Yosemite Valley wedding: Cristina and Ramon

Cristina and Ramon’s wedding at the Ahwahnee Hotel was my very first Yosemite Valley Wedding. Of course, I’ve been to the Valley many times, and mostly to work as a photographer, but never to shoot a wedding until now. It turned out to be everything I was hoping for and more. I think what made it even more special was just how cool the couple were! I owe a big thanks to fellow shooter Patrick Pike who works plenty of Yosemite Weddings and was kind enough to send Cristina and Ramon my way. I so appreciate that Patrick! The couple was running slightly behind – hey, it happens. But they still wanted to be sure and tour the Yosemite Valley floor to get plenty of couple portraits before the wedding ceremony. I arranged a quick “first look” so that they could at least have a little bit of a wow moment. Then we quickly did our shots in several spots around the Valley and still made it back almost on time! And the ceremony of course was awesome. It was set in the wedding lawn area south of the Ahwahnee Hotel and under the apple tree. The squirrels got involved too while helping themselves to a few apples during the ceremony. Afterwards, we did some cool family portrait shots with the hotel in the background and then went to do even more couple shots. I had a great time. It was like total creative license. Very fun. By dinner time everyone had retired to the Ahwahnee Solarium which is a pretty cool little venue in itself. After food, speeches and cake, it was off to the Winter Club Room for party time. By the time it was all said and done, I was pretty exhausted, but it was definitely worth it. I hope this is the first of many wedding shoots to come in Yosemite Valley