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You’ll Love the Desert Tones and Mountain Views in This Bell Rock Elopement

May 7, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

If desert vibes and mountains are your thing, then Jordan and Ben’s Bell Rock elopement is just the wedding for you! These lovebirds opted for an adventurous and intimate wedding ceremony for just the two of them. Thanks to Heather Van Houten & Artists, Jordan is wearing a romantic updo with loose curls and a simple Wear Your Love wedding dress that is perfect for hiking around in Sedona. Jordan’s entire bridal look is complete with a flower crown and wildflower bouquet created by Sedona Mountain High Flowers. All of this goodness was photographed by Amy Bluestar Photography and boy did Amy knock it out of the park! Get ready to swoon over some sweet bride and groom portraits!

The Couple:

Jordan and Ben

The Wedding:

Bell Rock, Sedona, Arizona

We have 2 photos that just give us goosebumps! One favorite by Amy is the black and white photo of my back with my husband’s arms around me. There is something so intimate and romantic about the placement of his hands on my back and how he holds me. The other one is the photo of him walking in behind me and I am looking back at him, it’s such a sweet moment.

Your wedding day is about you and your spouse, don’t forget that. It is easy to get overwhelmed and lost with everyone elses’ ideas of what your big day should be like but that isn’t what matters. Keeping that in my mind during the planning process really helped me because in the end, our ceremony was the perfect representation of who we are as individuals and as a couple.

Our photographer, Amy, was so so sweet! I was nervous because we had both never had professional photos taken of us but Amy directed us the whole day. She had a bunch of fun ideas and made sure that we were comfortable with the poses and that we had the landscape views that we wanted. She really paid attention to our personal styles and our interests. She’s the bees knees!

We chose our venue because Sedona is a very special place to me (Jordan). I grew up going to Sedona every winter with my family and continued going with Ben throughout college. It is a beautiful place and Bell Rock was an obvious choice for the ceremony because of the mountain and valley views that surrounded us.

We had a few personalized moments during our ceremony. At the beginning of the ceremony, out officiant had us place our left hands over each other’s hearts and breathe together until our hearts beat as one. We also read our personal vows to each other while our rings were blessed in the sacred waters of Oak Creek. After the ceremony, we used the sacred waters to water a small tree at our ceremony site.

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It was a beautiful, intimate, romantic, and small elopement ceremony in the middle of the mountains with no one around. That will always be the most memorable thing about our wedding. It was a ceremony that I got to share with the one person that matters. Sometimes big weddings can become less about the couple and more about the guests and making sure everything goes correctly. Our ceremony was special, stress-free, and honestly a dream come true. I would do it over and over again and never change a thing.

I’m a very laid back individual with a boho-vibe and I really wanted my wedding to convey that. I love the outdoors and the Arizona desert is my home so I wanted a boho style with desert tones.

The Wedding Team:

Photography – Amy Bluestar Photography
Venue – Bell Rock
Floral Design – Sedona Mountain High Flowers
Hair and Makeup Artist – Heather Van Houten & Artists
Wedding Dress – Wear Your Love
Groom’s Apparel – JoS. A. Bank
Rings – Jared

 

Congratulations to Jordan and Ben on their elopement, and a big thanks to Amy Bluestar Photography for sharing their special day with Junebug! If you love intimate nuptials as much as we do, then check out this Kwaaymii Point elopement in the California sunset.

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These Coffee-Loving Brides Planned a Deliciously Beautiful Rio de Janeiro Wedding

May 7, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

These fashion-forward brides had the most beautiful Rio de Janeiro wedding! Lais rocked the most perfect bridal jumpsuit from Ju Sales, and Juliana wore a classic Mel Bessa Atelier wedding dress. Choosing more simply stated attire for their day, they dressed up their looks with minimalist jewelry and some stunning hair accessories from Sunflower Acessorios and Diana Benchimol. Their killer looks went hand-in-hand with the stylish ceremony and reception space thanks to Menta e Pessego. After saying their “I do’s,” the celebration continued into a seriously awesome party with dancing and a dip in the pool! Thrall Photography outdid themselves when it came to capturing the big moments and everything in between.

The Couple: 

Juliana and Lais

The Wedding:

Private Residence, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

I (Juliana) am a makeup artist and did Lais‘ makeup. I was very nervous, my body was shaking and it took me much longer than usual. But it was amazing for me put my art in my loved one’s face on our most important day together. And it was some time we got to spend together before the ceremony. 

Don’t be ashamed to ask for help. When we accepted our friends’ help, we were able to really feel their love and spend time together crafting wedding stuff. Help is essential not to go crazy! Even if you have a professional wedding planner, there are lots of small things and details people can help decide and execute. Share them with your close friends. Another advice is to enjoy your party and forget small problems. Time flies and it goes over too fast to worry with details your guests won’t even notice.

In Brazil it is difficult to find a dress without too much information such as lace, bows, embroidery and transparencies. Ju flipped through more than a thousand wedding dresses without success. So our wedding planner found and asked the brand designer, Mel, who by this time had proven herself to be a fairy, to craft a simple and beautiful dress in only two weeks. 

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A few months ago I was working on a fashion shooting I saw this beautiful jumpsuit. I told Lais “If we have a wedding ceremony someday, this would be perfect for you.”, and she agreed when she saw the photo. So, when we set the date, we wrote to the brand owner asking about the piece and it was out of stock. But the universe is amazing! The jumpsuit sample kept by the brand designer was exactly Lais‘ size!

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We are very simple people. So we thought this could be reflected in our celebration. We wanted an outdoor wedding where nature could converse with the decor and ceremony. Looking for inspirations, we saw boho inspirations and we liked that style — not everything, but as a starting point. Lais is a wine sommelier and a wine lover and I’m a makeup artist, but we are both baristas and coffee lovers too, so we bring coffee into subject whenever we have an opportunity! We tried to bring these passions into our wedding. We had a cheese and wine table, our invitations looked like a coffee sack, the wedding favors were small bags of ground coffee, our menu holders were made out of wine corks and our bouquets had representations of coffee beans and grapes.

For us, a wedding is not about a father bringing his daughter to other family. So, we chose to enter the ceremony from opposite sides, with our parents, met each other in the middle and finished walking down the aisle together. Because we believe marriage is a new family built upon what we got from our parents. We change, but we never forget them. Our officiant is a philosopher and customized his sermon based on things we had talked about, things that are important for us. One of our friends also came to the pulpit to talk about how representative it was for us, as lesbians, to celebrate this wedding of two women.

Our favorite photo, for both of us, is with our dog, Zoé. It represents our happiness in that moment, and Zoé looks like she is smiling to the camera.

We were very sure about burgundy and marsala. Karine, our friend and decorator, suggested green and brown (in raw wood items) because these are abundant colors in nature and we don’t know exactly where the blue came from, but we like blue and she suggested it as a complementary color.

The best part was not a specific moment but realizing that people dedicated their time to make it all so beautiful, and noticing we were able to bring together almost all the ones who love us, support us and share our happiness. 

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The Wedding Team:

Photography – Thrall Photography
Event Planning – Vou Casar e Panz
Venue – Private Residence
Floral Design – Nega Fulô Floral
Catering – Malagueta Buffet
Cake – A Merenda
Officiant – Rafael Santana
DJ – Kajé Soares
Live Music – Ana Bispo e Banda
Videography – This is Not a Wedding Film
Stationery – Luiza Oak
Makeup Artist – Ju SalesJo Portalupi
Hair Styling – Carol Castilho
Wedding Dress – Suia StoreMel Bessa Atelier
Bridal Accessories – Sunflower AcessoriosDiana Benchimol
Event Stylist – Menta e Pessego
Candy – Brigadeiros da BiaConfeitaria Neves

 

Congratulations to Juliana and Lais on their nuptials, and a huge thanks to Thrall Photography for sharing their fun and festive wedding with Junebug! To see a more edgy approach to a boho wedding, take a look at this tropical garden elopement inspiration at Coqui Coqui Valladolid!

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We Love the Dramatic Fashion Choices in This Simple Elopement at Sunnyside Farm Boone

May 6, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

We’re all about traditional bride and groom style, but we also can’t resist modern couples who choose non-traditional looks like Kristy and Caleb did for their Sunnyside Farm Boone elopement! While the groom opted for a burgundy suit and floral print bow tie, his lovely bride was a knock-out in a black floral print gown from Elizabella’s Bridal and a berry-adorned hair clip that matched her striking red and pink bouquet. This stylish couple exchange vows in the company of a handful of their nearest and dearest then took Drea Dawn Photo + Films through the open fields and cozy forests around the farm for an unforgettable photo session. Kristy and Caleb wanted a simple day to celebrate their love for each other, and they totally nailed it with a slightly dramatic and unique flair!

The Couple:

Kristy and Caleb

The Wedding:

Sunnyside Farm Boone, North Carolina

The Wedding Team:

Photography and Videography – Drea Dawn Photo + Films
Venue – Sunnyside Farm Boone
Catering – Sunrise Grill
Wedding Dress – Elizabella’s Bridal

 

Congratulations to Kristy and Caleb, and a special thanks to Drea Dawn Photo + Films for sharing this beautiful elopement with Junebug! Looking for more elopement ideas? These cuties ditched their big wedding plans for a secluded Big Sur elopement, and we guarantee you’ll want to pin every photo for inspiration!

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