March 22, 2019 June + Matt

Words from the bride, June :

The beginning.

Matt and I actually met in high school.. about 13 years ago!!! Initially because we had mutual friends, but then we landed in the same math class where we spent a lot of time together. He eventually asked me to be his girlfriend in front of our local Dairy Queen, so we are high school sweethearts 🥰 I was a grade above him though so when I graduated the following year and left to college, our relationship ended. Fast forward 9 years, Matt saw my Instagram via a mutual friend. I like to think he saw my handle and wanted to know who Todd (my sweet pup) was! He sent me a dm, we chatted back and forth and ended up setting a day to meet and catch up. We’ve been together ever since and after our second date I knew I never wanted to be without him again. I always feel like I got so lucky to get a second chance with my sweet guy.

The proposal.

We took a trip over a long weekend to one of our favorite places-Whidbey Island. We had plans to spend some time at various beaches and do a couple hikes. I kind of had a feeling he would propose that weekend, but he definitely caught me off guard and surprised me!!

We started our morning with a beach trip to let our pup, Todd, run around. Once we started walking Matt was like “look, I found a sand dollar!!” I turned around and saw him holding it and proceeded to continue walking and playing with Todd (LOL). He threw the sand dollar and Todd ran after it, but Todd left it so I did too. Shortly after, Matt suggested we look for sea glass and I thought that was a great idea so I started hunting. I hear Matt say again, “hey, look at this sand dollar..” and he handed it over to me since I was still uninterested in it (LOL x2) and as I flipped it over to look at it, he got down on one knee and the sand dollar had “Will you marry me” written on it.

Why elope?

There were quite a few reasons we chose to elope instead of have a traditional wedding. The main reason we choose to intimately elope is simple - we wanted the day to be about us. We didn’t want to have to worry about other people, coordinate with other people, stress about a timeline for the day, or get so caught up in planning a wedding that we forgot why we were even doing it in the first place. We just wanted to quietly pour out our hearts and souls to each other without the chaos of the world.

Our elopement wasn’t a rushed last minute thing, we still took time to plan everything over the course of a handful of months. Matt made a beautiful wooden arch for our ceremony, I got flowers for it from a local farmers market, and my sister put my bouquet together from flowers I got from Fred Meyer the day before. I bought a beautiful wedding gown from Truvelle that made me feel like an absolute princess. Our only invited guest was our pup, Todd. And we had the besttt photographers to not only capture our day, but also be our two legal witnesses.

The Location.

Definitely yes. Of course there are plenty of beautiful places that would make for gorgeous backdrops, but the area we ended up marrying at held a special place for us long before we got married there. We had done quite a few hiking dates in that area early on in our relationship. I initially wanted to get married on Whidbey Island since it is one of our favorite places and that is where he proposed, but during the winter it was more likely going to be raining than not. I decided I’d rather be snowed on than rained on-so we decided to go into the mountains. The area we chose is normally accessible during winter even with snow, so we knew it would be a good spot. Matt and I used google maps to scout out a few quiet spots up logging roads, in the middle of nowhere, that were still close to our Airbnb cabin. Then we spent a day adventuring and scouted them out in person, and once we saw that spot, we fell in love and knew we needed to have our ceremony there!

The wedding day.

June: Oh my gosh I was soooo nervous! We woke up that morning and I said to Matt “Are you sureeee you want to get married??”. I was a little giddy before our first look, but also SO anxious. When I saw Matt for the first time, the biggest smile spread across my face. We exchanged our personal vows right after and all the jitters completely went away. I felt completely at ease, relaxed and didn’t even notice the freezing temperature.

Matt: My heart stopped and everything else around us disappeared.. I went into tunnel vision and nothing else mattered but us.

Reflection.

Ugh, is literally everything an option!? From having our pup there, to staying at the cutest Airbnb cabin for the weekend, not having a set timeline and rushing on our wedding day, my sister crying sweet tears as she married us, to running around at golden hour for the first time as husband + wife with the best photographers around! And then waking up to SNOW FALLING the next morning at our cabin. It was truly one of the most magical days. There is nothing I would change about our day, and thinking about it always puts me back on cloud 9. It couldn’t have been more perfect and that entire day will always be one of my favorite memories.

Any Advice?

If it’s truly what you want to do, then do it. Don’t let tradition, your family or friends pressure you or tell you what to do. This day comes once and ultimately it’s about you marrying your person, nothing else. You won’t regret anything and everyone else will eventually get over their hurt feelings. I say this confidently because not only did we consider a small traditional wedding at first, we also ended up catching a lot of flak from our families for eloping. Follow your heart, because here’s the thing about your wedding day: It’s yours. And it’s a single day that passes much too quickly, so spend it exactly how you want to.