The Walk Back Down the Aisle

There is a specific moment in every church wedding that I plan my whole position around. It's not the first kiss. It's the thirty seconds after it, when the couple turns and starts walking back down the aisle and it finally hits them that they just got married. That's the moment. Camille and Drew's version of it is one of the best I've ever captured.

The church was everything a historic venue should be. Whitewashed walls, a baroque gilded altar that had been standing for centuries, wooden pews worn smooth by generations of hands. The light that came through the arched windows landed on the aisle floor in long warm bands and when Camille and Drew walked through it together, smiling like they couldn't stop even if they tried, the whole room rose without anyone asking them to.

Mission San Juan Capistrano is one of the most historically significant and visually extraordinary wedding venues in Southern California. The combination of centuries-old architecture, candlelit interiors, and that quality of mission light produces images that feel genuinely timeless. If you want a church wedding that looks like nothing else in California, this is where I'd take you.