AHWAHNEE HOTEL | YOSEMITE WEDDING LOCATION

The Ahwahnee Hotel (briefly called the Majestic Yosemite Hotel up until recently) is the premier venue in Yosemite if you're going to have a full, traditional style wedding. Their wedding lawn has several iconic backdrops to choose from - the apple tree framing Yosemite falls, the historic hotel itself, or Glacier Point towering over everything. It's 360 degrees of amazingness! If the weather is a little too wet for your tastes, there's also the east portico to take shelter under with the grand, towering stone walls of the Ahwahnee supplying the drama. The Solarium, the Winter Club Room and the Mural Room supply elegant settings for different sizes of receptions and can be scaled to fit small to large guest lists. For smaller,

GLACIER POINT | YOSEMITE WEDDING LOCATION

Glacier Point offers some of the most spectacular views in the park by far. It's accessible from late May/June through October/November (typically after Memorial Day and until the first significant snow of the winter), but it offers space for larger weddings in the amphitheater (June and September only) as well as small intimate weddings and elopements in many out of the way areas. While it's a heavily trafficked location, with someone in-the-know to guide you it's easy to find some solitude (I'm that guy!). Timing is the most important factor here. Sunrise is absolutely glorious as the sun pops up from behind Half Dome, and if you can handle the early morning preparations, a weekday ceremony at sunrise offers the most amazing of

Lexington and Jared | Private Residence Wedding | Fresno, CA

Funny story, when Lexington and Jared started looking for a wedding venue, Lexington's mom (or someone in the family) said "Why don't we just make a venue??" and so they bought a farm! It was a very, very cool spot and I hope it comes about to be a full wedding venue in Fresno because it has sooooo much going for it! Aside from the venue, Lexi and Jared were so sweet, so fun, and everyone one of their family members and wedding party were engaged and ready to celebrate. Check out some my favorites... FEATURED WEDDINGS

Cristina and Roger | Mountain Engagement Session | Shaver Lake, CA

When Cristina got in touch with me, I was super stoked. I photographed her brother's wedding a few years ago, and a few other relatives and friends in between and excited to get back to Chowchilla and see everyone again. In the spirit of beating the heat, we headed up towards Shaver Lake to a little grove of Giant Sequoias followed by some time in the meadows along the road. Even though it was late summer down in the valley, it was cool and spring like in the mountains. To top it all off, the light was absolutely magical due to a forest fire many miles away. Of course a fire is a tragic event, but it also creates rare

Brittany and Kevin | Wedding from Paradise Springs | Oakhurst, CA

Hands down, Paradise Springs is my favorite venue in the Central Valley. High enough to get above the heat, tons of space for guests to make a weekend out of a wedding, and surrounded by an amazing forest with a huge selection of different locations for a ceremony. Not to mention, it's only a few minutes outside the south gate of Yosemite National Park which makes it a fantastic base camp for adventures in the park. Have your wedding in a laid back, mountain atmosphere, with all the grandeur of Yosemite just a short drive away. Brittany and Kevin put all that space to use - even having a good number of their guests camping on the grounds. For a

Sarah and Zak | Majestic Yosemite Hotel Wedding | Yosemite National Park, CA

Yosemite National Park is a stunning venue for a wedding no matter the season, but fall is truly magical. The falls may not be flowing, but the grandeur of the granite is still there, the light is amazing, and the fall color is truly spectacular. To top it all off, the crowds are gone, the days are cool, and you can feel that you have this amazing place all to yourselves for a brief period of time. That's the setting for Sarah and Zak's wedding this past fall. It was one of the most unique and personally meaningful ceremonies I've been witness to. From the "Story of how they met" written by their best friend and officiant, to the coin

Maxine and David | Majestic Yosemite Hotel Wedding | Yosemite National Park

There's something a little extra special about Yosemite in the winter time. The crowds are gone, the skies quickly alternate between sunny and overcast. In many places the sun never gets high enough in the sky to touch the ground for weeks at a time. It's quiet and still, clouds hang on the cliffs and the waterfalls are either still, but if it rained recently they my have a modest flow. But overall, and most importantly, it's quiet. Those days are rare and fleeting in Yosemite and when you get one, it's magical. For a few hours you feel like you have the most beautiful spot on the planet all to yourself. I met Maxine and David on one of those days.

Hilary and Kevin | Yosemite Engagement Session | Yosemite National Park

I will never grow tired of living just down the hill from the amazing Yosemite National Park. Somehow I hit the jackpot when my parents decided to pack us all up and move from Oklahoma to Fresno when I was only 7 years old. Yosemite in the winter, or the off-est of off-seasons is another level of magical. For Hilary and Kevin's session we bailed on all the Super Bowl festivities and headed to the park and were greeted by a beautifully empty valley. We had full run of anywhere we wanted to go, and took full advantage. FEATURED ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS