Radonich Ranch Wedding

Nestled in the Santa Cruz mountains in Los Gatos, California is a beautiful wedding venue called Radonich Ranch.  This old fruit packing facility has been a favorite venue of ours for over ten years and we always look forward to photographing a few weddings each season at Radonich. When we see it listed as the venue in our wedding inquiries we instantly get excited about the potential of heading back to one of our favorite places.  There’s something magical about a warm, summer evening at Radonich Ranch.

Being at Radonich Ranch without wedding decor already feels like a lush and relaxing experience.  There’s no shortage of awesome backgrounds and rustic details and the catering and coordinating team Feel Good Foods do a bang up job making the whole place shine. The rustic barn, the cozy picnic tables and the perfectly hung string lights don’t need much extra work to make you feel like you have stepped into a cozy and intimate retreat.  With such great bones to start with it is easy for our couples to make the venue photo ready making our job that much easier. 

Wedding ceremonies at the ranch take place in some comfortable shade overlooking old trees and afterwards your cocktail hour and reception can have a host of configurations on the large open lawn. Come evening most couples transition into the barn for desert and dancing.

Radonich Ranch Wedding Photos

Below are an assortment of Radonich Ranch wedding photos that we've shot over the last few weddings.

Late May

Early September

Late October

Vine Hill House Wedding

We photographed our first wedding at Vine Hill House in Sebastopol way back in 2012 and it’s still one of our favorite wedding venues to return to. It’s a beautiful event space overlooking the Russian River Valley wine country. The property itself is part of the O’Connell Vineyards. It’s the perfect venue for a wine country wedding with an intimate, garden feel.

Wedding ceremonies at the Vine Hill House take place in a grove of Douglas fir and redwoods over looking the valley’s vineyards. This same space can be used later as a dance floor and is illuminated at night with beautiful lanterns and sparkly string lights.

Receptions take place behind the house with plenty of space for round tables complete with heaters for those chilly Bay Area summer evenings. The house has a porch in the back which makes for a perfect stage for formal toasts during dinner.

There are plenty of picturesque areas for first looks, family portraits, and couple portraits from the wooden archway surrounded in hydrangeas to the rows of wine vines in the orchard.

How much is the Vine Hill House?

As of November 2023, pricing for a Saturday or a holiday is $9900. Fridays are $8900. Sundays are $8000. The Vine Hill House is available for rental between April 1st and November 30th.

What’s included in a Vine Hill House rental?

One of the great things that we and our couples love about the Vine Hill House is how much is included with your booking. Your 6 hour event rental includes event coordination and on-site day of coordination. Dan, the owner, has been facilitating weddings for years and he runs the show with precision. He and his team are such a great resource to have and it’s an amazing perk to have as part of your venue rental.

Your rental also includes your ceremony chairs and 60” reception tables! That’s not only a huge savings but involves way less coordination for pick up and drop off before and after your wedding.

You also get use of the house throughout the day. This is super helpful for getting ready, tucking away before your ceremony, and just general decompression time on the day of.

For a full list of what’s included in your rental, visit their rental page here.

Vine Hill House Wedding Photos

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Wedding

Recently we had the opportunity to photograph a small wedding ceremony in the Mather Redwood Grove at the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley. We’ve photographed weddings before at these gardens and are always reminded how beautiful of a space it is. Not only does it make for a perfect wedding venue but it’s just a really lovely place to come and spend the afternoon. The garden itself takes up 34 acres and has over 10,000 plants, many of which are rare and endangered. We love that this amount of natural beauty is right in our backyard and it’s available for Bay Area weddings!

These two exchanged vows surrounded by an intimate group of family and friends beneath the beautiful, towering redwood trees. Following their ceremony we worked with each of them and their families to take some portraits within the redwood grove and the expansive garden across the street.

While this wedding opted for a wedding reception off-site, the UC Botanical Garden also has the Julia Morgan Hall available for wedding receptions. It’s a beautifully restored building with a warm indoor atmosphere and a great deck outside that overlooks the garden.

For more information about renting the UC Botanical Garden for your wedding you can view their rentals page here.

Bay Area Backyard Wedding

When Carey and Chanee contacted us about photographing their Bay Area backyard wedding, our ears instantly perked up. We love shooting weddings that are unique and personal to our couples and a small backyard wedding with family and friends was right up our alley. Following a quick ceremony, we took the couple to a nearby park for some portraits and even shot some on their beautiful tree lined street. We got them back to their reception just in time for some yummy BBQ and some fun dancing. Small and intimate events like this are one of our favorite types of events to cover and we really appreciate this couple letting us be part of theirs. We wish this couple all the best in their future together!

Cheers,

Chris and Christian

Wedding at Rancho Soquel

Working with Kate and Brody during their engagement session in Santa Cruz gave us some insight into how fun it would be to work with them on their wedding at Rancho Soquel. These guys were wonderfully laid back and made sure that having fun with their friends and family stayed at the top of their list all day long. Their enthusiasm was contagious as it was hard to find a candid of a wedding guest without a smile on their faces. The beautiful, open and sunny backdrop contributed to the jubilant mood as Katie and Brody were married in front of a simple elegant arch and enjoyed dinner with their families against the backdrop of a really cool old rustic barn. 

We started the day by shooting some getting ready photos and captured some details prior to the ceremony. We loved the layout of the property and we were excited to get the event going so we could begin shooting all the handsome guests around the venue. Not only did we get to capture the cool ranch style architecture but we also captured the playful details that Kate and Brody used as decor-included a very delicious donut display.  The ceremony was short and sweet and fit in nicely with the easy flow of the day. Even the weather felt easygoing on this day-we loved the sunshine that graciously lit up but didn’t overpower the couple as they shared their first kiss. Dinner was delicious and we loved the speeches; so much fun! You could tell just how likeable this couple is by the way their friends and family gushed about them.

Light treated us very nicely as the day made it's way into evening and we were able to shoot some nice portraits of our couple. Lastly some getting down and funky on the outdoor patio dance floor before we bid the couple farewell.