A Desert Estate Micro Wedding at Casa de Monte Vista

Portraits Around the Estate at Dusk

After the ceremony came family and couple portraits around the property, 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 the Old Las Palmas neighborhood, walled and gated, its saltwater pool ringed by seventy-five-foot palms and botanical gardens, a onetime Rat Pack gathering spot in the 1950s. Stephanie and Eric took their portraits through the gardens and along the pool as the desert light went gold.

Dinner, Dances, and the Long Table

The couple were announced into the reception to the theme from The Sopranos, and went straight into their dances. Their first dance was to "Nothing Can Change This Love" by Sam Cooke; Stephanie danced with her father to Mariah Carey's "Hero," and 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 the cake 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.