Sarah and Brayden’s elopement was truly magical! They had their day, their way and it completely described them. For them, having sunshine, cacti and their closest friends and family was the most important part of their day! The sweetest part was their four nephews being a part of it!

WHAT WORDS WOULD YOU USE TO DESCRIBE YOUR WEDDING?

Our weddings was perfect.  It was intimate, full of love, excitement, laughter, and family.  

THE PROPOSAL

Our Proposal was non existent.  I suppose it was very practical and was more of a conversation between two people who had been together for 7 years and knew the next step and jointly decided to start making a plan to move towards it.  Never were were “engaged”….we went straight from boyfriend and girlfriend to planning a wedding without any friends and most family not even knowing what was happening.

THE VISION

I suppose it was more my vision than Brayden’s, but I wanted the desert.  It took us a while to narrow down the location we wanted to go to as we knew we were going to make a trip out of our elopement/micro wedding.  Ultimately, I wanted cactus and sunshine and since we have vacationed in Las Vegas many times before and both love the city, we settled on that.  There were so many location options available through Desert Elopements that I think I probably changed my mind at least 5 times…but Red Rock Canyon won my heart.  It had it all.  We never wanted a big wedding, but as we started finalizing details more and more family members were added as we couldn’t imagine not having certain people there.

THE PLANNING PROCESS

We started figuring out our plan to elope around January 2019.  By May we had sorted through all the possible locations and decided on Las Vegas, made initial contact with Emily, and the real planning began.  Honestly everything was so easy once we decided to have Desert Elopements coordinate that planning was left to just the fun stuff like floral colours, songs to be played, and what to wear!  The stress that Emily and her team took off of us was well worth any dollar figure!

YOUR OUTFITS AND ACCESSORIES

Brayden and I kept our outfits top secret from one another.  Up until the time I walked down the aisle, I didn’t even know what colour he was going to be wearing or if he would be in a jacket or vest.  Brayden and his Mom chose his outfit from a store near our hometown on Vancouver Island, BC.  I travelled to Bellingham, WA (near where my Mom lives and I grew up) and bought the second dress I tried on from Belle Bridal.  I had an idea of the style I liked but tried on a variety of shapes and fits since I had never tried on dresses before.  When you know you know and I fell so in love with my dress.  Shoes for me I knew had to sparkle.  We were going to Vegas after all… and everything else we kept pretty minimal.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

 Most memorable for me was the breathtaking view when I got far enough past the guests that I could see Brayden standing with Judy and our nephews and the amazing canyon behind him.  It is a sight I will never forget and makes me smile just thinking about it.  I remember how at ease we both were in knowing what we were doing is exactly what we wanted and how we wanted it done, with who we wanted there.  

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES

My advise for other couples would be to do what makes you happy.  The best part of this whole experience was that we did it our way.  We didn’t give anyone else the opportunity to sway our decisions and plan something that we didn’t feel suited us.  From beginning to end, the whole day was magical and we didn’t stress, we didn’t worry, we knew all the details were taken care of and all we had to do was show up and get married.

Photography by Kristen Joy Photo https://kristenjoyphoto.com