An Oceanfront Airbnb Minimony in Jenner

Portraits Out at Goat Rock. Sonoma Coast Vacation-Rental Wedding

After the ceremony came family portraits on the deck and around the house, then the two of them slipped away for photos out in the landscape, down to Goat Rock, where the Russian River meets the ocean and harbor seals haul out along the sand from spring through summer. Marianna had asked for pictures out in nature, and the coast delivered: the isthmus of rock, the open water, the light dropping toward sunset.

Villa Vista's wide deck faces the Pacific with nothing blocking the horizon, so the afternoon gave them two entirely different portrait settings. On the deck, the chairs were still arranged from the ceremony, the Sonoma Coast stretching out behind every frame. Down at Goat Rock the river mouth cuts through the sand before it meets the sea, and the seal colony runs along the shore, a detail that makes May portraits on that beach specific to the season in a way that's hard to replicate at other times of year.

Toasts, Dinner, and Cake at the House

Back at the house, a cocktail hour ran on the deck before Marianna's sister-in-law and brother announced the couple in. The two of them spoke, a champagne toast went around from her father to her brother to Alex's parents and his brother, and then everyone sat down to dinner from a private chef.

The cake came out for dessert, a two-tier cake, one layer almond and apricot with raspberry, the other white studded with bittersweet chocolate. As the last of the light went, the two of them headed back out to the coast for a few final photos, the sun setting over the water as the day closed.