Oregon Coast Elopement

How did you decide to switch from a wedding on Mt. Hood to an elopement on the Oregon Coast?

It was definitely a process. We had initially planned a wedding for September 2020, and once the pandemic hit, we announced we would be postponing a year. We contacted our vendors and they told us we could move our date to next year. 

A month later we found out that our venue for the wedding and reception had gone out of business because of the pandemic. We were gutted. This made us realize just how difficult planning an event during a pandemic would be. We felt so ready to be married and, especially given the political climate, we felt it was important to get married this year. 

That’s when we started talking about eloping. 

The more we talked about it, the more it just felt right. We were going to save a lot of money, we would be able to get married on our original wedding date and most importantly, we would get to be wives. We had about two months to plan our elopement, and despite having to change our location a week beforehand because of the wildfires, it all turned out perfectly.  

Was the elopement everything you imagined?

The day was truly perfect. We had rented a beach house for the weekend that had a beautiful deck overlooking the ocean. We each had one support person there with us- my friend Kelsey who was officiating the wedding and her partner, and Cassi’s sister, Leilani who did our hair & makeup and her partner. 

It was a slow morning, eating breakfast, visiting, and taking in the gorgeous view of the ocean. Cassi and I made our own bouquets so we did that on the deck after breakfast- luckily Leilani had taken a flower arranging course in school and was a big help with this. We prepped the decorations and everyone pitched in to help get things set up. Cass and I changed into our robes and Leilani started the beautification process. 

I got to Facetime my family while Cassi was getting her hair done- they were spending the weekend together and celebrating us from afar. 

The whole afternoon was really relaxed. 

Once we had our hair and makeup done we got into our outfits. This was the moment where I realized just how big this day was. Kelsey zipped up my dress and we both started crying. I really felt the weight and importance of this day. It was bittersweet to not have my family there but it was so important to have Kelsey there as she’s always felt like family.

Kelsey then went to zip up Cassi and once we were both dressed we had our first look! 

This was a beautiful and special moment for us both. I had been imagining this moment for weeks and was blown away by how gorgeous Cassi looked. We took some time to enjoy this moment and then headed back to the house to set up the deck for our ceremony. 

The ceremony was our favorite part of the day. We had both of our families on Zoom to witness our wedding as well as our friend Brittany who played music and read a lovely poem by Kahlil Gibran. Kelsey made the ceremony extremely heartfelt and personal. She had reached out to family and friends to ask for a few words about our relationship and she shared those with us during our ceremony. Everything about our ceremony was personal and intentional. We each wrote our vows. Brittany sang “Heroes” by David Bowie while we put items in a time capsule to open later at our post-pandemic love celebration. Our dog Ziggy was there for the ceremony and provided comic relief when she ate a fly during the ceremony. 

As Kelsey pronounced us Mrs. & Mrs., the sun broke through the clouds and illuminated us as if the universe was celebrating our union. 

We said a quick hello to our family on Zoom, signed our marriage license and then headed down to the beach for sunset photos. When we got there, a friendly adventurous cat ran over to our group and sat on my dress. As a cat person, this made me very happy. Our small crew went back to the house to set up for the reception while Cassi and I took photos on the beach. When we returned, the deck was glowing with twinkle lights and candles. 

We all had great takeout from a local joint, cut our cakes, had a champagne toast and danced the night away underneath the milky way. 

It was beautiful.