Our wedding and mini-honeymoon in Big Sur - October 22-26, 2014

After many years of long distance dating and traveling (much of this blog is due to that; click here for a 3:19 video summary) and a big move, Kaleb and I planned the next step...GETTING MARRIED!  In four months!  Most weddings take longer time to plan but as we decided to "elope" (ie. just the two of us, wasn't a secret), it made things easier.

We chose to have our ceremony in the quiet town of Big Sur, a couple of hours south of the Bay Area.  The location fit perfectly with our love of nature.  It was also the destination of our first "real" trip together, so in a way, everything came around full circle.

Lodging in Big Sur can be pricey if you stay at places like Post Ranch Inn or Ventana, but I didn't want to stay in too "rustic" quarters for our special day.  I ended up combing VRBO for a small cabin or home.  My heart was set on a couple of places:  The Gallery House or this Big Sur cabin in the woods.  The cabin was booked for the dates I wanted, and the owner of the Gallery House didn't return my message for a few days.  Just as I was about to give up and settle on a different property, I got a call back.  The Gallery House was unavailable, the owner explained, but it was possible for us to stay in their personal home (Artists House) on the same property, at $250/night.  Perfect!  The only thing is that we'd have to stay in their guest room and use the guest bathroom, both of which were not connected to the house, but we didn't mind.  We did have the house to ourselves, just not the master bedroom or master bath.

It took us over 4 hours to get to Big Sur from the Sacramento area.  We stopped by Whole Foods Market in Monterey to buy groceries as well as pick up fresh seasonal flowers to make my bouquet.  Artists House was located south of Big Sur town; the address didn't show up properly on GPS so we had to follow the directions provided by the owner.  If it was night time, I probably would have driven past it.  The driveway was very narrow; a wide vehicle might have inches to spare between the rock walls.

front of Artists House

cute door

dining table

fireplace (TV was in the cabinet)

minimal kitchen

guest room was apart from the house

guest room bed

guest room desk and view

view out the deck

looking down from the edge of the property

what a sunset

The guest bathroom was located on the other side of the sliding glass patio door, with an exterior door.  It wasn't too bad a setup though it could be inconvenient during rainy season.  The bathroom was efficiently laid out, with just enough room for a small shower, sink and toilet. (and not enough space to take a decent picture)

No wi-fi was available and no cellular tower was nearby.  A land line was available for phone calls.  A small CRT TV was hooked up to satellite so we were able to watch the San Francisco Giants play in the World Series.

Kaleb's dad had asked for the property address to send us some candy and flowers, but nothing arrived.  It turned out the package got accidentally delivered to the Gallery House instead; the occupants called Artists House the next morning for us to pick it up.


Thursday was our wedding day!  I had arranged for Soaring Starkey to marry us under the cypress trees at Pfeiffer Beach in the afternoon.  The location seemed not too far away from Artists House so I didn't start to get ready until after lunch...bad idea!  I didn't think it would take that long to do my hair and makeup.  We rushed out, taking few pre-wedding photos.  The road down to the beach was a narrow two-lane path with winding curves.  Fortunately we were able to make it to the meeting place right at the appointed time.  Soaring and our photographer, Allyson Magda, arrived a few minutes later.

Despite the wind whipping all the curls out of my hair and the long cold walk from the beach to the cypress grove, our ceremony was perfect.  The pictures came out brilliantly.  We even had a chance to take photos amongst the redwoods in Ventana Campground, the site of our first trip.  The campground was closed for renovations; we were fortunate to get pristine photo opportunities with no tents or people around.

Here are a few pre-wedding photos followed by a photo montage of some of Allyson's pictures.

I used the ribbon from Kaleb's dad's gift for my bouquet

taken by Allyson using Kaleb's camera

Wedding photo montage (3:59 length):


We returned to Artists House to change for our wedding dinner at Sierra Mar, located at Post Ranch Inn.  The menu was called "Taste of Big Sur" and it was definitely on theme.  Some of the dishes tasted like the forest.  Good or bad?  You definitely need an open-minded palate to appreciate eucalyptus with your chocolate dessert.

tasting menu

complimentary bubbly for our wedding

1st amuse bouche

2nd amuse bouche

sea urchin

sunchokes

venison carpaccio

roasted black mussels

rock fish broth

cool presentation!

roasted quail

goat cheese

buttermilk ice cream

chocolate with eucalyptus

the newlyweds

petit fours

It rained on Friday, so we were lucky to have great weather for our outdoor wedding and photos. 

Though we had planned on doing a few hikes in the area, we ended up not venturing out the rest of our stay. (busy being newlyweds?)  We still had our "official" honeymoon (in Paris) to look forward to at the end of December.

Our next destination?  A group trip in November to Las Vegas...stay tuned!

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