One of the reasons we love living in Ventura is its proximity to the beach AND the mountains. Both landscapes make for breathtaking wedding venues, BUT there is so much more in-between those points that Ventura has to offer!!
We love shooting at the beautiful local venues within Ventura! Seriously, there’s so many good ones to choose from!! Some of our favorites are McGrath Ranch and Garden, Old Creek Ranch & Winery, Ventura Botanical Gardens, and more! To be honest though, it’s not really the venues that get us excited about shooting weddings in Ventura, but more so the PEOPLE. We always have the best times with local, humble, sincerely good people.
Just last year we were able to shoot a few different weddings at Buenaventura Golf Course in Ventura. They were all special and memorable, but one stood out amongst the others. C+R had a unique, nontraditional love story, but beautiful nonetheless. We appreciate all stories of finding love; whether y’all were high school sweethearts or just met yesterday and decided this is your person for life! There are no judgements here, and no rule book to follow. Just be yourselves 🙂
C + R’s energy, love, and excitement was infectious!! We could feel the love between each of their sides of the family. They were already family, with so much love. We could feel it, this was their celebration to bring EVERYONE together in Ventura and it was SO much fun for us to capture!!!
Some of our favorite parts of capturing this wedding was the “fake” first look where the groom believes he is going to see his bride for the first time, but then is shocked to see it’s somebody else they weren’t expecting!! In this case, it was his future step-son! We love additional plans like this, they really help ease the tension on all of the anticipation! (And of course they make for fantastic and hilarious photos) The actual reveal was in fact so heart warming and sweet.
During the reception, C + R ran around to each and every table to do a unique pose/situation! We were DARTING all over the Buenaventura Golf Course Hall to capture all of these group photos, all within ONE song!! It was such a blast! We were very impressed with how personalized and FUN each table’s idea was! The room was filled with so many smiles!
Lastly, the dance floor was happening all night long! Their reception was buzzing more than Downtown Ventura Main Street on a Saturday night!! This bride was definitely the dancing queen of the night. It was a ton of fun capturing each of these joyful moments!
It was funny too, because before we left, she came up to us and asked “Who takes your picture though?!” and then asked if she could! We joyfully agreed and so Trev handed her his camera and she snapped a couple of us! Like we said at the beginning, it’s really about the people for us. We love Ventura and the opportunity to shoot weddings in Ventura, the town we love so deeply.
