A Second-Wedding Garden Elopement in Mendocino

Getting Ready for a Just-the-Two-of-Them Garden Wedding

Jeff left first for the gardens; Jeanine got into her dress and followed. The flowers had come up the coast that morning, an upgraded bouquet for Jeanine and a boutonniere for Jeff, from Papillion Floral. By the time they reached the gate, the officiant was already there waiting.

With only the two of them, the morning was simply about being ready. Jeanine had her dress on and her flowers in hand. There was no wedding party to coordinate, no guests arriving early, just the two of them and Kathleen Kearney, who would be marrying them, all finding their way to the same spot in the gardens.

Married in the Woods at the Mendocino Botanical Gardens

They were married in the woods inside the gardens, in a clearing under the closed-cone pines the property is known for. Jeanine came down to "You and Me" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the processional they'd picked for a wedding with no aisle full of chairs, only the trees.

The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens run forty-seven acres from the highway down to the coastal bluffs, with the woodland portion tucked inland from the exposed headlands. The closed-cone pines form a canopy over the interior paths, and the clearing where Jeanine and Jeff stood had the quality of a place someone had set aside deliberately, the trees rising on every side, the light coming in diffused and still. There was no crowd sound, no footsteps in chairs, no ambient noise from a parking lot. Just the three of them in the woods and the ceremony going exactly as long as it needed to.