury item. Film isn’t supposed to be a buzzword or a cheap marketing ploy to lure in unsuspecting clients. It shouldn’t be treated as an expensive upsell or a status symbol, it’s not meant to look grainy, moody, or blurry to prove something has “authentic dreamy retro vibes.” Because film, when done right, is simply another tool used to tell a client’s story the way it happened, with clarity, and depth. Not as a gimmick. Not as a flex. And without the hype from the shills on Youtube either.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m David Cruz, The Drunk Wedding Photographer — a Los Angeles 35mm film wedding photographer born in the slums of Oaxaca, Mexico, to Mixteco parents and Grandparents. I’m a Mezcal and street taco connoisseur, the kind of guy who’ll eat with my hands and day drink Pulque or Tepache from random street vendors in Piñata District. My Oaxacan roots and Los Angeles street cred is what grounds me as a film wedding photographer — honest, working-class, and never pretending a wedding is anything other than real people, quiet stories, and simple moments.
For the ones who cut the cake not out of tradition, but because their friends gifted them a Costco sheet cake mid-reception at the Chinese restaurant. For the ones who hosted their ceremony in their backyard, then walked to the neighborhood community center to greet friends over a pizza-and-tacos reception. And for the ones who did the bouquet toss in the hotel lobby after the after party because she didn’t want to walk home with it.
My start in film wedding photography goes back to 2003 at the Crenshaw Mall. While skimming through magazines at Waldenbooks, I read a Men’s Health article ranking photographer as the sexiest job for men, and that was all the convincing I needed. I was in 10th grade. Soon after, I convinced my Mom to buy me a Nikon N75 from the Ritz Camera at the Fox Hills Mall after seeing the Nikon F5 in The Lost World: Jurassic Park many years ago.
I would later work at the Ritz Camera in the Beverly Center — a dead-end job that gave me the chance to buy my dream camera at a rock bottom price, the Nikon F5, which I still use today alongside the Nikon D700. Now twenty something years later, my brand has grown out of those beginnings: film wedding photography that isn’t about luxury labels or sleazy used-car salesman tactics. So whether it’s Mezcal in Oaxaca or Pulque on a hot day in Los Angeles, you’ll find me on the streets with the quiet beauty of the everyday moments the industry chooses to ignore.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I’d be lying if I said there was a single moment that shaped how I see the world. It’s been mundane moments here, slaps in the face there — you know how it goes. Feet held to the fire though, I’d say it was more of an era that helped shape how I see the world now: from mid-2012 to mid-2019, when I lived in East Los Angeles. It felt like one step forward, three steps back. Because throughout that decade, I wasn’t technically unemployed, but it sure felt like it — bouncing from one job to the next, some lasting a week, some only two or three days.
From personal driver to photo lab tech (again), sales rep at Samy’s Camera Pasadena (again), photographer in the fashion industry in Downtown L.A., even an office manager at a wedding studio in Glendale. Relying on the Metro Gold Line as my main source of transportation. In between all that, I photographed friends’ weddings here and there, and worked at random warehouses until one of those jobs landed me in the ER putting me on crutches for three months — the catalyst for going back to school full time at East Los Angeles College, where I earned certificates in photography, business administration, marketing, and even one in accounting.
And because I survived on street food daily — and on King Taco on the occasional payday — for almost ten years, I developed a knack for finding exceptional street vendors out of instinct alone — something I might put to use if this photography thing doesn’t work out, again. And I mean, yeah, I’m grateful now, of course, even a little sad I no longer live in East Los Angeles, but at the time it felt like nothing was moving forward. Though as I think back, it’s incredible to think how in those short ten years I was introduced to people I never would have met, saw pockets of the city I never would have walked, and plenty of dead ends that taught me empathy. I even had two of my own photography exhibits at the Vincent Price Art Museum. So while my time in East L.A. didn’t hand me a single “ah-ha” moment, it shaped how I see the world in a way I never would have thought.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
It doesn’t take long for new wedding vendors to realize the wedding industry is both tribal and heavily gate-kept, all while shouting from the highest rooftops on how inclusive and welcoming it is. And you don’t even have to look hard to find photographers with a thesis-length manifesto on “love is love, love trumps hate, this is a safe space, you are welcome and valid here, no human is illegal,” etc. — then hit you with a $16k price tag. In other words, they’re inclusive and welcoming to your lifestyle, so long as you can afford the price of admission.
Prime example, back in mid-2021, when publications were tripping over themselves to amplify black and brown voices, I had a moment so absurd you can’t even get mad at it — just laugh at it from the sheer lack of self-awareness. I submitted photos to Style Me Pretty of an elopement in Oaxaca, with the bride being Afro-Mexican, a friend of mine. Instead of getting the usual “thanks but no thanks” email, I got a lengthy essay back saying the photos were not diverse enough for their new “inclusive” policy. Naively, I asked in a few Facebook groups — Mastin Labs and The Archetype Process among them — how I might resubmit for a better chance. Instead of help, I was met with toxic essay-length takedowns from the very people preaching inclusivity, complete with Google screenshots of what a wedding in Oaxaca is “supposed” to look like.
So imagine that — being schooled on your own culture by people who have never even set foot in Oaxaca, let alone take the time to realize I’m the very inclusivity they’re preaching for. Not gonna lie, even though I wasn’t officially in the game, I almost threw in the towel, again. But sometime later, a bartender pouring endless Mezcal at a wedding jokingly called me The Drunk Wedding Photographer after watching me down Mezcal two nights in a row like nothing. So what started as an offhand comment turned into the brand I launched in January 2023 — an unapologetic response to an industry that runs on empty platitudes.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
By far one of the biggest lies the wedding industry tells itself is how it pretends to be about love when it’s really more about money, and trends. Most vendors don’t even document a client’s story — they build a portfolio for Instagram, using the client’s wedding as a content farm. That’s why you see every other caption with the word “luxury” slapped on it. And it’s not even for the client either; it’s to impress other vendors to stay on top of the algorithm. Venues, planners, florists, photographers — the whole system is built to upsell, not to celebrate.
A wedding isn’t inherently luxury, but the industry survives by convincing people they need to buy into trends, high-tier packages, and aesthetics that have nothing to do with their actual relationship.
Another lie is the obsession with being timeless. Vendors push “timeless” photos, dresses, décor — but in reality, nothing is timeless. Ten years from now, today’s trend will look as dated as sepia filters on MySpace. What lasts isn’t the trend — it’s honesty. But the industry can’t scale honesty on Pinterest. And what couples want from their wedding is something that feels honest to them, but again, the industry can’t market and sell you honesty, so it markets illusions. And the ugliest lie of all: that your love is worth more if you spend more. Clients are told they’re “investing in memories,” but in reality, they’re just being pressured into a higher budget wedding.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
I found eight Agave succulent plants with a handwritten ‘free’ sign on them one day while walking next to the train tracks on our local desert trails about two and a half years ago — a few months before I picked up my eight chickens. Took ’em all, planted them in the backyard, and since then, they have multiplied into a couple dozen. In five to seven years they should mature and produce Aguamiel, which after fermentation will turn into Pulque. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself they’ll do — I won’t actually know until then. Just going off what ChatGPT told me would eventually happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thedrunkweddingphotographer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedrunkweddingphotographer/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedrunkweddingphotographer
