Dreaming of a Big Sur elopement of your own? Seaward Photography arranged this gorgeous Big Sur elopement inspiration shoot that will have you wanting to book your ticket immediately! A bold bouquet, free-spirited wedding fashions, and epic views are the keys to a stylish elopement, and we have to say this shoot nails every single note! The bride’s Dame and Maiden low-back lace dress is equal parts elegant and ready for adventure, while the seriously stunning blooms designed by Sage Sisters give every photo a bit of colorful eye candy. Scroll on to see all this elopement goodness!
Erin and Patrick wanted their New Year’s Eve wedding to feel like a cozy party among friends, and The monOrchid couldn’t have been a more perfect venue for the celebration. With a mix of wintry DIY details and an eye-catching pink ombré ceremony backdrop, the industrial warehouse venue transformed into a romantic setting fit for a wedding. Erin’s edgy bridal look is one for the books, including a sleek Rime Arodaky gown with geometric lace cut-outs, a dazzling Ryan Storer ear cuff, and nail art you’re going to want to pin immediately. As if her bridal style weren’t enough, the couple wore matching leather jackets that Erin had custom painted with Notorious B.I.G. lyrics.
I didn’t have any idea what I wanted for my bridal look, but I knew I wanted something “edgy.” I toyed with the idea of a two-piece or a long sleeve dress, but couldn’t find anything that checked the box in Phoenix. So, my mom and I made a trip to LOHO Bride in San Francisco. There, I tried on the Olsen dress by Rime Arodaky, and it was game over. The dress has lace long sleeves and a lace mid-section so I basically got the best of both worlds. Because I have a love for geometric prints, I was naturally drawn to the angles of the cutouts.
After I found the dress, I started to hone in on my look. I started with jewelry because I thought that would be the trickiest part since the dress has a high neck, and the cutouts, and has long sleeves. I figured a necklace wouldn’t work so I turned to Pinterest for ideas. After spending countless hours crawling through the depths of every Pinterest board imaginable, I found a Ryan Storer ear cuff that sang my name. I realized it was sold out on his site, so I bought one off eBay for more than half the cost!
I bought us black leather jackets and had them hand-painted with Notorious B.I.G. lyrics (“It was all a dream”) and our wedding date because we’re hip hop fans. I’m obsessed with how they turned out.
We wanted our night to feel like a party, like a true celebration of our love, and a ‘thank you’ to the people who have supported us throughout our journey. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and we’re a little non-traditional, so it was important for our night to reflect those qualities.
Tremaine Ranch created a custom pink ombré backdrop with gold candles that popped against the stark white walls of the space. They also provided cozy, dark wooden benches.
we skipped the bridal party because the idea of picking best (and bestest) friends to stand next to you seemed weird to us. Instead, we just asked Patrick’s niece, Emelia, to be our flower girl. She sprinkled glitter down the aisle and threw it on some guests at one point — which is hilarious. We also wrote our own vows, which I was incredibly nervous to read because I sound like a dying chipmunk if I talk while crying. And our long-time friend, Toney, absolutely crushed the ceremony. Honestly, it was his first wedding so I know he was nervous, but he could not have done a better job. I have a feeling many people will remember his words for years to come. The whole ceremony ran everyone through the gamut of emotions, from weepy tears to hysterical laughter. It felt very genuine to who we are as a couple, and I don’t think we could have asked for anything more.
We’ll never forget looking out at our friends and family between laughs during the ceremony. It’s humbling to feel the love from so many people rooting for your success with every ounce of their hearts. And then when looking back at each other, we were so filled with undying love, excitement, and pure contentment. We could live in that moment forever.
We knew right off the bat we wanted an industrial feel; a grungy, warehouse that could we dress up and make our own. The monOrchid is a beautiful, versatile art venue with a separate space for the ceremony, high ceilings, mixed textures, a super yummy coffee spot (be Coffee), and a “built-in” dance floor. This place felt like “us” from the minute we toured it.
After we picked the date, everything started to fall into place. We wanted a cozy, casual winter night (think: plaid blankets) that incorporated some of the glitter and glamour of New Year’s Eve. Kris and Tyler Zeman, owners of Konsider It Done, got to know our style really well which was absolutely critical to how the day was flawlessly executed. We were all on the same page from the very beginning and our vision just kept unfolding from there. Kris pulled together the color palette that included burgundy, black, gold, dark green, light beige, and light pink. She paired that palette with a vision board incorporating a winter, New Year’s theme without being too overtly “holiday.”
We didn’t want a plated dinner because we didn’t want to deal with seating charts. Laziness for the win. We opted for heavy appetizers from food stations around the venue. We chose unpretentious foods that sounded and tasted delicious any day of the week: Chicken tacos, fish tacos, baked cauliflower bites, artichoke and spinach flatbreads, corned beef sliders (Patrick is Irish), and Parmesan chicken sliders (I am Italian). Those corned beef sliders were the sleeper. So good. For desserts, we served donuts in flavors/colors that matched our wedding palette (glazed; maple; plum; cranberry hibiscus; lemon matcha), along with chai ice cream and homemade cookies. Oh, and the midnight breakfast burritos, of course.
Weddings tend to bring out some weird behaviors in you, in your betrothed, and in your friends and families. Define what’s important to you as a couple, what you want to include, and more importantly, what you don’t want to include in your wedding. If you constantly remind yourself and stay relentlessly true to that vision, you can navigate the weirdness.
Congrats to Erin and Patrick on their unconventional Phoenix wedding! For more gorgeous wedding photography from Junebug Weddings member Kym Ventola, check out Samantha and Keiran’s summer camp inspired wedding at Camp Geronimo.
Indian and Western cultures come together in a beautiful way in this backyard Kelowna wedding! Jen and Dhawal payed special tribute to the groom’s Indian heritage before the ceremony with a traditional Baraat procession, Varmala (garland exchange), and a walk around the sacred fire. The ceremony then continued with slight twists on Western wedding traditions, including a mad-lib style vow exchange! With the help of Top Knot Events, the couple created a constellation theme in shades of blue and metallics because of the stars’ significance to their dating journey, as well as to Indian culture. We love how photographer Mathias Fast captured every detail of this sweet couple’s special day, especially the late-night photo in the orchard with the night sky sparkling above them.
The Couple:
Jen and Dhawal
The Wedding:
Private family orchard, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
As we started planning, we knew we wanted to include elements from both our traditions – Western and Indian weddings – but also to make sure the elements we chose to include in our day actually meant something to us rather than just including for the sake of tradition. That’s how we ended up with a baraat, “mad-lib” vows, a night sky painted dance floor, the Jurassic Park theme song, a boler bar, and tacos! It turned out to be such a beautiful and eclectic day that felt very us from start to finish.
We had Jen’s brother-in-law, Neil, act as our officiant and he was incredible! He opened with a beautiful speech about our two stories, how we were born thousands of miles apart and the decisions that we made to ultimately end up in the same place, at the same time to meet, fall in love, and make it to this day. It was incredibly special and meaningful and really captured exactly what we wanted in a ceremony. In the craziness of the day, we forgot to properly thank him in our speeches, so – THANK YOU, NEIL!
We also had “mad lib” vows – we wrote the start of 7 sentences to say to each other together (to mirror the 7 steps of the Hindu ceremony) and then each finished them separately to read aloud to each other. They were very meaningful, funny, and us – and in several instances, we ended up saying the same thing to each other!
Our advice it to pick a couple days before your actual wedding and make that your “hard stop” for tasks and errands as much as possible. After that, treat yourself as a guest at your wedding and soak it all in – be present. It’s not very often you get to surround yourself with all of your favorite people in the world!
Our theme was constellations and the night sky for many reasons. We first told each other we loved each other under the night sky, and constellations also have a lot of significance in Indian culture. Another reason (which made it into our vows) is that we remind each other often that there are 100 billion stars in the milky way galaxy when we need to remember what is really important.
We DIY’ed so many things! Our dance floor was plywood that we painted navy and then painted stars and the milky way on. We made our mandap (the wedding altar) from wood from Jen’s family’s apple orchard (where the wedding took place). Jen also hand-painted and wrote all of the place cards and table signs.
One of our most memorable moments was sneaking away after dinner to take the spectacular star photo with us standing in the orchard row and the night sky above us. The day goes by so fast and we both really loved taking a moment to be with each other with the sound of our friends and family celebrating in the background to take a breath, look at the stars, and remember what the day was about.
Our biggest congratulations to Jen and Dhawal, and a huge thanks to Mathias Fast for sharing these beautiful photos with Junebug! Looking for more East-meets-West wedding inspiration? We’ve got just what you need with this multicultural Austin wedding at The Allan House!
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