A Garrapata State Park Elopement, Then a Carmel Steakhouse Dinner

Vows on the Garrapata State Park Headland

The ceremony was on a bluff at the north end of Garrapata, a wide dirt point above the water with a wind-bent cypress on one side, the Santa Lucia Mountains rising behind, and sea-stack rocks scattered offshore where the surf broke white. Rev. Brian Lyke stood with the open Pacific at his back, a navy suit on and a black folio in his hands. Annant waited, and Alice came to him, the red train dragging across the dry grass and catching the low sun.

Four guests stood close — a young man in a dark suit, a woman in a black floral gown holding Alice's bouquet, another couple beside them. Alice walked in to Michael Bublé's "Everything." When Rev. Lyke pronounced them married, they kissed high over the water with the two rock islands out past the point, and then they recessed to Pharrell's "Happy." A coastline like this needs nothing built or dressed. There was only the headland and the ocean below it.

“Four guests on a Big Sur headland, a red-and-gold gown against the dry grass, and the Pacific breaking on the rocks below.”

A Champagne Toast Above the Pacific

Right after the vows came a toast on the bluff. Annant popped a bottle of J Cuvée sparkling from a silver bucket, flutes lined up on a small folding table, and the six of them stood in a loose row while the last of the sun flared gold off the water — the guests in floral dresses and dark suits, Alice's red train bright against the grass. The moon was already up over the Santa Lucia range through the cypress.

They stayed on for portraits as the light dropped, the two of them out on the granite with the surf below, Viera Photographics working the point until the coast went from gold to blue. Garrapata sits right on Highway 1 south of Carmel, where the headlands push out into the Pacific and the water changes color by the minute — a coastline people drive out to just to stand on, let alone marry on.

The Seventh & Dolores Reception in Carmel-by-the-Sea

When the light was gone they drove into town for dinner at Seventh & Dolores, a steakhouse in the middle of Carmel-by-the-Sea. The whole group sat at one table for a long, easy meal, everyone near enough to talk across it without raising a voice.

There was cake from Lavender Bakery & Cafe to finish. What was left after a day on the coast was dinner, a table that fit everyone who came, and the quiet end of an elopement built exactly the way they'd wanted it.