Asah Films

Your reception decor is also your lighting plan ✨

Once the sun goes down, there are a few things that can help create a beautiful glow for that intimate dinner party feel.

Table lamps. They work well if open flames are not permitted, and they look so beautiful in photos.
Candles, and lots of them. Spread them down the tables and around the room.
String lights or fairy lights. Hung overhead, they create magical ambience in the background.

Photos from a reception I second shot for sustudio photography | SF Bay Area wedding photographer.
Thank you so much for having me 🫶🏽

Here’s why I think booking an hour ceremony on the fourth floor at San Francisco City Hall is so worth it.

It’s away from the noise of the lower floors so, even though you can’t use a mic, your guests can hear you.

The arched windows bring in incredible natural light, cloudy days included. And they frame your ceremony in every direction.

My favorite reason is the uninterrupted time for couple portraits. Before or after the ceremony, we can check the fourth floor off the list and still have time to explore the rest of City Hall.

If you’re looking at City Hall for your ceremony, I’d love to know more.

Being a high school teacher might have been the best training I could have asked for as a wedding photographer.

Every wedding party is like a new class. Learn names fast. Keep a big, excited group all moving the same direction. Read the room and keep it fun. Watch the clock so we stay on time.

I give C&S’s crew top marks all round! They brought the best energy to the day at V Sattui. Scroll to the end for the evidence 🕺

Venue: V. Sattui Weddings
Photographer: Tessa - Bay Area Wedding & Elopement Photographer
Florals: Vanda Floral Design
Planner: Darlene Forbes
Content: Vern
HMUA: Katie Donaghy
Dress: Martina Liana Bridal Designs
String Quartet: Eloquence Strings
Dessert: Baked Blooms®️ ~ Sarah ~

Dreaming of getting married at San Francisco City Hall without the crowds?

J&J booked their ceremony on a Saturday, and it was so serene. We had the place to ourselves for two hours, going anywhere we pleased. And what could be more iconic than saying “I do” on the grand staircase!

Shot on a mix of digital and film.
Photographer: Tessa - Bay Area Wedding & Elopement Photographer
Venue: San Francisco City Hall
Florals: Peter Bonavita
HMUA: 。Glamourbykaryli
Coordinator: Ku'uleialoha aka Mini Brown
Harpist: Eleonora Pellegrini - San Francisco Harpist

Sometimes twenty minutes is all we need.

Whether it’s because the sun is about to set, or you want to get back to the party with your best people, a beautiful spot and a little time go a long way. We made the most of every minute, and came away with so many gorgeous frames. Here are just a few from G&O’s day.

Whimsical florals, stone fountains, fairy lights strung from every corner as the sun set on the vineyards.

This was S&C’s wedding at V. Sattui, the winery built in 1885 to feel like an old Italian village. Stone that has weathered more than a century of Napa sun, a tower against the sky, oaks over the grounds. S&C wanted the romance and magic of old-world Europe, and every corner of the estate truly felt like the perfect match.

Dreaming of another romantic Napa winery wedding already!

Venue: V. Sattui Winery
Photographer: Tessa - Bay Area Wedding & Elopement Photographer
Florals: Vanda Floral Design
Planner: Darlene Forbes
Content: Vern
HMUA: Katie Donaghy
Dress: Martina Liana Bridal Designs
String Quartet: Eloquence Strings
Dessert: Baked Blooms®️ ~ Sarah ~

My name is Tessa, the creator of Asah Films. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, I photograph weddings and elopements with a playfully candid yet elevated, fine-art feel.

My work is for the spirited and the sentimental. For those who hope to cultivate memories and moments that, decades from now, still feel alive and inspired. Full of celebration. Full of the seconds worth reliving again and again.

This has been beautifully embodied in my new brand design. The monogram by a n d r e a is a little cheeky, a little chic. And the new website by carries an artful nostalgia that hearkens after the very feeling I hope my photographs evoke.

So go on, have a wander at asahfilms.com and tell me what you think 🥰

More and more, when chatting with couples, they mention a sense of story in the photographs I share. They use words like textured, history, an awareness of light, a candid feel.

Much of that is influenced by my journey into weddings as a videographer. I love following a day’s movement, catching the spirit of a moment. There are always photographs I know I’ll get, but I am also looking out for the unexpected in-between ones that connect into the narrative of the day. The way it is remembered.

Here are a few digital and film photographs from L&A’s day that carry this, developed by Photoworks SF.

Venue: Camp Trinity on the Bar 717 Ranch | Est. 1930
Photographer: Tessa - Bay Area Wedding & Elopement Photographer
Florals: FiftyFlowers | Wholesale DIY Flowers Shipped To You
Rentals: A Planned Affair Redding

This time last year, I was still getting to know San Francisco. Chinatown was where I kept ending up, my happy place in a city that was new to me after moving here from Hong Kong. It was also where I first started bringing film into my engagement sessions, a roll or two at a time, seeing what it would do.

Now it’s part of how I create. I’ve become more deliberate about how I shoot, looking for the moments that feel like a little lived-in treasure. Part of the everyday, yet revealing their beauty by the frame that holds it in time.

Photos are a mix of digital and film.

At The Sea Ranch Lodge, your whole day can happen in one magnificent setting.

Stay at one of the rooms on site. Walk out to the bluff for the ceremony. Sit down to dinner with the Pacific going in front of you. Wake up to coffee by the ocean and a walk along the Bluff Top Trail.

I wrote up a little guide to planning a Sea Ranch elopement on the blog. I take on a limited number of elopements a year, and this stretch of coast is always a yes for me. Link in my profile if you’re dreaming about it.

Photographs shot on film.



Venue: The Sea Ranch Lodge
Photographer: Tessa - Bay Area Wedding & Elopement Photographer
Concept & Design: & Morgan Cullimore┋ Florist
Florals: Morgan Cullimore┋ Florist
Workshop: Boundless the Workshop ✨