100 Images | Bay Area Wedding Highlights from 2020
Bay Area Wedding Highlights from 2020, Plus Family Portrait, Engagement, and Elopement Pics
Check out my Bay Area wedding highlights from 2020. The year started off with so much promise. I had a full calendar of fun weddings with couples planning unique, heartfelt celebrations. There was going to be incredible food, laughter, moving stories, tight hugs, joyful tears, and big smiles shared with friends and family. 2020 was going to be rad.
But life had other plans. Instead of dance floors and dinner toasts, we found ourselves stockpiling toilet paper, hunting for hand sanitizer, and learning how to sew masks—or bake sourdough. Like many, I had to pivot. I delivered honey from my backyard bees, photographed porch portraits, and did more family sessions than usual. While most weddings were postponed, I still had the honor of documenting a handful of sweet, intimate celebrations. Hopefully, we all learned to adapt, breathe, and meet the unknown with a little more humor.
Family Portraits and Porch Portraits
In January, I had the joy of reconnecting with some wedding clients who’ve become close friends. They had recently welcomed their baby, Julian, into the world, and invited me to photograph this new chapter in their lives. Julian was born with a medical condition, and his parents had been quarantining at home since his birth, creating a quiet, protective bubble of love around their little one. It was a tender and moving session, filled with the kind of emotional depth that makes photography so meaningful for me.
Throughout the year, I met with past clients and longtime friends to document milestones—baby photos, pregnancy sessions, senior portraits, and family gatherings. Each time, I was reminded that photography is, at its heart, about connection. It’s about being present, witnessing a moment, and preserving it. I felt deeply grateful for every opportunity to step into someone’s life, even briefly, and create images that celebrate love, resilience, and the beauty of everyday life.
Small Weddings, Engagements, and Elopements
At the beginning of February, I photographed a sweet and simple San Francisco City Hall wedding. Life still felt normal then—busy hallways, bustling tourists, and no hint of what was to come. Just a few weeks later, everything started to shift. One of my April couples had planned a 100-person celebration in Guerneville, CA. As their wedding date approached and the reality of the pandemic set in, they had to make a series of tough decisions.
They gradually reduced their guest list—from 100, to 50, to 25—before ultimately canceling the in-person event altogether. They moved their celebration online and opted for a tiny ceremony with just four people in Oakland. I suggested we do a portrait session before the virtual party, and I also joined them for part of their online celebration. Looking back, I’m so grateful we captured those photos beforehand—it gave them something tangible and beautiful to remember in a year where so much was uncertain.
The rest of the year was no less interesting. I drove to Big Sur for a short elopement, did a pop-up wedding in the Presidio, did a few weddings at private homes, and took pictures of an old high school friend at the Straus Family Ranch. Through the masks and stress of reimagined events, there was love and creativity. People readjusted their thinking and utilized private homes and public spaces for their small weddings. At the end of the day, sometimes you just need some good food, a drink, and laughter with the people you love.
Let’s hope that 2021 is an easier year than last year. If you are planning a wedding and want some advice on how to make your celebration run more smoothly and be more photographically perfect, check out this article I wrote a while back. Here are my 100 images from 2019.