Chris Bennett Photography - Wedding and Adventure Elopement Photography - Maine and beyond

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Andrea + Mark's San Francisco wedding

Mark has been one of my close friends and adventure buddies for a long time. I met him when I was in photo school at R.I.T in western New York, he was studying Bioinformatics. We shared an apartment together and would always adventure on the weekends. After college we continued our adventures, exploring the Appalachian Trail in Maine, getting caught in a June snowstorm at 10,000 feet in the Tetons, climbing precipitous routes in southern Utah and giving me my first introduction to the Yosemite Valley. Throughout this time I watched his relationship with Andrea blossom and grow, and it came as a great honor to be asked to photograph his wedding. 

Andrea and Mark aren't ones for fanfare, so their small, intimate wedding was a great change of pace from the larger weddings I normally shoot in New England. 

Day One: The actual ceremony was going to take place in downtown San Francisco, one of the largest and densest cities in the US. Therefore the evening before we drove south out of the city and hiked into a Redwood Forest overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was in this natural cathedral that they got dressed up and had some quiet moments while I took some candid and posed portraits. The sunset did not disappoint. We hiked out of the silent forest at night and had a great late night dinner at a local restaurant!

Day Two: Andrea and Mark's friends and family (about 25 people) all gathered at San Francisco's famous city hall the next day for the ceremony. The deed only took about five minutes and afterwards we were treated to a trolley ride tour of the city by an old salty tour guide (I don't remember his name but I took a shot of him, see below). The tour ended at a very foggy Golden Gate Bridge!