If you are looking for a wedding venue in the southern outskirts of Tucson, the aptly named Saguaro Buttes can fill the bill. Located on the southern end of Old Spanish Trail, it sits in close proximity to Saguaro National Park (west). The building and ceremony site is centered on a hill, providing beautiful panoramic vistas in every direction. Miguel and Brittany’s is only the eighth wedding I have photographed there.
I took the ambient scenery photos above, during a brief lull in the ceremony.
There are spacious quarters at Saguaro Buttes, for the bride and groom and their individual parties, to get ready. These rooms are smartly located in opposite sections of the building. This makes it easier to keep the bride and groom from seeing each other before the ceremony, if that is something they wish to avoid.
Extraneous Items: Brides (and grooms) that wish to have candid wedding photography done in their quarters, whether at Saguaro Buttes or somewhere else, should consider keeping all water bottles, fast food wrappings and other unsightly paraphernalia out of view, so that they do not inadvertently wind up in any of your wedding photos. Although, wedding photographers, like me, are capable of working wonders, in eliminating many of these items, during post production, limitations still do exist. Therefore, when possible, it is best to store all extraneous items in an obscure section of the room.
Below, Brittany receives some help from her mother and maid of honor.
In the case of Brittany and Miguel, we kept them separated in their quarters just long enough to arrange what is now commonly referred to as The First Look. Ever increasing in popularity, The First Look is the act of the bride and groom seeing each other, before their actual wedding ceremony. You can learn more about this on a previous post of mine, entitled The First Look.
The ceremony site at Saguaro Buttes is elevated and juts out from the main building, like a peninsula in the desert.
A hill, on the west side parking lot at Saguaro Buttes, is a prime spot for some good sunset photos of the bride and groom.
After accomplishing his mission, Miguel proudly displays his prize for all to see.
I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Miguel and Brittany, for having me as their wedding photographer!
Update: Since writing this article seventeen months ago, I have been fortunate to have returned to Saguaro Buttes a few more times. One of the fortes that Saguaro Buttes has is the hill area on the west side of the building. If you are having your wedding there, your wedding photos would not be complete without spending a few moments of your time, at this magical location. In fact, sunset hill, as I like to refer to it, was one of the main reasons Alhondra and Ryan, hired me to photograph and document their day.
The bride, groom and I were on hill, hoping for a beautiful sunset. It did not look very promising at first, so we took what we could. Just when we surrendered to the idea, that the sunset was going to be an absolute dud, we got this.
