Ponte Winery Wedding Photos | Colette + Alan
As a San Diego wedding photographer, I get super excited when I get to travel for a wedding. Although Temecula is not that far, it does feel like you are on vacation in the countryside! After a beautiful La Jolla engagement session with these two love birds I was counting down the days for their wedding! September is sure bet month for weddings in Temecula. It still feels like summer. In this Ponte Winery Wedding Photos | Colette + Alan had lots of sunshine and lots of love with them that day!
Hands down, Colette looks like the princess we all read in books as a kid! Absolutely stunning!! Ponte Winery has so many great spots to photograph in! It’s hard to be able to get everything in one day! Starting with the getting ready photos. I would suggest to you clients to either get rooms on top of each other (one gets upper floor and the other ground floor) or on opposite sides. I prefer one on top and one on bottom because then you know they can’t see across the way and spot one another.
Colette had a suite upstairs which was nice because there was an outdoor patio. I love that kind of light! So we did the “getting ready” photos there. Naturally we included the local bottle of Ponte wine in the photo. I like to incorporate the surroundings to the story of the day. I had shoot Alan’s getting ready photos first, before Colette. This was helpful because I knew Colette was finishing her hair and make up and I could take Alan to the front and side of the hotel. Then he hung out in his room and I went to take Colette’s photos. I only repeated the stone wall that is located at the entrance of the hotel.
Picturesque ceremony in front of the pond and mountains. Do note that it gets a lot of sun. I would always suggest to have some kind of floral or draping decor on the arbor to diffuse the sunlight a bit. This is September, so of course the sun is stronger. The groom is sensitive to the light, so he was on the right side in order to have the sun behind him. If I had it my way, I would always have the officiants to the side. That way the ceremony photos are of just the couple, without having someone behind them.
When I did the walk thru with my clients, it was evident that it was going to be super sunny. That is why I suggested we do the family photos in front to the archways because I knew it would be shaded. I wanted to have even light for these family photos. Also, it was next to cocktail hour so it was very convenient to get the family members together. The most we got in a row were 7 people, so then you can create two rows to add more.
We all wish we could spend all day on just formal couple portraits, but we are limited on time. I started from the pond area and worked my way over to the barrel room for reception. This way we can be efficient with time and I can capture them as we have to make our way over to the next event. As it was a summer wedding, the sun was still too high for the magic hour light. We did plan on doing sunset photos but once they got into reception they were done. So always know, that you only have that moment to take the photo. Don’t bet on a part 2. If you get it, great! But always shoot like it’s your only opportunity.
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