A Beachfront Micro Wedding on Monterey Bay

A Beachfront Ceremony on the Monterey Bay Sand

Ellen Scher stood at the front on the Beach Bluff, the rings in her hands, the arch and the open water behind her. Emily came down the aisle first with her two daughters. Then the daughters walked back for Renae, who came in with her own two, and all four girls stayed standing at the front alongside their moms. The whole party was a family, no one there for any reason other than that they belonged to it.

Partway through, the couple did a ring warming, and the rings passed hand to hand through the sixteen guests and back before the daughters carried them the last stretch. Renae and Emily handed their bouquets to their moms and took each other's hands. One of them wiped her eyes during the vows while the other watched her the whole way through. Behind them the surf ran up the sand, the Adirondack chairs set out on the beach, and the bay went on out to the far shore of the peninsula.

“Their four daughters walked them both down the aisle, held the rings, and stood at the front for the vows.”

Family Photos on the Marina Dunes and Beach

Portraits came next, and this is where the resort earns its setting. The Sanctuary sits on nineteen acres between Monterey Bay and the Marina Dunes Preserve, where the dunes climb well above the water and the sand runs unbroken in both directions. The couple and their daughters had the beach itself for a full-party photo, the weathered green-trimmed cabins of the resort rising behind the dune line, a driftwood signpost off to one side. The two families that had become one family gathered in every combination the light allowed before everyone moved up to the lawn.

Dinner on the Lodge Lawn, S'mores by the Bonfire

Cocktail hour and dinner happened up on the Lodge Lawn, opening with a welcome speech before the plates came out. The couple cut a cake from Angelinas Bakery and moved into their first dance together on the grass, the daughters and the sixteen guests pulled in close around them.

As the light faded, everyone walked out to catch the sunset over the water for a last round of photos, the bay going gold and pink. Then the whole celebration moved back down to the Beach Bluff, where the ceremony arch still stood, and the night ended around a bonfire with s'mores on the sand. It's the kind of close only a beach wedding gives you: married at the water in the afternoon, and back on the same stretch of sand after dark, this time with a fire going.