Our Big Day
Getting Ready
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Because we eloped, we had a much different "getting ready" experience than a big wedding. We started our day with coffee by a fire at our resort in Carmel Valley. We walked through their rose garden (which was a great way to calm the wedding nerves), ate a big room-service breakfast, and had a Zoom call with our entire family. We even had time to work out together! Emily had her hair & makeup done in Carmel, then we drove our vintage 1966 Ford Mustang down Highway 1 to Big Sur where our ceremony would take place.
Redwoods Ceremony
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We had the most amazing and calm morning, but things started to feel a bit more stressful once we got to our ceremony venue in Big Sur. We only had 10 minutes to steam and change into our clothes before our First Look... Emily nearly forget her veil!! (It was her "something borrowed" from Jacqueline). After the First Look, we exchanged our personal vows in an intimate setting with just us two. As you can tell from the photos, we both took the comedic route when writing our vows, but there were so many wonderful and sentimental moments too. We then exchanged traditional "I do's" in an officiated ceremony surrounded by enormous Redwood trees.
Pfeiffer Beach
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At this point, Emily changed out of her heels and into her tennis shoes... we were in for an adventure! We drove down to Pfeiffer Beach for a picnic and champagne toast. We ate cheeseburgers (Em's favorite food) and forgot to bring the champagne flutes so we drank straight from the bottle! Since our family wasn't there, we asked them to write letters with funny memories or marriage advice in lieu of what would be wedding-day speeches. We read their letters on the beach which was one of our favorite moments on our big day.
Garrapata State Park
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After the beach, we drove to Garrapata State Park which has stunning views of the rocky coastline overlooking the Pacific. It's probably what most people envision when they think of Big Sur or Highway 1. We climbed over the park guardrails to get the best photo backdrops, which was scary but totally worth it! It was also about 45 degrees and extremely windy (Emily was complaining by this point). We ended the day with a few photos in our vintage car, then headed back to Carmel Valley for dinner.
Family Heirlooms
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Because we didn't have family in attendance, it was important for us to have a piece of them with us. As part of our "something old, new, borrowed & blue," Jacqueline let Emily borrow the veil she wore in her own wedding. We tied an antique pearl bracelet gifted from Julie in the wedding bouquet, along with a pearl necklace and pendant from Emily's Nana. Gina lent Emily a sapphire ring that was a gift from Roger. And Nick carried a blue handkerchief monogrammed with Emily's new initials from Pam.