covid gave me an elopement and a wedding!

So our date was June 20, 2020. Due to state restrictions at the time, we weren’t able to push through with our scheduled/planned wedding, and honestly we had no idea when we would be able to have a wedding! We really didn’t want to change our date, and after agreeing that being married was the most important thing to us, we announced to our families that we were eloping on our original date and we’d try at a later time for a celebration. After a few bumps, we decided to elope PRIVATELY with just us, the officiant and our photographer. I always wanted to elope but my husband wanted friends and family to be there and for me to have a ‘special’ day.. and my parents really wanted all of the traditional wedding things for me too 🙄 But let me tell you something, I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF OUR ELOPEMENT! It was so intimate and I felt so connected to my husband throughout the whole day that I feel like all of that would have been lost during the commotion of a typical wedding day. I was able to let all of the emotions flow because I had no one else to worry about but myself and my husband lol


Right before our June 20th elopement, our state governor opened up the occupancy of outdoor events to 250 which then allowed us to send out invites for our big wedding (renewal) celebration. Honestly, I still have some PTSD from this day. I had so much anxiety about being in front of a crowd that I spent the whole morning trying to control my nerves rather than worrying about myself. I never once looked in the mirror after getting hair and makeup done since my mind and heart was racing. It wasn’t until I got my photos back about a week later that I realized how awful I looked because my hair was terrible! My hair was down and curled but with the front pieces pulled back into my veil comb. Well the front pieces were pulled back so tight that my whole 7 head was showing in pretty much every freakin picture 😩 I just wish my mother or someone would have told me how bad I looked and to fix it lol but not ALL of my photos look completely awful so I still got some nice shots to remember the day.
My word of advice to future brides is that if you aren’t set on a big dreamy wedding day that typically happens, then don’t force it! I wish I would have stuck to my guns and said I want an elopement/micro wedding and saved all of the money and time associated with a wedding and focused more on getting married with ONLY the people that matter. And spend that WHOLE DAY focused on each other. Keep it simple, and remember why you’re exchanging vows to begin with ❤️
Here’s some photos front our elopement (lace dress) and our renewal celebration wedding day