Hello sweet friends!

We are so excited to be back for some more lovely wedding days at Eden Gardens in Santa Rosa Valley this year! As wedding photographers in Santa Rosa Valley, we always look forward to photographing at this venue. It is such a beautiful wedding venue in Ventura County that feels like you stepped into a magical garden tucked away behind Camarillo. Not to mention, it’s relatively close to LA for all of our friends in Los Angeles trying to get out of the city for their special day. We love getting creative amongst their lush pathways lined with fairy lights and capturing the peaceful outdoor garden ceremonies paired with the relaxing sounds of fountains and birds songs of praise through your vows.

This specific day felt like it had a particularly peaceful quality hanging in the air. This couple was so wonderfully sweet and grateful, we felt so blessed to share the day with them! They had a very natural and soft love that seemed to shine through the sweet memories we captured. Days like this remind us why we love being wedding photographers in Southern California so much.

The day started off in their individual getting ready suites (which we love!). The two getting ready areas at Eden Gardens are wonderfully close together, while still private for both sides of the wedding party. This makes for a perfect arrangement whether you are doing a first look or not! The bridal cottage photographs extremely well and has a very clean ambiance to the space. I think when some people think “cottage,” they think “rustic,” but Eden Gardens does a really great job at finding a balance of classy elegance with that soft garden feel. The groom’s suite is an airstream + patio area that is steps away from the bridal cottage. Having the two areas set up this way makes for a really efficient flow when capturing the getting ready portion of your wedding day timeline.

This was a perfect example of being able to capture separate sides of wedding party & family photos before the ceremony without doing a First Look. We are in full support of allowing the day to unfold in whatever way you envision it. So if that means keeping the anticipation hanging in the air until the moment you lock eyes down the aisle during your Eden Gardens wedding ceremony — we will be so happy to facilitate a flow to make that happen, while also efficiently capturing the pre-ceremony section so that you have more time to enjoy the evening and your reception!

For Elise & Beau, they wanted exactly the flow that we are describing! So we made sure to structure time beforehand to intimately capture some of the portraits with their family members and wedding party before the ceremony. We try to take care of as many of these photos ahead of time as possible, so by the time ceremony wraps up, we have fewer big groups to capture and can mostly focus on the groups with the two of you together. This then allows for more time having fun during cocktail hour and less time wrapped up with photos after ceremony! We loved all of the fun energy that the wedding party and family brought to the images!

The coordination team on Elise & Beau’s wedding day was one of our favorites — Velvet Alley Events with Cindy as the head coordinator on their day. They are so masterful in curating a perfect flow for the day, while maintaining a positive energy and experience for all of the guests in attendance. We’ve been working with their amazing Ventura County wedding planning team a lot more in recent years and have been really appreciating their attention to detail and coordination skill on wedding days. Check out their site for more info HERE

The ceremony was absolutely blissful. It was so sweet watching the parents of the bride and groom welcome all of the delightfully excited guests that filled into their seats for this outdoor garden wedding ceremony. The ceremony was led by Alan Katz who does a fantastic job of livening up any ceremony. He really does a great job at catering towards the photographer in allowing those traditional moments to unfold in a highly photographable manner — offering multiple opportunities for the couple to look out to the audience, flashing their rings, and the traditional step-out for the kiss moment. He even found a way to work in a personal touch, that the voice of Spongebob would be walking around the corner to congratulate them (which was fully a “gotcha” joke that he worked in specifically for their love for Spongebob). We love the personal aspects that are worked into a ceremony or wedding day!

The ceremony unfolded in such a perfect way for the bride & groom. Beautifully intimate with such a wonderful atmosphere to pair. We loved finding all of the creative angles to shoot through the lush gardens throughout the ceremony. It’s so fun to find all of the beauty that surrounds you within the venue! Especially at Eden Gardens, it seems hard to find a bad angle within their stunning Santa Rosa Valley wedding venue space.

Following the ceremony, we gathered everyone for full family photos and wedding party photos with the bride and groom together. We guided everyone through some fun photos of everyone celebrating and sharing some love, before pulling the bride & groom off for some quick romantics with the two of them around the gardens. We really loved all of the soft + cute candid moments that we got through their couple photos! You could really feel the love through the images here.

Going into reception, the couple had pre-written hand made notes to each of their guests, letting them know how special they were to them. How adorable is that?! It was so heartwarming to see folks all cozied up, beaming with smiles, some tearing up from the sentimental words shared. If you are looking for unique wedding reception ideas or “Thank You” inspiration for your guests, this was really sweet!! Highly recommend if you want every person there to feel uniquely special.

Our DJ, Josh with Elegant Events led us through the grand entrance of the bride & groom and into First Dance. Josh is an absolute pro at hyping up even the sleepiest of crowds on a wedding day. The DJ truly can make or break your dance floor at reception and Josh is one of those that will do everything in his power to make that dancefloor a whole vibe! If you’re planning a Santa Rosa Valley or Camarillo wedding reception and want a packed dance floor, having the right DJ makes all the difference. These sweet moments were so sweet to capture. We felt like we got some really beautifully authentic moments unfolding throughout reception really! It was such a tight knit group of friends & family and everyone clearly had such a blast celebrating with each other!

We hope you enjoy looking through some of our favorite memories from the day! Feel free to reach out if you’re looking for a wedding photographer for your wedding day at Eden Gardens or any venue in Santa Rosa Valley or Ventura County! We love all of the venues within that area and would be more than happy to chat through some of our favorite aspects of each or some areas where some venues do better than others depending on what your vision for the day is! From Walnut Grove, to Gerry Ranch, Maravilla Gardens, to Casi Cielo and McCormick Home Ranch — we’ve photographed at pretty much every wedding venue in Santa Rosa Valley and the surrounding Camarillo area and would be so happy to offer any insight that we can to bring your magical day to reality!