Where we film · The Inland Empire

Wedding films in the Inland Empire.

Thirteen weddings across Riverside and San Bernardino counties, from the valley floor up into the pines and east into the desert. The venues we know out here, and how the light actually behaves once you leave the coast.

Notes on filming the Inland Empire

Everything out here follows from one fact: there is no ocean in it. On the coast a marine layer softens the morning and the light goes flat and grey in the last half hour. Inland there is none of that. Nothing filters the middle of the day, and nothing dulls the end of it. A July afternoon in Riverside or Rancho Cucamonga comes straight down with no help at all, and then the last hour before sundown stays warm and directional right to the horizon.

So the work is scheduling, not equipment. We plan an Inland Empire day around where the shade physically sits on your property, and we protect the final hour, because out here it is genuinely the best light of the day rather than something to be endured.

Chris and Emily walking together through the gardens at Hidden Oaks Retreat Center in the late afternoon
Chris & Emily · Hidden Oaks Retreat Center, Rancho Cucamonga

Shade is the whole variable

Two properties an hour apart can want opposite schedules. Hidden Oaks in Rancho Cucamonga is built under mature oaks, and that canopy holds soft, even light across the lawns through the hottest part of the day. It is worth more than a view in this climate. The trade is that the shade closes over early, so the portrait window sits before it rather than after.

An open vineyard in Temecula is the exact reverse. Nothing stands between the sun and your guests in the middle of the day, but the evening is spectacular and the valley gives up its heat fast once the sun is off the vines. Almost every reception out there stays outdoors all night.

Eric kissing Analise's cheek at golden hour in the vineyard rows at Callaway Vineyard and Winery in Temecula
Eric & Analise · Callaway Vineyard & Winery, Temecula

Up the hill, and out to the desert

The Inland Empire is not one climate. An hour above the valley floor, Crestline and Skyforest sit in real pine forest, cooler and greener, and they film nothing like the flat country below. We have made films at San Moritz Lodge and at Castle in the Forest, and both look like a different state.

East of the valley the Coachella Valley goes the other way entirely. Palm Springs and Indio are hotter and starker, with hard architecture and mountains standing straight up behind everything. The light there is the most unforgiving we work in and the most dramatic when it turns.

Peter and Julya forehead to forehead in front of a rough stone arch at Castle in the Forest in Skyforest, warm light on her braided updo
Peter & Julya · Castle in the Forest, Skyforest

The venues we know

Rancho Cucamonga: Hidden Oaks Retreat Center. Temecula: Lake Oak Meadows and Callaway Vineyard and Winery, with fuller notes on our Temecula page. Oak Glen: Serendipity Garden Weddings. The mountains: San Moritz Lodge in Crestline and Castle in the Forest in Skyforest. The desert: Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs and Old Polo Estate in Indio. And on the western edge, Padua Hills Theatre in Claremont.

We have also filmed weddings in Riverside and Murrieta.

How booking works

The Inland Empire is inside our normal filming area, so there is no travel fee. Collections begin at $6,000 and are published in full, so there is nothing to uncover on a call. We take a small number of weddings a year, which is the only way every film gets this kind of attention.

Questions, answered

Do you film weddings in the Inland Empire?

Yes, and regularly. We have made thirteen films across Riverside and San Bernardino counties, from Rancho Cucamonga and Riverside out to the Temecula valley, up into the mountains at Crestline and Skyforest, and east into the desert at Palm Springs and Indio.

Is there a travel fee to the Inland Empire?

No. The Inland Empire is inside our normal filming area, the same as Los Angeles and Orange County. Collections begin at $6,000 and are published in full on our pricing page.

What is the hardest part of filming out here?

Heat and the lack of anything to soften it. There is no marine layer this far inland, so a summer afternoon comes straight down with nothing filtering it. The fix is scheduling rather than equipment: we build the day around where the shade actually is, and we protect the last hour before sundown, which out here stays warm and directional right to the end instead of going grey the way it does on the coast.

What time should a ceremony start in the Inland Empire?

Later than you think in summer, and it depends entirely on the property. A shaded venue like Hidden Oaks in Rancho Cucamonga holds soft light across the afternoon but loses it early behind the canopy. An open vineyard in Temecula is the reverse. We work the timing back from where the shade sits on your specific site.

Which Inland Empire venues have you filmed?

Hidden Oaks Retreat Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Lake Oak Meadows and Callaway Vineyard and Winery in Temecula, Serendipity Garden Weddings in Oak Glen, San Moritz Lodge in Crestline, Castle in the Forest in Skyforest, Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs, Old Polo Estate in Indio and Padua Hills Theatre in Claremont, along with weddings in Riverside and Murrieta.

Do you travel to the mountains and the desert as well?

Yes. Lake Arrowhead and the Crestline area sit about an hour above the valley floor and film completely differently, cooler and greener with real trees. The Coachella Valley is the opposite extreme. Both are inside our normal area.

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