Almost every couple who contacts us about a coastal wedding started with the same picture in their head: the two of you, the water behind you, nothing else. It is a good picture. The permits are the part nobody warns you about.
What a public beach ceremony involves
- A permit application, filed weeks ahead, with a fee
- Rules on chairs, arches, and anything staked into the sand
- No control over who else is on the beach that afternoon
- Wind that arrives on schedule and ruins the audio
- Parking that your guests will circle for twenty minutes
None of that makes a beach ceremony a bad idea. It just means the simplest looking option is often the one with the most administration attached.
You still get the coast. You just get a gate, a garden, and somewhere to put your things.
The alternative, a few streets back
Just Vows is a private front garden in Carlsbad, steps from the sand and minutes from Carlsbad Village. No permit, no crowd, no wind tunnel. The salt air is the same. Portraits on the sand afterward are a short walk, and by then the ceremony is already done.
Can we still have beach photos?
Yes. Couples regularly marry in the garden and walk down for portraits in the same hour. Nothing about the coastal look is lost, and you are not standing on public sand trying to say your vows over a volleyball game.