Alanna wanted the ceremony held late enough that the hills behind the vines would still be warm, and Temecula obliged. We finished the vows with about seventy minutes of usable light left, which is the whole reason we built the timeline backwards from sunset three months earlier.Almost everything from that hour is film. The grain is doing something a digital file cannot quite manage with this kind of light, and it is why we still carry both cameras to every wedding.

Vows above the vine rows, then a full hour of gold light while the party found its seats.

Ryan & Alanna

Tivoli does most of the work for you. The trick is to photograph the couple in it rather than in front of it, so we spent the portrait window walking the property instead of standing in the obvious spot by the fountain.Josh and Tiffany had eighty guests and no interest in a receiving line, so we bought back forty minutes and used all of it on the two of them.

Cypress, stone and a slow Fallbrook evening that looked borrowed from somewhere much further away.

Josh & Tiffany

Jennifer's grandmother wore the same pearls in 1961 and had them set into the veil the week before. We photographed them properly, close and slow, while the room was still quiet, because that frame was never going to happen again once the doors opened.Getting-ready coverage is where the second shooter earns their place. Kevin's morning was happening on the other side of the estate at exactly the same time.

A garden estate morning, her grandmother's pearls pinned into the veil, the light doing the rest.

Kevin & Jennifer

Ashley had been talked out of the hat twice before the wedding and put it back on anyway. It is the detail everyone in her family mentions when they talk about the day, so we photographed it as carefully as the dress.Rancho Las Lomas has peacocks, hard midday shade and enormous stone walls, all of which reward a long lens and some patience.

Embroidered silk and a white hat she refused to take off, which turned out to be exactly right.

Jake & Ashley

Emily's whole brief was that it should not feel like a production. Twelve people, no chairs, an officiant they already knew, and a tide chart checked obsessively for a fortnight beforehand.Elopements run three to four hours and cover more ground than people expect. We were on the sand by four, done by six, and eating properly by seven.

Twelve people, a low tide, and the two of them walking out past the rocks to say it.

Andy & Emily

The sky went this colour for about four minutes while the band was setting up, and Jordan pulled Michael outside for exactly that long. Nobody else noticed it happening.Once the light goes, digital takes over completely. Fast primes, no flash on the dance floor unless the room genuinely needs it, and the party photographed the way it actually looked.

String lights on at seven, first dance at eight, and nobody sitting down again after that.

Michael & Jordan

Brooke chose the paper, the ribbon and the pressed flowers herself over about eleven months. Details get twenty minutes at the start of the reception hour, before a single guest walks in and moves anything.It matters more than it sounds. This is the frame that goes in the album opener, and it only exists if someone protects that twenty minutes.

The quiet table before the doors opened, holding everything she had spent a year choosing.

Brooke & James

Every wedding collection includes an engagement session, and this is the reason why. By the time Kevyn and Sheridan got married the following spring, being photographed had stopped feeling like a thing that was happening to them.Palm Springs in April means starting ninety minutes before sunset and moving twice. Bring the second outfit; it is worth the ten minutes it costs.

An engagement session out on the dunes, with the desert going pink behind them.

Kevyn & Sheridan

Mariah's planner lit the candles a full half hour before doors, which almost nobody does and which changes the photographs completely. Warm, low and even, with no mixed light fighting the flames.Redlands in November gets dark early. The whole reception was photographed on fast glass at high ISO and it looks like the room felt.

Autumn on the table, candles lit early, the room already warm before a single guest walked in.

Gilbert & Mariah

Savannah asked for ten minutes on her own before the first look and we built the timeline to protect it. She spent them out under the trees at the back of the property, and these are the frames her mother cried at.The Grove is all filtered green light in the afternoon, which is flattering and slow and worth walking further into than most couples expect.

Baby's breath, a pearl veil, and ten minutes alone before anybody knew where she was.

Allyn & Savannah

Nobody poses well for confetti, which is exactly the point. Erin's sister organised the whole thing without telling either of them and the reactions are entirely real.These get shot fast and wide, at a shutter speed high enough to hold the paper still in the air, and you take far more frames than you think you need.

Confetti, both of them laughing with their eyes shut, and the best frame of the whole day.

Jimmy & Erin

Backlight this strong forces a choice: expose for the faces and lose the sky, or let them go to shape and keep the ocean. On a coast this good, shape wins.Malibu sessions are booked around the tide and the traffic in equal measure. Leaving San Diego at noon for a six o'clock session is not over-cautious.

Two silhouettes on the coast road, the Pacific flat and silver behind them.

Point Dume

Overcast is not a problem, it is a softbox the size of the county. The dress was her mother's, taken in twice, and the lace holds detail in this light that direct sun would have blown straight out.Shooting from below puts the sky behind her and takes the car park out of the frame entirely, which is most of what location work actually is.

Vintage lace against an overcast sky, shot from low so the whole thing felt bigger.

Oceanside

The bouquet arrived an hour late and she photographed beautifully anyway, which is the argument for keeping twenty minutes of slack in every timeline you build.Dappled garden light is the hardest thing on a wedding day. You move until the shade is even, and then you work quickly before the sun moves it back.

Garden light, orchids and roses in her hands, the ceremony still twenty minutes out.