An Intimate Wedding with Family at San Francisco City Hall
January 4, 2023
Crystal Hearts Wedding Ceremony
March 23, 2023
Couples from all over the world flock to the California coasts for their dream weddings. This beautiful area offers everything, from simple beach weddings with a stunning ocean view to larger wedding venue rentals. Andi and her husband were lucky enough to have a historic family-owned home with a private backyard in Monterey, California. The logistics were perfect for preparing for their big day and the big shindig afterward! They chose black and white with dusty rose for their theme and lots of forest details, as big trees surround the family home.
Getting ready:
The tender moments in the hours before your wedding day can offer excellent opportunities for once-in-a-lifetime bonding between you, your girl squad, and the matriarchs of your family. Everyone you surround yourself with is there to support you, charge you up when your nerves kick in, and offer last-minute advice for your brand-new marriage. This intimate connection with your tribe should be documented and cherished forever. You’d agree it’s worth booking the extra hour to save these memories forever.
While we’re famous for our unique elopement weddings, our team is well-equipped and trained to handle bigger events like this one. We’ve created a special page for larger weekend wedding packages like this one. If you’re having a wedding that’s around forty guests or more, these easy-to-calculate options could be perfect for your Monterey or Carmel wedding photography and videography. We also offer hair and makeup for you and your wedding party, wedding officiants, and bridal flowers. We have a fantastic florist in the Monterey and Carmel area who created all of the floral arrangements, bouquets, and boutonnieres for this beautiful outdoor wedding.
The ceremony:
Mark and Andi held their wedding, performed by Andi’s father, at Berwick Park in Pacific Grove, CA, located on Ocean View Blvd and 9th St. It’s just a few minutes from downtown Monterey and is named “The Most Romantic City.” (They are also well known for being a Monarch butterfly “overwintering” location!) Four different areas at Berwick Park are all oceanside and available for you to rent with a permit, which runs about $333 an hour plus a deposit. There is plentiful curbside parking that’s a short walk to the ceremony site and easy handicapped access. They had two guests in wheelchairs who were well-accommodated and could enjoy the wedding entirely. The wedding altar and chairs were set up by an event company offering big decor. We have several companies that we partner with from Monterey-Carmel up to San Francisco, so ask, and we’ll be happy to connect you with one of them!
Couples Pictures:
This might be our favorite part!! Directly next door to their wedding site is Lovers Point Park. If you come for your wedding photography session during low tide, you’ll be treated to an extra big, white sand beach with plentiful and dramatic rock formations. If you come at high tide, you’ll enjoy crashing waves as your backdrop, with less beach available but still excellent photography at the cliff tops. This is the perfect spot if you’re having a small wedding or beach elopement. We can take you right down to the sand for a barefoot wedding. It’s also easy to access for any senior family members joining you. The beach is not handicapped accessible, but the lawn above the beach is. After their Lovers Point Park wedding ceremony, couples often hop in their cars and drive to Big Sur or Carmel for gorgeous wedding photography at sunset. Garrapata State Park has been a very popular choice. It is just on the other side of Carmel California Highway 1, another nearby location for very dramatic cliff, beach, and forest elopement or wedding photography. You can easily add extra hours to your Monterey wedding photography package to accommodate extra locations.
The Reception:
In what ways could you personalize your wedding? Color themes running throughout your day are an easy place to start. Another idea is to look to your friend and family group as Andi and Mark did. Bringing their two worlds together and having a one-of-a-kind wedding that was unique to their relationship made for an exhilarating and entertaining evening. Cookie-cutter weddings are a thing of the past, and more and more couples are looking for ways to make their events stand out and be memorable. If your inner circle is willing to lend their talents to your big day, you can save money for other items on your “must-have” list.
Andi likes to say this was a homegrown affair, and she’s right! Her Greek mother and Mark’s Philipeno father did all of the cooking for their guests. Andi’s sister entertained the crowd with a fire dance, and Mark and his friends acted as DJs and created a unique video game in a theme room that featured the newlyweds in the game! This was a rager of a wedding reception that was both small and mighty! You can tell by their details how much of their personalities went into planning their guest experience. From the Boba Bar to the incredible array of delicious desserts at their dessert bar, I’m positive nobody left this wedding hungry.
If you’d like to plan a wedding in Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel, or Big Sur, California, please email us through our website’s contact page.
