Intimate Wedding at Lake Tahoe

May 2024 I had an opportunity to fly to Reno NV and shoot my very first Lake Tahoe Wedding.

Out of all photographers, local and not, Khara and Eric chose me, photographer who lives 2000 miles away from their wedding destination. They liked my pictures, editing style and colors. You want to make sure you pick photographer that you love for your special day. I edit every picture by hand and don’t use any, now popular, “brown” presets. If the water is turquoise blue, I may even enhance it, but I would never make it brown.

Hope my little article will help someone to plan their own intimate wedding or elopement there. I will include the vendors that I know were used for this event.

Before the wedding we met at HYATT REGENCY LAKE TAHOE RESORT, SPA AND CASINO for a few getting ready pictures and some detail shots.

The ceremony was held at beautiful Sand Harbor Beach. (Just a reminder, you do need to get a permit to photograph there, and its not easy to get. It took me the whole month to get everything right, notarize and sent. At one point, I thought my insurance agent will block me, but thankfully we got everything done in time. If you are local – get an annual permit.)

According to newlyweds, Mountain Area Rentals offered the best prices for chair rentals that they could find.

You may have some uninvited guest join you in the middle of the ceremony.

Rev. Carl Lackey was their Wedding Officiant. I highly recommend him. Before the ceremony, he pulled me aside. and explained EVERYTHING! Where he’s gonna go, what he’s gonna do, where he’s gonna stand, and when he’s going to get out of my way, so I could get the best shots of newlyweds kissing. He even held my bride’s veil so I could get even better pictures 🙂

After the ceremony, it was time to cut the cake. Lori’s piece of Cake is a small business, but her cake was delicious and prices were beyond reasonable. 7″ round cake and 80 cupcakes were GONE! (I may or may not stole couple for the road 🙂 sssshhhhh… don’t tell anyone 🙂

New location, new experience, new photography lessons. By spending couple days around the lake, I got to learn a lot about it. As much as I LOVE golden hour, clouds, or even rainy days for pictures, in order to have this lake turquoise color – you need sun. The lower the sun went down, the darker the lake got, and the bright blue color was slowly fading away. I’m glad I didn’t wait for the last hour of daylight to start their photoshoot (that’s what I would do in Indiana/ Chicago area), but not here. That’s how I got to capture all the true colors and beauty of the lake, just like my bride wanted.

Lake Tahoe has my heart! It is literally heaven on earth. Hope to capture many more weddings there.

For more information about our Wedding or Elopement packages contact pictures by gg.