A Californian Beach Wedding in San Francisco

Last summer I was lucky enough to be asked to photograph a wedding in beautiful San Francisco just on the south coast in Half Moon Bay! The wedding was at the beginning of September, just when the weather starts to get warm over there, so it was really nice to get more hot weather when the English summer was just ending. We were really lucky with the weather because San Francisco suffers from a lot of fog, and it managed to stay away pretty much the whole time I was there. Pearl and John are such a lovely couple, and they have two gorgeous kids, aged 2 and 4, who looked very cute all dressed up.

There are a few parts of the wedding which were slightly different from a traditional English wedding – firstly the Groom, then the bridesmaids and groomsmen start off the walk down the aisle, arm in arm, to make a big entrance (which was to the Halo theme tune!!! signifying how Pearl and John met) and all stayed standing at the front the whole time. Then after the dinner and speeches there’s also something called the ‘Money dance’, which is a Mexican tradition, where the men at the wedding get to dance with the bride for money (dollar bills get thrown or tucked in her dress), which was very entertaining! Something that also doesn’t get done much over here is the garter toss – where the groom has to remove the bride’s garter without using his hands (!) and then throws (or pings) it, a bit like throwing the bouquet, and the men have to catch it.

There were a few parts of the day which were really special – I first got taken to where Pearl grew up (just down the road from the venue) to do some pictures on the beach before the ceremony. Then the ceremony was conducted by Pearl’s brother-in-law, which was just brilliant, and also rather tear-jerking because it made it so personal! They had a priest to do some of the readings, who couldn’t technically do the whole ceremony outside the church, but he was absolutely brilliant and very entertaining, and helped pull the whole thing together. I’m so pleased I had just enough time to take Pearl and John down to the beach for some photos, and then as soon as we’d started the wedding breakfast and it started to get dark, the fog came in – perfect timing!

Anyway, here are some of my favourite photos to tell the story of the day…

If you’re having a wedding abroad and would like to pay for my travel and expenses to photograph it, I will happily give a discount on the wedding photography costs – just get in touch to discuss!

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Ginny x