San Diego Wedding Photographer | Evan Bishop Photography | Southern California & Destination Wedding Photojournalist » Evan Bishop Photography is a Southern California wedding photographer based in San Diego. Specializing in wedding photojournalism and destination events.

Meghan and Ryan had an amazing wedding at the Catamaran Resort and Spa in Mission Bay in San Diego.  Surrounded by friends and family this served as a destination wedding for both Meghan and Ryan’s family as Meghan’s family traveled from Kentucky, while Ryan’s family traveled from Michigan to celebrate with them.  Meghan’s brother officiated the ceremony on the beach overlooking Mission Bay.  After the ceremony we went to the docks to photograph family portraits near the Bahia Belle Sternwheeler ship.  During cocktail hour I photographed Meghan and Ryan on the beach with the beautiful San Diego light.  They were game for anything including climbing onto one of the catamarans on the beach!

Their reception was an absolute blast with Meghan and Ryan’s family having dance competitions throughout the night culminating in a six person dance off in the center dance floor! Check out some of the images from their day by clicking on either the image above, or any of the thumbnails below.  Also, checkout their slideshow on the podcast!

Kristin and Demir met at a mutual friend’s wine tasting party.  They both share a passion for great wine, so when they started their wedding planning it was only natural that they chose  South Coast Winery and Resort in Temecula, California as the location for their wedding ceremony and reception.  If you haven’t read my profile page, or been following my twitter and are not my foursquare friend I’ll forgive you for not knowing how much I enjoy a good glass (read bottle) of wine, and how frequently I make escapes to Temecula to visit my favorite wineries.  South Coast is definitely on that list of great locations to stop & one of the few places in Temecula to stay.  Their grounds are beautiful, and the rose arbor where Kristin and Demir were married is beautiful; overlooking the vineyards of South Coast, Ponte Wineries & Temecula Valley.

Kristin and her girls got ready in one of the beautiful villas just two doors down from the ceremony site at South Coast Winery and Resort.  They had an enormous two room villa with a center foyer area that allowed enough room for all her girls, makeup artists, and hair stylists to get ready in one location.  After getting ready, Kristin’s father met her at the villa where they walked the short distance to the ceremony site, and straight up the aisle to a waiting and emotional Demir.  After the ceremony we took portraits in the waning light of the day before heading to the courtyard for their reception.  Kristin’s Aunt gave a beautiful toast and a surprise serenade was performed boy band style during dinner. (You’ll have to check out the podcast for a few images from that part of the night!)

It was a perfect day and beautiful night! Kristin and Demir were so much fun! Check out just a few of the images below, and again, pop over to the podcast to see a slideshow with more images from their awesome wedding at South Coast Winery and Resort in Temecula!

Penny and John held their wedding ceremony at the Serra Museum, part of the San Diego Historical Society. It’s located on top of a hill overlooking all of downtown San Diego, in Presidio park.  It’s a beautiful turn early 20th century Mission Style building and something living in Point Loma I see anytime I leave the Point.   I was so excited when I photographed Penny and John’s engagement shoot and found out their wedding was going to be held at the Presidio Mission.  Penny and John’s friends and family members crammed into the tiny mission building, exceeding everyone’s expectations for who would show up and leaving a standing room only audience to witness their exchange of vows.

Penny was late to her wedding, and I mean LATE! She arrived about an hour and a half after the intended start time of the ceremony, but I can assure you, there were no second thoughts, it was just to make sure she looked perfect for John, and I think everyone agreed she was stunning and it was worth the wait.  What was also worth the wait was the beautiful light that we received after the ceremony on top of the hill in Presidio Park.  The mission’s white walls were illuminated with the warm glow of the setting sun and after photographing family portraits and bridal party portraits, we sent everyone else on to the reception so that Penny and John could have a few minutes to themselves while I photographed their portraits.

Their reception was held at the Bonita Golf Club in Bonita, California.  They hired a mariachi band for the cocktail hour and their grand introduction into the reception. After they arrived the mariachi continued to play while they mingled with their guests and settled in for dinner.  After dinner a DJ took over the  music and Penny and John had their first dance.  After formal dances the dance floor was open, complete with smoke machine, and let me tell you … this group could dance.  Penny and John even took to the stage at one point in the evening.

I had an amazing time as Penny and John’s wedding photographer.  Their evening was spectacular and I was so honored that they chose to work with me documenting their wedding day.

Check out a few of the images below, and the slideshow on the podcast!

On a cliff overlooking the Pacific, Robin and Emily gathered family and friends from across the oceans to celebrate with them. At UCSD’s Martin Johnson House in La Jolla they held their wedding ceremony and reception.  Emily had planned a fiesta themed wedding with beautiful bright oranges, greens, blues and yellows as well as Mexican favorites catered by Continental Catering.

The morning started off raining, and I actually woke up around 4:00am to the sound of rain outside my window, a rarity now that I’m here in ‘Sunny San Diego’! I couldn’t shake the thought that I’d had so many lucky days back East where it was supposed to rain, but cleared just in time for the ground to dry for the outside ceremony or just as we were ready shoot formals of the bride and groom, that perhaps I was getting rained out on my first wedding in San Diego.  Gladly by noon, the morning clouds had passed, and the skies cleared.  By 3:00 when Kristy and I arrived the weather was typical San Diego nice!

There was a ton of emotion during the day from friends and family members and you could tell, as Robin said in his toast to guests, how thankful they were that both families had come from so far to celebrate with, support and share their love for Robin and Emily.

Check out a few of the images from the wedding below, and hop on over to the podcast to see more on the slideshow!

Family and friends can view all the images from Robin and Emily’s wedding on Pictage: Robin and Emily’s Wedding Photos

There are weekends when I have a million things to do, errands to run, places to go, house to clean, etc. There are weekends when there are tons of fun social things to do, but by Sunday evening I feel like I need another weekend to recover from my weekend. There are, of course, the weekends where there are no plans, no people to see, nothing exciting going on, and when I go back to work on Monday morning, I’ve got nothing of particular interest to report.

But then there are those rare occasions when the stars align and I have the perfect weekend. Our trip to Temecula was just that weekend.  We started out with beautiful weather, which I guess isn’t a stretch here in San Diego, but coming from Baltimore, 75 degrees and clear is not easy to come by, especially in August!  I was with wonderful company; Evan, and two friends from work, Mark and Kim, who love wine and love life!

We started our tasting at Maurice Car´rie where, the wine is good, don’t get me wrong, but the wheel of brie embedded in a buttery garlicky toasty bread boule is RI-DIC-U-LOUS!!! A must try, and don’t even say you don’t like brie, because if you say it… well we’re just not friends anymore!  We then made our way over to the sister winery, La Cereza.  Evan’s favorite was the Viognier. It’s award winning, and when you taste it, you’ll know why.  We sat in big comfy chairs at La Cereza and drank wine, listened to live music, and really had a chance to relax and enjoy ourselves.

Wiens Family Cellars was next, and all I can say is W-O-W! Holy cow! and Like, Oh my God!  The sparkling Amour De L’Orange is a must try! It’s true I’m a sucker for the bubbly, and most champagnes/ sparkling wines have this effect on me, but I just felt giddy when I was drinking it! So giddy in fact, that, well, since I am a member of Wiens anyway… anyway, I took advantage of the case for 30% off deal! I mean, who wouldn’t? Really?  Okay, I’m getting side tracked I know but, I can’t help it, it’s just so good!

Next stop, and the final wine tasting for the day was Masia de Yabar. This is one of Mark’s favorites. He loves Malbecs and this lovely, picturesque winery just so happens to have a delicious Malbec. We headed to check in at Temecula Creek Inn, where we had an awesome dinner and a great night’s stay. I even got to hear coyotes yipping in the distance.  I’m an East Coast city girl so hearing coyotes for the first time was a pretty major event for me!

Day two started off with mimosas, and then off for more wine tasting.  I loved Leonesse Cellars! The port served with a dark chocolate truffle was heavenly! We all loved it there… so we became wine club members! Our last stop as a group was Keyways. Kim’s membership there allowed us to have a really unique wine tasting experience. We sat in the members room and enjoyed, well, I’m going to be honest, pretty much every wine on the list.  It was great fun.

Mark and Kim headed back to San Diego, and Evan and I decided to grab a bite to eat before getting on the road full of wine!  We went back to Leonesse Cellars, and had delicious “small bytes”.  We watched the sun start to dip behind the mountains, bringing our perfect weekend to a close. For those of you who enjoy wine, and just want to escape for a day or two, go to Temecula. You won’t be disappointed! And who knows, maybe we’ll run into you there!

“If food is the body of good living, wine is its soul” ~Clifton Fadiman

Great wineries to check out and if you’re looking for a beautiful place to have your wedding or reception I’ll run down the list of our favorites from this visit! (Don’t worry we’re heading back soon to do some more … ummm … scouting with a ton more great locations to check out!)

La Cereza: Great location with open air reception area and great indoor/outdoor seating area for mingling

Leonesse Cellars: Outstanding location, beautiful scenery and great food to boot! You can’t go wrong holding both your wedding and reception at this place!

Wilson Creek: This place was made for weddings!  Beautiful grounds, incredible architecture! Inside and out it’s an outstanding location

Wiens Family Cellars: This is an awesome place for a smaller reception.  There’s definitely room for a large event here, but the barrel room is beautiful a great location for a smaller more intimate gathering of friends and family members!