Fun Beach Wedding in Malibu, California

One of our favorite places to do a beach wedding is in Malibu, California at Westward Beach (near Zuma Beach). The coastline is stunning, with a very natural untouched feel, and of course the the weather in Los Angeles is nearly always sunny and gorgeous. You can’t spend an hour there without noticing either a dolphin, a seal, pelicans, or all three! It’s really a wonderful beach to get married at or to just spend a Saturday!

We’ve photographed quite a few beach weddings and are happy to share what we’ve learned from the experience. First, if you’re watching your budget and your guest list is small, then you might want to try getting married during the week. It might be a little harder to locate an officiant, but everything else will be cheaper that way, and you’ll probably have the beach entirely to yourselves (great for portraits).

If you’re considering having beach wedding, you also want to be sure to think about the timing of things and how that can affect your wedding photography. Many people opt for a sunset ceremony — and that’s totally romantic, but it limits your photo taking opportunities somewhat.

Instead, we recommend you shoot for sunset wedding portraits by doing your ceremony a bit earlier, instead. If you have your ceremony at least two hours before sunset, then you’ll have plenty of time for formal shots and bride and groom portraits in good light, assuming the ceremony is short.

It’s important to take all of the important wedding pictures before the sun starts going down, and that starts happening up to an hour before sunset. After you finish the wedding portraits, the bride and groom can join the reception — the nearby Sunset Restaurant is a good place to consider.

Then later, just as the sun is about to set, you can hit the sand again for a couple of quick sunset photos, just like Angie and Kevin did, below. Please enjoy the pictures, and for more great beach wedding photo ideas, give us a call!