Carmel Wedding Photos

With every wedding, I gain new insight into the infinite ways people express their love for one another. These Carmel wedding photos reminded me that intimate, meaningful celebrations need not always be extravagant affairs.

Anne and Dane currently live in the Bay Area. In order to get out of the city, they planned a weekend getaway to Carmel for their elopement. L’Auberge Carmel is a European style hotel. It is also home to L’Aubergine, a renowned restaurant. Anne and Dane used L’Auberge as a base for their Central Coast adventures, as well as an afternoon beach elopement.

Carmel always brings to mind images of sand and summertime fog. At the same time, I think of winding streets that are as rustic as they are refined. Growing up on the California coast, my high school years revolved around surfing. Sometimes the waves in Half Moon Bay weren’t breaking as clean as we would have liked. Often, the wind was blowing in hard from the wrong direction. Under those circumstances we would often head south. Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Carmel offered hopes of foggy, windless conditions. Offshore kelp forests kept the ocean surface smooth. And I remember feeling a little more at ease as waves rolled slowly and predictably towards us through the mist. As I drove into Carmel to meet Anne and Dane, I found myself driving into the same familiar bank of Pacific fog.

As a 16 year old surfer, this part of the California coast always felt like a world of its own. At the age of 33, in a different chapter of my own life, I am glad to know it still does.

In the event you enjoyed these elopement photos, you ought to check out this post of Yosemite engagement photography, this San Francisco engagement photography, and this winter Lake Tahoe engagement photography.