At the end of Ashley & Joseph’s Carmel wedding at La Playa Hotel, we went to Carmel Beach for photos. It was a beautiful day and the beach was packed. Thousands of tourists had filled the few parking stalls and most of the available sand on the beach. After we took photos and were walking back to the newlyweds’ car, Joseph’s joy and pride couldn’t be contained — he was telling everyone we passed: “This is my new wife, I just got married!” or “Hey, this is my new wife, isn’t she awesome?!?”

It was really sweet, and I knew their wedding would be. In the weeks leading up to it, the couple was exchanging posts on Facebook about how many days remained until their big day. And even when things got a little stressful a couple days before the wedding, Ashley was still posting about how excited she was to be marrying her best friend.

Ashley & Joseph’s four-month-old son played a prominent — and very cute — role in the wedding. From when Joseph gave him a bottle moments before he was to say ‘I do’, to the very last dance, during which Ashley and Joseph held their son, who smiled broadly at the wedding guests, eliciting a round of “awww”s.

The historic La Playa Hotel, originally built in 1905, was a beautiful setting. The day’s weather was great, too — morning fog cast a soft light on the ceremony, then slowly burned off, giving way to full sun by the time we got to the beach.

We wrapped up the day, just the three of us, in a special location along the rocky coast of Carmel. We had the rare benefit of a day with no wind, allowing me to set up a five-foot-tall softbox for the final portraits, turning an outdoor location into a full-fledged photo studio. Those photos are at the very top and the end of this post.

Congratulations, Ashley & Joseph!