A Desert Estate Micro Wedding at Casa de Monte Vista

Portraits Around the Spanish Estate

Family and couple portraits ran around the property afterward, then a run of photos as the sun dropped toward the mountains. Casa de Monte Vista is one of the original 1920s Spanish estates in Old Las Palmas, and it gives a photographer a different corner at every turn — a stone bench set into a stucco alcove under a small tile-art plaque of a Spanish plaza, a tiled doorway framed in dark wood, brick paths winding through the garden, the lawn opening out to the palms and the mountains.

Stephanie stood between Eric and her father for one grouping, then the whole family gathered on the lawn in front of a tile-roofed casita — parents in navy on both sides, the bright bouquet the one spot of warm color. Then Stephanie and Eric took the last of the light on their own, tucked into a garden corner as the greenery closed over them.

Dinner, Dances, and the Long Table at Casa de Monte Vista

The couple were announced into the reception to the theme from The Sopranos and went straight into their dances — a first dance to "Nothing Can Change This Love" by Sam Cooke, Stephanie with her father to Mariah Carey's "Hero," Eric with his mom to Michael Jackson's "One Day in Your Life."

Dinner followed, catered on the estate, and Eric opened the floor with a thank-you speech and a champagne toast. They cut a cake from The Pastry Swan Bakery to Queen's "You're My Best Friend," and the dancing carried the evening the rest of the way, the palms dark against the sky and the string lights on above the twenty people who had come out to the desert for them.