A Classic Santa Barbara Courthouse Micro Wedding in the Sunken Gardens

Family Photos Under the Classic Santa Barbara Courthouse Arches

After the ceremony came portraits in the gardens and through the building. The Sunken Gardens were laid out after the 1925 earthquake as the setting for the Spanish Colonial Revival courthouse — white stucco, heavy wooden doors, a four-story clock tower — and everything was already there: the archways, the tiled steps, the lawn, and the great stone arch with its wood-beamed ceiling. Jennifer and Dominick came down the grand stone stairs beneath that arch, then stood on the tiled steps, palms and the arched colonnade behind them. Laurie Rasmussen played through guest arrival and the ceremony, and her harp carried across the garden while the couple moved through family groupings and portraits in the afternoon light.

Dinner at The Caya by The Leta Hotel

Guests made the short drive to The Caya by The Leta Hotel — a white Spanish-style building with flags over an arched entry — for dinner, a champagne toast ready on the table as they arrived. The florals from the ceremony came with them, set out again among tall white-and-blush arrangements on a patio of wood tables, sage-green napkins, small white favor boxes, and string lights against a white-brick wall.

Jennifer and Dominick gave a thank-you speech to their family before dinner was served. There was no first dance — just the meal, the toasts going around the table, and the cake from Lilac Patisserie, cut together at the end of the night. The Caya is an intimate dining room the right size for a small family group that wants to settle in, eat well, and stay as long as they like.