Nicole + Matt | Wedding Photos Padua Hills Theatre

Padua is one of those magical wedding venues, where you can feel the history and character come through in your first visit. It’s the kind of place that you pay extra for because all the wedding photos (including the ones take with cell phones) will look that much better because of the amazing location. We love capturing wedding photos at Padua Hills Theatre, so take a look below at Nicole and Matt’s special wedding day in Claremont.

Wedding Preparation at Padua

First Look

A Couple Wedding Photos at Padua Hills

Padua Hills Theatre Wedding Ceremony

They had their wedding ceremony on the balcony or terrace side, facing the hills and sunset (to the west).

Wedding Photos at Padua Hills

After the wedding ceremony, we did our couples portrait session for some amazing wedding photos at Padua Hills Theatre. We started in a new area that isn’t photographed that often, with bricks and concrete. Note that this historic building(s) adhere to Spanish revivalism, which many accents of Mexican and Spanish influence.

Then we captured the sunset at the large metal arch on the terrace side of Padua Hills.

And we love how this photo came out with flower petals (leftover from the wedding ceremony) thrown in front of the camera.

And cheers to our bride and groom, having their first (of many) drink together.

And we love lighting up the water fountain in the olive grove at night.

Padua Wedding Reception

They had an outdoors wedding reception in the courtyard, with the dinner reception outdoors and the dancing/cake cutting/garter and bouquet toss indoors. They went with a Harry Potter theme and had this awesome Harry Potter seating chart for the reception. Often this courtyard is used for wedding ceremonies at Padua, which you can see in our other Padua Hills weddings.

And yes, they spent a lot of time making these Harry Potter wands for their wedding by using a plastic craft gun and chopsticks!

Indoor Wedding Reception

We then moved indoors for the wedding reception cake cutting and other festivities.

Here’s the dessert bar layout and spread, which was in the middle of the ballroom (without all the reception dinner tables). It’s a great spot for all your wedding guests to lounge around.

First Dance at Padua

The first dance photos always look awesome with the stage lighting provided by the theater setup. The dual spotlights are really photogenic.

The stage of Padua Theatre makes for a great bouquet toss, with spotlights that accept the whole stage area.

The view from the other side is also great, using the theatre lighting (that’s always there) to perfectly light our couple.

They then started the night of dancing with slow songs, and then ramped it up with dance music once everyone got out onto the dance floor.

And the bride and groom had their grand sendoff in their Toyota Supra (modded with a great exhaust note). Definitely a cool way to end a beautiful wedding night.

More Wedding Photos at Padua Hills Theatre

We shoot quite often at the historic Padua Hills Theatre in Claremont (Los Angeles County). It’s a one of a kind wedding venue with a ton of character. The olive grove is amazing for wedding couple portraits, centered by a classic and beautiful water fountain. The buildings ooze character, with a large ballroom and stage for the first dance and other reception festivities. This has to be one of our favorite wedding venues in LA county, but is also a place that we would want for our own wedding (if we had known about it back then). It’s really that beautiful and is worth a look at the distinctly beautiful ground.

We are wedding photographers based in San Dimas, so Claremont is our neighbor! We service all of the cities in this region, including San Dimas, La Verne, Claremont, and Glendora. We love this area and know some of the hidden gems around here, just by living here. Padua is definitely one of our favorite wedding venues.