The wedding of Erika and Alex started in Balboa park with a ceremony at the St. Francis Chapel, part of the Museum of Us, portraits were taken at a few spots across the park, and the reception at the San Pasqual Tribal Hall in Valley Center. It was a medium size wedding of about one hundred people and was really fun to see the two families come together with three generations present on both sides. Taking place on the same day as the pride parade made parking challenging, but everything went off without a hitch. The eighty five degree heat, hot for San Diego, did play a factor, but we made it work.
Pre-ceremony
Photography started with pre-ceremony portraits and candids of the ladies getting ready and the guys making sure everything was ready in the chapel. It was crucial to have a second photographer during this part of the day since I couldn’t possibly capture simultaneous activities that were happening within the thirty minutes leading up to the ceremony. Thankfully my friend and fellow San Diego City College student, Paloma Connolly, worked with me to capture the details. This reinforced that a guy/girl photographer combo works great for wedding coverage. The first few shots below are hers.
Ceremony
The St. Francis Chapel is a small, beautiful little space with a large ornate altar, traditional Spanish tile flooring, and simple elegant benches for attendees to sit. All white walls lead up to a high ceiling with exposed dark wood beams. Windows placed high on the east/west facing side walls allow light to flow into the space, but from a photographic perspective it’s very dim even at midday. I placed two remotely triggered flashes on either side and had a diffused on-body flash. Setting my f/4 lens wide open, 1/200 shutter, and 2000 ISO allowed me to get properly exposed shots. The ceremony was a brief twenty minute affair, which felt even faster from behind the lens. After a large group shot in front of the altar everyone filed outside. Framed by the one-hundred-fifty year old courtyard and curved entryway the newly married couple stepped outside surrounded by family and friends blowing bubbles.
Portraits
Next I guided nearly all the attendees of the ceremony out to the shaded steps in the Alcazar garden. I had a single large reflector umbrella with a strobe to supplement the available light. Having a specific list of groups documented ahead made the process quick and easy. I started with the largest group, narrowed down, and then went through each of the wedding party groupings. The families were nicely shaded, but I was cooking in the eighty five degree full sun as I ran back and forth adjusting family members and standing on a ladder to capture the portraits.
The park was crowded as usual on a summer weekend as we made our way to a few agreed upon locations. The first was even occupied by another wedding so thankfully I had several alternate locations. After a few stops and lots of poses we looped back to the chapel to escape the heat. The couple portraits were cut shorter than I would have liked, but I totally understood that they had had enough after posing for hundreds of photos. And the day was halfway done.
Reception
The reception was held at the San Pasqual Tribal hall in Valley center about an hour drive away. It was nearly one hundred degrees when we arrived there. Thankfully the hall was nicely air conditioned. Erika and family had set up the hall in a “Under the Sea” theme. The hall was also dimly lit, but this time with overhead office style fluorescents. Again, I set up my off-camera flashes adjusted to light the dance floor as evenly as possible and utilized my on-body flash throughout the night. f/5, 1/250, 1000 ISO worked well with the flash. They had many of the traditional speeches, champagne toast, cake cutting, first dances, and bouquet toss. The toss was definitely a highlight for me as a photographer. Fast action in formal wear should be more of a regular thing. The bride and groom’s first dance was super sweet and the father daughter, mother son dances were really animated and fun. The lights then dropped and music came up for dancing. I had some fun with shutter drag and cranked the ISO up to 4000 for some of the darkest shots.
Overall it was a really fun, photographically challenging day. Like six different photographic setups rolled into a single marathon. What made it great for me were the families and the couple. Both sides were so inviting, warm, and relaxed. And despite some transportation issues, the heat, and crowds at Balboa park the bride and groom stayed calm and collected all day. That’s a great predictor for their marriage.