Welcome to the elopement capital of the world.

Shannon Pfile would have been a June bride. She and husband-to-be Brian Kriezel had planned to be married on June 11, 2006, in front of 100 of their closest friends and family, in a castle in Palos Verdes, with coaches to shuttle the guests to and from the ceremony, and to the reception on a yacht in the Venice, Calif., marina. And then the wedding planning got a little too crazy for the happy couple’s liking.

“It wasn’t fun anymore,” Brian says. “I had always wanted to elope, to be married in the outdoors, just a nice, simple ceremony outside. But the big wedding was always really important to Shannon.”

The couple had planned an 18-month engagement, figuring that more time would mean less stress. They figured wrong.

Then, last November, they took a weekend holiday to Monterey.

“Maybe we should get married, here, on the coast,” Shannon remembers the two of them musing. “Maybe we’ll do that in June.”

Brian’s memory is a bit more pointed.

“During that trip,” he says, talking to Shannon, “You said, ‘Let’s just come up here. The location is beautiful. Let’s just come up here and get married.’”

Shannon found what she calls “the perfect spot,” in Pacific Grove. She found the site online, though Rev. Joyce Meuse’s Web site: The Marine Wildlife Refuge on the beach. The two walked the area when they visited, in November. “I felt it when I stood in that area,” Shannon says. “That was it.”

Locals may take the magnificent Monterey Bay for granted. But visitors don’t make that mistake, which is one reason why our hometown is a world-class travel destination. It’s also quite a hot spot for elopements.

Anne Ross, the wedding consultant at the Martine Inn, says that of the 50 or so weddings she plans a year, a surprising 20 percent are elopements. “Couples come from all over to elope here,” she says.

Today, on a sunny afternoon in May, Ross is sitting in the parlor room, decorated in antique lace and 1890s silver. Bay windows look out onto the rocky, Pacific Grove coastline. A sea otter bobs along the blue waves.

The 1890s Mediterranean-style mansion has been hosting elopements for all of its 21 years as a bed and breakfast. “This is something that we specialize in,” Ross says. “You can’t compete with the ease, elegance and value” of a PG elopement, she says.

Elopements are so popular at Martine Inn, in fact, that an elopement package is featured on its Web site. For $250, plus the price of a room, couples can get married at the Martine Inn—in its courtyard, flanked by climbing roses, potted flowers and an Asian-inspired fishpond, or, if the weather doesn’t cooperate, inside the oak-floored library in front of the cozy fireplace and mahogany columned mantle. Some brides and grooms want an off-site wedding: Ross recommends Berwick Park, perched above the bay with crashing waves pounding the rocky coastline, sheltered by Monterey Cypress trees. Or of course there’s Lovers Point, a perennial favorite place to get hitched.

The elopement fee also includes a small wedding cake and bottle of champagne. Additionally, Ross helps the couple—many of whom have never visited Pacific Grove before—find an officiate, a florist, a photographer, a videographer, a makeup artist and a hairstylist.

Couples elope year-round in Monterey County, Ross says. In fact, she’s coordinating an elopement this weekend (she had a week’s notice to plan this wedding) and another the following week.

Elopement fashion runs the gamut from white gowns and tuxedos to his-and-hers white denim, Ross says.

“And the wedding dresses are not always long, and they’re not always white. Some are salmon, taupe, lime green, a simple chiffon dress. One couple came in cowboy outfits. You have the chance to do and wear whatever you want because no one is here to tell you what to do.”