Santa Rosa Wedding Photographer: Tips for a Stunning Backyard Ceremony

Reflecting on all the weddings I’ve documented, the small ceremonies always stand out as the most memorable. As a Santa Rosa wedding photographer, I find something warmly cozy about a guest list that is culled down to include only immediate family and the closest of friends. Today’s post showcases an intimate backyard wedding I got to capture for my cousin Abbey and her husband Rob in Santa Rosa.

Now I know every wedding blog you’ve ever read goes on about how they loved capturing Tarzan and Jane’s wedding and how it was the most magical jungle ceremony they ever witnessed blah blah blah. That said, my cousin’s wedding was EXCEPTIONALLY beautiful. Both of them looked great and very much in love. The ceremony location under the oak tree at her mom’s house was the ideal backdrop for a country wedding.

Blending Candid Shots With Formal Portraits: Tips From a Santa Rosa Wedding Photographer

Abbey and Rob are truly wonderful people who I love spending time with. Eagerly, I aimed to create the best wedding album for them. I cherish them greatly and knew this wedding would stay in my memory forever. Capturing such family events is naturally impactful, and their enthusiasm helped immensely.

To capture a wedding properly, mixing posed formal portraits with candid photojournalism is crucial. Excessive candid shots can render formal portraits unpolished and less flattering. Conversely, insufficient photojournalism might suppress the couple’s authentic personality and emotions.

No matter the approach, ensuring each shot looks authentic and harmonious is vital for storytelling in the wedding album. Here is my best attempt to craft an album that Rob and Abbey will cherish forever.

Bride and Groom Wedding Portraits

Wedding Formals / Getting Ready Photos

I always capture formal wedding portraits of the bride and groom during their preparation. This strategy efficiently captures both the getting ready shots and formal portraits at once. These formal portraits also feature photos with the bridesmaids, groomsmen, and each person’s family. Capturing all formal portraits before the ceremony lets me minimize my impact on the bride and groom’s time with guests later.

Back Yard Wedding Ceremony Santa Rosa

Clearly, I adopt a strictly photojournalistic approach during the key time of the wedding ceremony. This doesn’t mean, however, that great ceremony photos are left to chance. A month before their wedding, I met with Rob and Abbey at the ceremony location to assess the setting and offer photo-related insights. Their great instincts meant they were well-prepared with little help from me. Nonetheless, I always offer this pre-meeting to ease couples’ minds, boosting their confidence in the setup.

For Abbey and Rob’s wedding, I knew the timing and orientation of the ceremony were crucial. I advised them to position their arbor and seating to backlight them with the sun for their kiss shot, aiming for the best lighting.

By scheduling the ceremony at 5PM (with sunset at 7PM), we maximized the chance for beautiful backlighting, saving the lowest sun angle for their formal couple portraits. They positioned their arbor, sod aisle, and guest chairs to let the oak tree frame them, creating arguably my favorite kiss shot to date.

Setting aside the careful planning of orientation and timing, the real highlight was the details Rob and Abbey added themselves. They included an arbor with a white sheet, a sod aisle, and flowers and fabric framing the aisle. Rob’s daughter scattered rose petals just before Abbey approached Rob at the arbor. These small details polished their ceremony and contributed greatly to their epic kiss shot.

Family Formal Photos

By capturing all formal photos early in the day, I only needed to impose on the guests for the formal group photos after the ceremony. I find it best to take these photos immediately after the ceremony, before guests begin drinking. Once drinking starts, gathering everyone for family photos becomes a Herculean effort, much like herding cats in my experience.

In this wedding, they both wanted Rob to first see Abbey as she walked down the aisle. In this case, the best time for formal couples portraits is right after the group photos, aligning with golden hour.

For those unfamiliar, golden hour is the hour before sunset when the sun is lowest, providing flattering lighting due to its warm color temperature.

We planned the entire timeline of this wedding around golden hour. The ceremony was intentionally set at 5pm to utilize the day’s best lighting for the wedding, group portraits, and couples portraits.