Intimate Sanibel Wedding

Scott and Whitney chose the Casa Ybel Resort for their intimate Sanibel wedding. The morning ceremony was at 10am with beautiful weather. The mountainous white clouds were stunning against the deep blue sky. There were very few tourists on the beach on this Wednesday morning in July. Scott and Whitney were high school sweethearts who met and started dating when they were 16. They live in Indiana after graduating from Indiana University together. Whitney visited Sanibel Island in the past and knew it would be a great venue for their intimate Sanibel wedding. When Scott saw the beach at Casa Ybel Resort, he quickly agreed! So I started photographs with Scott in front of the Thistle Lodge at Casa Ybel Resort. Just a few minutes later Whitney arrived and we created a ‘first look’ photograph. We continued with some family photos. Look at the beautiful Royal Poinciana tree where the bride and groom are kissing! We all walked to the beautiful beach in front of the Thistle Lodge Restaurant. Patricia Slater of Weddings by the Sea performed the beach ceremony which included a sand ceremony.  This couple just had a natural and easy going personality that was so easy to photograph. The ceremony photographs show the beautiful and natural landscape on Casa Ybel Resort. The sea oats were in bloom and created a nice frame for a distant photograph of the ceremony. After the ceremony everyone walked to the waters’ edge for a group photo. Family photographs were taken, now with the ‘new family member’ in each photograph. The wedding party had great attitudes and made for some fun photographs walking along the beach. The wedding party also ‘photo-bombed’ the bride and groom at the waters edge. Look at how high one of the bridesmaids jumped at her friends’ wedding photo!

Thistle Lodge Restaurant

For over twenty years, I have photographed joyful, intimate Sanibel weddings at the Casa Ybel Resort. The Thistle Lodge is a restaurant located on the resort property. It provides beautiful ocean views and individual small dining rooms for special events like Scott and Whitney’s wedding. So after the beach photography was complete, everyone walked into the restaurant to enjoy a celebration lunch. The guests were served drinks by the Thistle Lodge restaurant staff and the wedding cake was cut of a final photograph. Shown here are some of my favorite photographs we created of this intimate Sanibel wedding.