I’m a Wilmington-based wedding photographer who will get on a plane for the right wedding. This was very much the right wedding. And if you want to know what it looks like when a San Francisco wedding is photographed by someone who genuinely loves the couple getting married, this is probably a good place to start.
I met Austin almost ten years ago when I was living in Cincinnati and working for an online magazine. I went to feature him and his brothers’ coffee shop and left with a friendship I didn’t expect. Mekenna came along not long after and the three of us have been close ever since. I’ve photographed them through so many seasons. The early relationship stuff. The big moments. The quiet in-between ones that feel small at the time and everything in hindsight.
So when they got engaged and asked me to photograph their wedding in San Francisco, the city they met in, I was honored in a way that’s hard to put into words. I also knew going in that this one was going to be different. Not because of the location or the logistics. Because of what it meant to be there.
Getting ready together
They got ready together at an Airbnb, which tells you everything you need to know about Mekenna and Austin. No big divide, no superstition about seeing each other, just the two of them starting their wedding day the same way they do everything else. Together.
Those are honestly my favorite getting-ready moments to photograph. There’s no performance in them. Nobody is standing around waiting for their cue. It’s just two people helping each other get dressed, probably laughing about something, being completely themselves on a day when a lot of people feel the pressure to be something slightly more polished.
“She never tried to manufacture a moment. She just created the space for real ones to happen and then she caught them all.”
Shakespeare Garden, Golden Gate Park
They said their vows at Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park, which is one of those places that feels like it was designed specifically for a wedding like this one. Tucked inside the park, quiet, full of flowers, completely removed from the city noise in a way that surprises you. It’s small and intentional and it suited them exactly.
There’s a particular kind of light that happens in San Francisco in the middle of the day that I wasn’t expecting. Softer than most cities, filtered by the marine layer in a way that’s genuinely beautiful to shoot in, especially on film. I had my Nikon F5 loaded with Portra 800 and I was reaching for it constantly.
The ceremony was intimate. Just the people who mattered most, standing in a garden, watching two of their favorite people make it official. I cried behind the camera at least once. Possibly more than once. I’m choosing not to be specific about that.
Dinner at Piccino in the Presidio
After the ceremony they had an intimate dinner at Piccino in the Presidio, which felt like the perfect ending to the kind of day they had. No big reception, no DJ, no timeline pressure. Just good food, close friends, and the slow exhale of a day that had been a long time coming.
I’ve photographed a lot of weddings and the ones that stay with me are almost always the ones that felt the most like the people getting married. This was entirely theirs. The city they fell in love in, the people they love most, a garden and a dinner and nothing extra. Watching them move through that day I kept thinking, this is exactly right. This is exactly them.
On film, digital, and Super 8
I shot the day on digital, 35mm film, and Super 8 (full wedding video coming soon!), which felt completely right for a wedding like this. The digital covered the things that move fast. The 35mm captured the light in that garden in a way I couldn’t have manufactured in editing. And the Super 8 footage has a warmth and a grain to it that feels like memory, which is really what it is.
“Bri is more than a photographer. She feels like family, and our wedding day made that clearer than ever. She laughed with us, calmed my nerves, and made us feel like it was perfectly okay to be fully in our feelings because it was. She never tried to manufacture a moment. She just created the space for real ones to happen and then she caught them all.”
— Mekenna, bride
I’m based in Wilmington, NC but destination weddings are some of my most cherished work. If you’re planning something far from home and looking for a photographer who will actually show up for you, not just on the day but through all of it, here’s what working together looks like.
Based in Wilmington, NC and traveling wherever the wedding takes me. Destination weddings, intimate ceremonies, the ones that feel completely like the people getting married. Those are my favorite kind.
x B
