Summertime Wedding Mission Ranch, Carmel-by-the-Sea

Let’s talk about the sheep first, because they were technically at this wedding before I was.

Mission Ranch does this thing where you’re setting up for a ceremony and there’s a whole flock of sheep just grazing in the background like extras who never got the memo this was a black tie event. Nobody hired them. Nobody told them to be there. They just show up, every time, and somehow they make every photo better. I don’t make the rules. I just point the camera at them and say thank you.

These two got married here in late May, and the weather did that rare Carmel thing where the fog actually leaves. Sun out, string lights up, everybody in tuxes standing around a lawn that looks like it was designed by someone with genuinely excellent taste, because it was.

Backstory, because I love a good one: they met six years ago in New York, both in finance, both probably supposed to be looking at spreadsheets instead of each other. Then life did its thing. One ended up in venture capital in the Bay Area. The other just wrapped business school at Stanford and is headed into private equity in San Francisco. Two coasts, one very long runway, one wedding.

Their first look was in the garden and it was not a performance. One turned around, the other’s face short circuited for a second, and that was it, that’s the whole reason I show up early to these things.

Reception got loose fast. Five tier cake with a groom-and-groom topper on it. Martinis at golden hour. A dance floor that flat out did not quit, to the point where one of their hairstyles eventually surrendered and just went full 1975 rock star for the rest of the night. Respect.

And as a real quick aside… As a same-sex wedding photographer working in Carmel, I get asked a lot what makes a wedding day feel different when it’s two grooms or two brides instead of a bride and groom. Honestly, not much. Same nerves, same first look jitters, same sheep wandering into the background uninvited. Same photographer, genuinely grateful to just be there photographing you two being you.

Venue: Mission Ranch
Florals: Carmel Floral Design

And as always, these are just a snapshot, to check out the rest of their photos, feel free to take a peek here.