Annie and Ben’s Big Sur Wedding — Part 2

Annie and Ben first met at Harvard Law school, and from what we know of their story it is clear that it was love at first sight. After Ben graduated (Annie still had a year to go) both of them took a one month road trip and this is when they stumbled upon Big Sur and fell immediately in love with the area. We know the feeling, as Big Sur has played an integral part in our relationship. When it was time for Annie and Ben to tie the knot, nothing seemed more appropriate to them then having their wedding in Big Sur. As Annie put it: "Neither of us feel connected to a particular organized religion but we wanted our ceremony to feel spiritual, and there are few places more connected to the spiritual than the edge of a cliff on the Big Sur coast. We were drawn to Paion in particular because of the unbeatable beauty: a sense that you are in a beautiful park on the edge of the world." On the wedding day Annie got ready at the Big Sur Lodge and was then shuttled to Paion where the bridal party finished getting ready at the rustic yurt at Paion, which made for great pictures. Because most of the guests had come in the day earlier, the spell that Big Sur casts had already taken hold, and the ensuing wedding was one of the most memorable and beautiful events any couple could dream of. But as usual we'll let the wedding pictures tell the story. Here are some fun facts:

• Ben has a twin brother, which led to some confusion at times. We had to sometimes check the clothing to figure out which brother was which.
• Annie's vision for the wedding was "raw magical beauty", Christine Cater, Diane Allen and her staff did an outstanding job to make sure that Annie's vision came to life. Not an easy task considering how far off the beaten path Paion is.
• The wedding cake by Edith Meyer was just awesome - see pictures!
• The wedding ceremony was held against the sun, which was also reflecting off the pacific ocean, creating a double whammy backlighting nightmare. We decided to embrace the lighting challenge and even shot all the formals into the sun taking our equipment to the brink of what is photographically possible.
• Annie's talented sister Gen had a small role in the hit series "Gotham", we immediately recognized her when we were watching with our kids. . . yes we are big fans of the show and we look forward to seeing her career blossom, she is very talented.
• A friend of one of their guests, that Annie and Ben hadn't met before, wrote them a nice thank you note, saying that their wedding was one of the happiest days of her life. That is quite a testament.
• The dinner speeches where so heartfelt that Meher kept choking up, she kept trying to hide her face behind the camera, which was kind of cute.