Gardener Ranch Styled Wedding

Gardener Ranch is one of the most beautiful wedding venues in Carmel and so, I am excited to share with you this Gardener Ranch Styled Wedding.

Hey, I’m Dana Arnold! Owner of Dana Arnold Photography based out of Monterey, California. I photographed weddings for joyous couples in the Bay-Area. These couples love to have fun, be candid in their photographs, love to laugh, and just enjoy all the fun moments captured during the wedding day!

Gardener Ranch

When I first moved to Virginia back in 2019, I had first heard about Gardener Ranch when scrolling through Instagram. I fell in love with this venue and how beautiful it was during the fall and winter seasons. Everything was so green and the warm sun made this place so elegant. It wasn’t until we found out we were moving to Monterey late 2020 that I finally felt excited because I might actually be able to see this venue in person. Gardener Ranch was the first venue I scheduled a tour at when we moved here. I hope that one day I get to shoot a wedding here.

Wedding Photography Vision

Local Wedding Boutique Epiphany Bridal became my new part-time job. We got in some beautiful dresses for our 2022 collection. The Goddess collection is a whole new style of stunning wedding dresses. In fact, I wish I could get married again so I can wear these.

With this new collection, we wanted to showcase these dresses by hosting a styled wedding shoot. Although Gardener no longer hosts shoots, they still wanted to support Epiphany. Therefore, they happily agreed to host our intimate and private styled wedding shoot. We got to showcase five of our favorite dresses with a real couple and a second female model.

Wedding Reception Table

To help show some of the spots at Gardener, we decided to put together a six-person table-scape. We set this up inside and outside to show the main hall, and the outside garden. I personally wanted to take photos inside with natural light and light chandeliers and again outside under the tree next to the pool. The vision was brought to you by our florist. We used a 6 foot table, ivory linen, ivory china, velvet napkins, Crystal class-ware, and gold cutlery. With the help of the flowers as the centerpieces, this classic style reception table really came to life. Minimal set up but still elegant and classic.

Our Model

Our first model was a local wedding photographer, Rebecca. Married to Tee Lambert. She got her hair and makeup done by MUAH based out of Salinas. Strutting her stuff, Rebecca did a fine job being our single model. She got to sit in a beautiful car, twirl in a dress, and swing! Needless to say, she did an amazing job and I am so glad Rebecca filled in when our original model got sick the day before.

The Lovely Couple

Now, to represent our beautiful couple! They are military, like my husband and I. It was not long after I posted model search that these two came into my DM’s and volunteered. The same day of the shoot, was actually the day they were moving out. Before taking off to their next assignment, they got in front of my camera for some updated wedding photos. Our lovely bride looked stunning in her three dresses. As for our groom, he looked dashing in his black suit and military uniform. Maria and Chris, thank you for being such incredible models!