Carmel Beach Intimate Wedding by the Sea // Carmel Wedding Photographer
Erin and Brandon were married in an intimate beach wedding ceremony surrounded by their closest friends and family. From their love of Yeti cups and Cultura Mexican food to tons of laughter (including Erin borrowing my shoes) their foggy coastal wedding was absolutely perfect. Once they arrived at their ceremony location they were surrounded by their closest family and friends and toasted their marriage with fresh sparkling apple cider.
When did you know he/she was THE one?We don't actually talk about this. I did tell my friends shortly after we started dating that if it didn't work out with him I was never going to try a dating app again because the three weeks I was on OkCupid was plenty exhausting enough to last my entire lifetime lol. I guess, on a more serious note, my very beloved dog Goose passed away in November after a short illness and he was there for her and there for me in intangibly meaningful ways, and though it was an awful, awful time he made it a little easier and that meant a lot.
Why did you decide to elope?I've never wanted a big wedding. Also, as one of the last of my friends to get married, I've attended a lot of weddings and while I've never been to a bad one, they've all seemed like they took a ton of energy and a ton of money to mostly be kind of boring. Brandon's friends and family are very spread out (Grandma and sister in New Zealand and friends mostly in Montana and London) and asking people to travel so far seemed like it would either be unfair to them or unsuccessful. Since we're both introverts, it felt like the best solution was a small ceremony mostly for our parents' sake, and then we'll celebrate with our friends in other ways that don't stress me out at the thought of them, like a normal dinner.
Why did you choose Big Sur, have you been here before?If Goose hadn't passed away, we possibly would've chosen something closer to home (as she absolutely despised car rides) so she could've been there, but as our options were open, it felt like Monterey Bay was a natural fit for us as a couple, as we drive down to explore more every couple of months or so. It also felt like, if we were going to ask people to travel to our wedding, we should ask them to travel someplace just slightly out of their way to make it special and very beautiful to make it worth the trip :)
What are you looking forward to the most about being married?
We have tentative plans to upgrade from a queen to a king mattress that we're pretty excited about! Brandon is more traditionalist than me and I think he's looking forward to us being fully recognized as a family (we just adopted our foster dog this week and I took him to meet his new vet and they assigned him my last name and he was bummed it wasn't his last name and I offered to have the vet's office change it after we get married and he was very excited about the prospect). I think we're both just sort of excited about the future in general and see what happens next.
