Heather Elise Photography

17925 Cabela Drive, San Diego, CA

About this vendor

If I were to describe myself I would say I am a fun and attentive wedding photographer in San Diego, CA. I've helped countless couples feel comfy all while having some fun during the photo process. I pride myself on my ability to make my couples feel comfortable and I LOVE the couple who says, "We're not photogenic!" - I'll prove you wrong! ;) I have a reputation of being sweet and fun and getting things done. If another vendor is struggling, I will do my best to help them out. If my couple is stressed out for any reason, I will do my best to bring them back to center and breath with them if we need to. I adore working with nearlyweds and consider it a great honor and responsibility to be part of such a momentous occasion in your lives. I strive to exceed client expectations at all times and leave them with stunning images of your wedding that can be cherished for years to come. I provide an initial consultation to get to know each couple and understand their wedding vision. My strict one-event-per-day policy means that each couple receives my full attention, and I can provide additional hours where necessary. I can also provide extra photographers to cover multiple locations if desired. I am available for destination weddings and offer unlimited, full resolution digital downloads with all packages.

Details

Photo Shoot Types

Engagement
Trash The Dress

Photo & Video

Digital Files
Online Proofing
Photo
Second Shooter Available
Social Media Sharing
Wedding Albums

Photo & Video Styles

Artistic
Documentary
Lifestyle

Wedding Activities

Getting Engaged
Rehearsals & Parties
Wedding

out of 5.0

29 reviews

Search reviews

Kristen J

Heather was absolutely PHENOMENAL. As someone who didn’t have a wedding planner and had no clue how to figure out details like timeline, on my first call before booking she mapped ...

out a detailed photography timeline that helped me structure the rest of my wedding. My husband and I are not photogenic and honestly don’t love taking photos, but Heather made it easy to get through the day and let us let loose at the end and take goofy pictures throwing back our drinks in the sunset when our photo burnout was kicking in. Our families loved the photos and even my guests complimented how great the photographer was. Worth every penny! Thank you Heather for capturing our day so beautifully!

Kelsey P

I cannot express how amazing Heather is, words can hardly do it justice! We met Heather at a bridal expo in San Diego over a year before our wedding. Right away, my wife and I were...

amazed at how friendly and personable Heather is. Both of us felt instantly comfortable with her. We were looking for someone to do our engagement photos but were nervous, neither of us have been photographed very much. Heather immediately put us at ease and helped us feel excited about the whole experience. Not only is Heathers personality amazing, but her talent is off the charts! We did our engagement shoot in Balboa Park in San Diego and her knowledge of the park and the most beautiful places to be made the whole experience a breeze and so, so much fun! We walked around and talked and laughed before stopping at all of the best places for photos. When we got the photos back, they were more beautiful than we could have anticipated - every single one was stunning! It was hard to narrow down which photos we would hang up because they were all so amazing! On our wedding day, Heather and her second shooter Nick were amazing. Their energy was so upbeat and positive it really set the tone for what was a truly perfect day. From the moment Heather showed up, it felt like an old friend had arrived to hang out with us and catch up! The getting-ready photos she did all felt very natural and fun! Since there were two brides, there were a LOT of details for her to shoot! Heather handled everything with grace and good humor, making sure she had time to give us each her undivided solo attention - and making sure that the two of us did not see each other before the big moment!! Heather was indispensable in more ways than one, when we were having trouble lacing the corset on my gown, Heather sprang into action and did it for us! She was there for almost the entire event, and it felt so comfortable and organic having her there documenting our special day. We cannot wait to get all of our pictures back of everyone rocking on the dance floor and are already anticipating how hard it will be to choose just a handful to display in our home! It felt like everywhere we turned; Heather was there capturing a memory with a smile! Thank you so much for being so kind, encouraging, and talented - you saved the day, and we are already brainstorming excuses so we can hire you to take our pictures for more things in the future!

Johanna R

This is a long overdue review, but I felt I needed to finally make time to write and share how absolutely amazing Heather was during our whole wedding planning process! From the fi...

rst phone call we immediately felt heard and felt the dedication, joy and love Heather has for her work and art. She was super helpful with planning out our timeline and made us feel absolutely comfortable and confident during our engagement shoot. The day of the wedding everything went smoothly and her amazing teamwork and relationship with Focused Bliss made everything all the better! Having Heather and Michael capture our wedding was the highlight and best decision we could’ve made! Joshua and I are super happy with our gallery and have shared it with everyone! Thank you for your amazing work Heather and for all your advice, kindness, and support!

John M

Heather is a fantastic wedding photographer. Professional, an expert, and an all around great person. She was an absolute pleasure to work with and I cannot recommend her enough. I...

would give 10 stars if I could. She did our wedding and a beach shoot for us and my wife and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Renee G

I can't say enough about how lovely it was to work with Heather for both my engagement photos and wedding day photos. She is so easy to get along with and has a great vision. My hu...

sband and I loved spending time with her. I had so many compliments on how hard she was working day of and helping people out with posing for the best photo opportunities possible. The final shots are hanging on my walls and captured the best memories. Heather is incredible.

Kyle S

We’re so glad we picked Heather as our wedding photographer. We instantly connected and loved her personality after our first Zoom call. She was very professional and made the whol...

e experience fun and as stress-free as possible. She did both our engagement photos and wedding photos, and we were so happy with how everything turned out. She did an amazing job capturing our special day, and would recommend her to anyone.

Hymna R

Amazing photographer! I had a great feeling about Heather when I first met her at the Del Mar Bridal Bazaar. Extremely professional and clear communicator. Worked great with my oth...

er vendors and the photos Heather and her Team mate took are absolute magic. Heather and her teammate made us feel relaxed, helped with some poses but never made us feel like statues with a smile. Her photography style was exactly what we wanted and we couldn't be happier!

Lizzie B

Heather Elise is an incredibly talented photographer, and my wife and I are so happy we booked with her. We initially met her at the 2020 bridal bazaar in San Diego, and remembered...

her work when we were planning our 2022 wedding. She is the kind of person that makes you feel at ease immediately, which helped us look relaxed during our photos! She is great at communicating & worked so well with our other vendors. We did an engagement shoot and our wedding day photos with her. Heather has a very artistic eye, and I love her unique photography style. I would recommend her to anyone looking to have the emotions of their special day captured in their essence.

Newlyn W

We can't say enough about having the pleasure of working with Heather! She was such a blast to work with on top of her work being top notch. There are a lot more reasons we recomme...

nd her, but to name the top two: Fun and easy-going: Heather shot both our engagement and wedding photos, and from our first Zoom call we knew we were going to have an amazing time working with her. Her personality and encouragement helped us relax and have a great time; she even helped direct poses and how to make the most of our shots. If you want to have a blast shooting your photos then you can't go wrong with Heather! Professionalism: We had a lot of family members and Heather handled going through our long photo list like a pro. Our guests loved her and the end products were amazing. We loved the photos she took and she did a great job capturing all of the moments we wanted. Our wedding had some additional cultural pieces, and Heather was flexible and understanding of what we wanted to capture. She also worked perfectly with our other vendors which made our lives way easier. We don't live in San Diego, so having someone who's very knowledgeable about where to shoot and when was extremely helpful. We can't recommend Heather enough and can't thank her enough for being so awesome!

Roberta F

Heather came recommended by our venue and boy did she do an incredible job! We clicked with her instantly and had the best time and usually I'm terrible with posing and getting my ...

photo taken. She made everything fun and easy and our photos are amazing. On a personal note, she happened to catch me alone when I started to get nervous for the ceremony after we had a false start and I needed to sequester longer as some of our guests were arriving late. She just sat and chatted with me and I really appreciated it.

K L

If I could give this amazing woman 10 stars.. I would give her 20 ⭐️!! Heather is a visionary, an artist, talented as hell and did I mention an AMAZING person! She gives off such...

a positive and uplifting vibe that upon meeting her you instantly feel like you’ve known her for years. Heather photographed our wedding this past February in Vegas (dream come true, forreal). My husband, kids and I have never taken professional photos before, and Heather made us feel very comfortable and directed us perfectly on how to pose that in all honesty every shot was absolutely beautiful! She exceeded our expectations by a long shot and captured the day of our wedding so well that when you look at the photos, you could really feel the emotions that were happening at that exact moment! 🥰😭. Heather, we can’t thank you enough from the bottom of our hearts for documenting one of the most important days of our lives! I will continue to refer you to everyone I know! If you go with Heather as your photographer for your next event, know that you are in amazing hands, and I suggest that you get your box of tissues ready, because the work that she produces is just absolutely captivating!

Veronica R

Heather was absolutely incredible! She traveled all the way to our destination wedding in Kauai. She was extremely personable and caught all of the moments we were hoping for! We h...

ave so many high quality and amazing pictures that we can look back on and rember for the rest of our lives! Highly recommend Heather for your wedding!

David B

Heather did a fantastic job for us at our wedding this past August. She was always smiling and listened to any ideas that we had and worked with us. Our families had only great thi...

ngs to say about her after our wedding! Heather did both our engagement photos and our weddings photos, and she got them back to us well before she said would on each occasion. We're extremely grateful to have had such an awesome photographer for our big day!

Priya J

We met Heather during the Bridal Bazaar at Del Mar and really liked her and her photography style! Heather was very sweet and professional, and we requested her as our photographer...

for our wedding very soon after. Heather was absolutely wonderful to work with and she made the whole process of completing the contract and payments very easy and straightforward. She met with us to get to know us as a couple in order to understand our likes/dislikes in photography and then suggested engagement shoot locations based on things which were meaningful to us. Neither my husband (fiancé at the time) nor I had done a photoshoot before; the engagement shoot was our first time. Heather was AMAZING! Throughout the shoot, she gave us tips and walked us through exactly how to act/pose for the camera. She made us feel very comfortable in front of the camera and captured wonderful photos! I brought props for the shoot and she included all of them throughout the session. I used the photos for our save-the-dates, wedding website, and on social media. Fast forward to our wedding day and let me just say, Heather was absolutely FANTASTIC!! From the time she and her assistant, Brett, came to my fiancé’s and my respective hotel rooms to capture photos of us getting ready till the time they left for the night, they were constantly taking photos throughout. She and her assistant made everyone in the bridal party and our parents feel very comfortable, captured stunning photos, and directed us with very fun and cute poses. Heather was very knowledgeable of our venue and had a very splendid photography vision with the background/locations she chose for photos. Many of our guests and our parents came up to me during/after the wedding complimenting Heather and saying how professional she was. They both did an exceptional job and it’s impossible for me to thank Heather enough for how many wonderful memories she captured. These are photos our families, friends, and especially we, will cherish for the rest of our lives! I shared the wedding album with our families and members of the bridal party. Everyone single person (no exaggeration) was complimenting Heather and said how magnificent the photos turned out and beautifully she captured all the memorable moments of our special day. I am completely blown away! Thank you, Heather, for everything!

Jenna S

Heather was FANTASTIC! We loved working with her. She was the first vendor we booked for our wedding; from the moment we met her we felt her warmth and positive energy and knew she...

would be a great fit for us. The day of the wedding, she and her second shooter were able to be extremely attentive to any questions and concerns we had whether they had to do with the photos or not. Heather's go to response was "Tell me what you need, I've got you!" We also received compliments from a few of our guests and relatives on her professionalism and overall easy going vibe. She genuinely cares about her couples and it shows.

Megan G

I don't even know where to begin on how incredibly talented our photographer was! My husband and I met Heather at the Bridal Bizaar in San Diego almost a year before our wedding da...

y. Somehow when I first walked by her booth, I knew that I wanted her as my Photographer but we kept walking around just to check out everything around us. I don't know why we did, because I immediately would go back to her table, and we booked her! It was the best decision I made! Heather exceeded my expectations of what I wanted in a photographer. Not only are her pictures just so amazingly unreal, but she has a great vision and is so easy to work with. My husband and I never had professional photos done together before this so of course I felt like I was going to look and feel awkward, but I didn't at all! My wedding day photos (and engagement photos) were everything I could've ever dreamed of and it is all thanks to Heather! I highly recommend her to anyone that is really looking for the best photographer on their wedding day!!

Esther C

We are a slightly older couple who recently wed & used Heather Elise’ as our wedding photographer. I mention our mature age as this was not our 1st or only experience with a life c...

ycle event in which we hired a photographer. Heather was hands down the finest, most professional & skilled at her craft that I/we have ever experienced. Heather results were exceptional. Our final product was 863 of top quality, creative & gorgeous photographs. Her ease & TLC cannot go without mentioning as well. She sets everyone at ease, all the while gently persuading everyone to fall in for the best possible results. She knows what works, what to anticipate & where to be for every nuisance. Your search is over if you’ve found Heather.

Elizabeth S

I almost have no words for this. How I feel about my whole wedding photography experience is really indescribable. A year and a half before my wedding, I went to a local bridal ba...

zaar, where I found Heather. It was an instant connection to her photos for me, but she was outside my budget so I moved on. I followed her on Facebook and Instagram and fell more in love with her style. Six months before our big day, I went back to the same bridal bazaar, determined to find a photographer that I could afford and whom I got along well with. We approached Heather's booth and my sister in law/maid of honor told me not to even go over because it would make me sad. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment because I just had to look. The photos spoke to me in the way that only your dream wedding photographer's can. In a twist of fate, I ended up talking with Heather and she offered to do my wedding for what I could afford. I cried. And it wouldn't be the last time. On my wedding day, I was brought to tears several times because of how absolutely incredible our vendors were, Heather especially. I felt an honest connection with her that make my photos that much more special. My wedding day was the most magical day of my life, and I owe a lot of that to her. Book her, you will not regret it. I will never so much as consider another photographer for anything else - she has my business for life.

Nicole R

Where to even begin!! We met Heather at a wedding expo, and immediately fell in love not only with her beachy vibe that matched our dream wedding decor, but more so with her amazin...

gly welcoming and bubbly personality. It certainly isn't easy for many couples to have a camera on them while gazing into each other's eyes, touching noses, or kissing--but Heather made us feel SO comfortable. She made a point to get to know us and our personalities, what we were comfortable with and what truly reflected "us." On top of making us feel comfortable and producing incredible quality photos both of our engagement and on the day of our wedding, Heather's experience and professionalism were so above and beyond anything we could have expected. She was on top of the timeline, helping bridesmaids get hair and makeup in the right place before snapping away, and even managing some of the vendors when they weren't sure of their roles! We can't thank her enough for all of the coordination and facilitation not only leading up to our big day, but also on the day of. We are SO grateful to have found such a wonderful soul to join us on our wedding day, and will forever cherish the photos that she was able to capture to help us remember it forever. Thank you, Heather!!!

Hailey B

Heather is AMAZING to work with! As a wedding coordinator I look for upbeat, positive, smart, talented and responsive vendors to work with. Heather is all of the above and more! No...

t only is she is a fantastic photographer, she really cares about her clients and she is super easy to work with. I highly recommend Heather Elise Photography!

Nicole L

Our engagement and wedding photos turned out amazing! When I look back through our photo gallery, and I am so happy and pleased. Heather made us feel so comfortable in front of t...

he camera. She was great directing everyone during those large group shots. She has a fun personality and we loved working together.

Jen C

Heather is AMAZING! She's so sweet, fun, and just a joy to be around. She is also incredibly talented and caught so many candid, special moments between me and my husband. She was ...

our photographer for both our engagement photos and our wedding on October 7th, 2016 and I could not be happier. I still look at all of our photos at least once per week because I love them so much! Our photos are stunning and her creativity really shined at our unique venue, The Pearl Hotel. I could not recommend her highly enough! Thank you for everything, Heather!

Anonymous

Heather was fantastic! My husband and I are a little shy, but Heather made us feel super comfortable. During the first look and ceremony I didn't even know she was there! She was s...

o professional, friendly, and bubbly!! It was amazing working with her. And our pictures are all superb!

Michelle R

My fiance and I had such high expectations for our engagement photos and Heather totally blew us away! We were 100% happy with the photo shoot and the results. We live in Chicago...

and were looking for someone we could trust to give us a great set of pics from my fiance’s home town of San Diego. We both wanted this to be a fun experience in addition to having a few great photos that we could have forever. Now we have dozens of amazing photos from that day. Heather made it all seem so easy with such excellent direction and attention to detail. She was extremely helpful, responsive, and understanding with everything, including the planning of the shoot via email. Whether you go into the shoot with a bunch of ideas for locations and poses or if you are looking for someone to tell you exactly what to do, you won't be disappointed. She was a true professional; so friendly and creative. We ended up with such a variety of poses and backgrounds. She had lots of compliments for us during the shoot which helped to make us both feel confident and totally at ease. She would even point out little changes like adjusting my hair or outfit, or my fiance’s pose so that every shot turned out to be picture perfect. We realized later that her little suggestions made all the difference. We can say that we appreciated Heather's experience and guidance so much because a week later we did a separate engagement photo shoot back in Chicago with a different photographer. Thank goodness we had done the session with Heather in advance because in Chicago we didn't really receive much guidance during the shoot. We had to think back to all of the things that Heather had suggested so that we could end up with photos and poses that we liked. The Chicago photos were still very nice, but they paled in comparison to what Heather gave us. After the shoot with Heather we had tons of phenomenal pictures to choose from. We highly recommend Heather Elise for any type of photo shoot. It's worth every penny. And we would strongly suggest "going with the flow" and taking Heather's advice as we did, since the photos turned out so great. Our friends and family love all the pictures. Needless to say we will definitely be going back to Heather for any future photography events. We still can't get over how fantastic the photos turned out!

Alicia V

Heather was AMAZING!! I wish I had another event to use her. We started out by having a phenomenal engagement session with her. She really made us feel comfortable from the first m...

oment we met her, and it was easy to forget she was even around taking pictures she creates such a relaxing environment. I couldn't imagine working with a more enthusiastic and positive wedding photographer. She maintained her calm (even after the groomsmen spilled beer on themselves before the wedding) and really put everyone in a great mood for taking pictures. We used her for the entire day, but she certainly has more affordable packages. To me, she took the perfect balance of more formal pictures and a lot of more candid pictures that really captured everyone's personalities. Heather was one of my favorite vendors that we worked with, and I would highly recommend her.

Julie H

Heather is absolutely amazing and so much fun to work with! My husband and I are not "picture people" but Heather made us love every moment of it. We used her for our engagement ...

shoot and wedding. She picked an absolute perfect spot for the engagement shoot and the photos were unbelievable. We also used the photos from the engagement shoot to create a guest sign in book for the wedding. Once again, Heather created a masterpiece for our friends and family members to write their blessings on. Everything about Heather and her work is amazing. Anyone who is able to use her to capture their special day is truly fortunate.

Diana L

Heather was an amazing photographer!! She made both of us feel comfortable in front of the camera...and after we took the bridal party and formal pictures, she didn't ask us to pos...

e for anymore pictures. She moved seamlessly through the wedding and captured tons of great memories!

Christina S

Our Wedding Photographs are Beautiful! The entire day is captured in a way that re-tells our story. From personal and intimate to formal then casual, our Wedding Prints reflect the...

commitment we have made to eachother as well as all of our guests excitement of presence. THANK YOU HEATHER!!

Karen R

down to earth'; photojournalist style

Contact

17925 Cabela Drive, San Diego, CA