* * *

Jaden and John Hart, who were married at the Martine Inn on Sept. 22, 2004, went for more formal attire.

The couple, who live in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with their golden retriever Louie, had been engaged for five years, but couldn’t decide what kind of wedding they wanted. So they chose to elope, and didn’t tell anyone that they were going to do it.

“Whenever we would think about a big wedding,” Jaden says, “it seemed too much to do.”

John jumps in: “We wanted no stress. We’re both professionals, we work long hours, and that was one of the downsides to planning a big ceremony: the tremendous stress.”

The couple had been planning to come out to California for a vacation—Jaden had visited Southern California once, but John had never set foot in the state—when they stumbled upon the Martine Inn online. And so, site unseen save the Web site’s photo gallery, the couple booked the elopement package.

I ask if they felt nervous, deciding to get married in a city unknown to the two of them.

“No,” Jaden says. “The bed and breakfast seemed really nice, and when we decided to elope, we knew we would have to leave everything to chance.”

Initially, chance didn’t seem to be on their side. Three hurricanes hammered Florida, and postponed the Hart’s wedding, twice.

Finally, in late September, the couple made it to Pacific Grove.

The morning of the wedding, a Wednesday, the couple walked along the beach and watched the seals.

They were married in the Martine Inn courtyard, where the groom wore a navy suit jacket and khakis, and the bride wore a white silk tea-length dress.

“The reverend went though our vows and it was very private, it was like he was speaking only to us—which he was,” Jaden says. “The day was really just about the two of us.”

After the ceremony, the newlyweds drove down 17-Mile Drive in a rented convertible Porsche and later lunched at the Wharf.

“It was kind of surreal,” Jaden says. “I kept thinking: I just got married.”