A Two-Person Timber Cove Elopement, by Way of City Hall

City Hall, Then Vows on the Cliff

First came the City Hall stop, classic black-and-white portraits under the marble and the tall windows, the two of them made official before they ever reached the coast.

Then the drive up to Timber Cove, where they said their vows outdoors on the edge of the cliff, the grey Pacific stretching out behind them under a low, overcast sky. Their officiant stood with them, Tiffany with her bouquet and Daniel in his grey suit, the two of them holding hands with nothing between the ceremony and the open water.

“Just the two of them on a cliff above the Pacific, the vows said with the open water behind them.”

The Two of Them on the Sonoma Coast

With no guests to gather, the time after the ceremony was theirs alone. They walked the coastal path arm in arm and stopped for a kiss where the land dropped toward the sea, the bouquet still in Tiffany's hand.

Timber Cove has been a landmark on this stretch of coast since 1963, its A-frame lodge photographed by Ansel Adams before the ground was even broken, and above the cliffs stands Beniamino Bufano's ninety-three-foot peace obelisk, The Expanding Universe, set there in the early sixties. Tiffany and Daniel took their portraits along that same wild edge, the rolling green hills and the water behind them.