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RECENT WORK & photography tips

How to Get Married at the Santa Barbara Courthouse: A Complete Wedding Guide If you’re dreaming of a romantic California wedding that feels elegant, historic, and surprisingly simple to plan, getting married at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse is one of the most beautiful options you can choose. Often considered one of the most stunning […]

Drift Santa Barbara Wedding: Where Coastal Cool Meets Effortless California Romance There is a version of Santa Barbara that exists in the imagination of nearly everyone who has ever heard the city’s name spoken aloud — a place of perpetual golden light, ocean breezes carrying the faint scent of salt and jasmine, whitewashed walls glowing […]

Hotel Californian Wedding: Where Old World Glamour Meets the Timeless Magic of Santa Barbara There is a moment, when you are standing at the edge of Santa Barbara’s waterfront and the afternoon light is doing that particular thing it does along the California coast — turning everything it touches into something that looks less like […]

Wanderment Farms Wedding Venue Guide: A Romantic Mountain Retreat Near Santa Barbara If you’re dreaming of a wedding venue that feels peaceful, natural, and completely removed from the busyness of everyday life, Wanderment Farms is a beautiful place to begin your search. It’s a great venue for large or small weddings in California. Tucked into […]

Santa Barbara Woman’s Club: A Simply Elegant Wedding Venue in Gorgeous California Why Choose the Santa Barbara Woman’s Club for Your Wedding? If you’re dreaming of a wedding venue that captures the charm, history, and beauty that Santa Barbara is known for, the Santa Barbara Woman’s Club is a wonderful venue to consider. Tucked into […]

Whispering Rose Ranch: A Beautiful California Private Estate Wedding Venue I have driven through the Santa Ynez Valley more times than I could ever count, and I want to tell you honestly that it never becomes ordinary. After more than seventeen years of traveling across this country and well beyond its borders to photograph weddings […]

Santa Ynez Ranch: A Soulful Wine Country Wedding Venue In The Heart of California There are certain places in this world that stop you mid-sentence. You are driving, perhaps talking about something completely ordinary, and then the road curves just slightly and suddenly the landscape opens up and you lose every word you were about […]

Foxen Canyon Ranch Wedding: A Hidden Gem in the Heart of California Wine Country There is something about the Santa Barbara wine country that never gets old, no matter how many times I find myself driving those winding roads lined with ancient oaks and sun-drenched vineyards. Over the past seventeen-plus years of traveling across the […]
LET'S capture
TOGETHER
Something Beautiful
Every wedding tells a story. My job is to find the most beautiful way to tell yours. Through the candid moments that happen when no one is looking to the details you spent months choosing and the in-between frames that end up meaning the most. Art and emotion, together in every image.
BEHIND THE LENS
Photography found me before I found it. I grew up watching my grandfather frame a shot, learning without realizing I was learning. When my youngest was born in 2009, I picked up a camera to capture my own kids — and somewhere between the first roll and the hundredth wedding, it became the thing I couldn't imagine not doing.
What keeps me going after 17 years is the same thing that started it all: a genuine love for people and an obsession with preserving the moments that matter. I still travel the world every year to learn from the best photographers working today. Not because I have to. Because I can't imagine stopping.
© courtney bowlden photography 2026
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