Flower farm wedding portrait with family cat
Luxury California redwoods wedding celebration with timeless elegance.

Of Memory & Place

Northern California Wedding Photographer

Serving Mendocino, The Bay Area & Humboldt County

Documentary minded wedding photography for unique couples who approach the day feeling first, more fantastic party than flawless pre-fab yawn

Elegant couple portraits during a California redwoods wedding celebration in Mendocino.
Bridal cape catches the breeze at Wedding Rock in Northern California
35mm Film & Digital

I have photographed weddings in Northern California for the last ten years. Celebrations full of soul and sentiment, archives of color and feeling, wild parties and intimate circumstance.

Some clichés exist for a reason. Almost every cliché you’ve ever read about time is true. Time flies. Time is of the essence. Time Cop is a great name for a cat. Some become song titles. Time after time. If I could turn back time. The rest dissolve into poems, indents on pillows and filtered morning light.

Though your wedding day will absolutely slide by faster than summer vacation when you were ten years old, your wedding photos won’t be cliché. Those will be magic.

Bride wipes away a tear during wedding ceremony in the Northern California redwoods
Bride kisses groom on the river bank at Redwoods River Resort in Mendocino, California
Mendocino wedding photographer Kate Donaldson
Wedding Photography for Type A Hippies & Other Multitude sorts

I grew up catching garter snakes with my bare hands, running down empty gravel roads and figure skating in the winter. The immersive qualities of my work take their cues from this lingering romance with wild spaces. And yet. I will absolutely tell you if your bangs look weird.

Bride walks with siblings and sister in law to her wedding ceremony at the top of Wedding Rock in Northern California

“Kate is pure magic. Her skill as a photographer is only surpassed by her kindness and the joy that she is to be around.”

Hannah & Jared
Guests enjoying an engagement party at Fieldbrook Winery.
Redwoods apple orchard wedding in Northern California
Flower boy with fairy wings at Northern California backyard wedding

Tender & True

Your wedding day is a brief and bright universe that cartwheels into being. Meant to be lived completely, felt fully. Joy with an undercurrent of chaos because so many incredible things conspired and collided to bring you all together. Your wedding photographs are tender artifacts of this world that only existed once. Once. The way all fairytales begin.

Bride is driven to Northern California wedding ceremony in vintage sky blue car

“Kate, you captured the laughter, the tears in our eyes, you truly captured the heart of our wedding.”

Katee & SKy

Backyard Wedding on the Northern California Coast

A vibrant and intentional last day of summer celebration overlooking the Pacific Ocean.