One of the most common pieces of advice we hear from brides and planners alike is this: make it yours. When it comes to your big day, let go of any traditions that don’t feel like you and move full speed ahead toward your own unique dream day! For Haleigh + Cody, that meant foregoing the big ceremony and opting to elope, instead. Oh – and also? A velvet teal wedding dress. YES, please. Allison Harp photographed Haleigh + Cody’s day, and we LOVE how excited she was to follow these two to Big Sur! Here’s what she sent us over about the day – and that dress!
A few months before the wedding Haleigh had mentioned she got her dress and I immediately said, “PICTURES! SEND PICTURES!” I expected a normal and beautiful, white, flowy, elopement dress. Nope. She sent me a mockup of a dress that she was having made for her – an insaaaane turquoise, velvet gown. I mean, I was already soo excited to photograph these two. They’re soo in love, and they just wanted to make their wedding day be the most relaxing day ever. But when she sent me her dress I knew it was gonna be gooooood.
They chose to elope in Big Sur with only an officiant, photographer, and videographer. All day long they just kept saying, “This is exactly what we wanted. This is EXACTLY what we wanted.” We even had to dart from place to place because of the rain and our Plan A turned into a Plan B, which turned into, “Screw it, let’s just go down to the beach!” It was the most magical day and I can’t believe I got to be a part of it.
Are you excited to see the photos?! We certainly were after reading Allison’s recount of the day! Let’s head on out to where the mountains meet the sea…
The Velvet Wedding Dress
Now, about that turquoise velvet wedding dress…
I never connected with the idea of a traditional white dress, or a traditional wedding for that matter. I set out to find a dress that was “me” in my favorite color that I felt absolutely beautiful wearing. Shout out to Ashley Trieu from IconoClasp who designed my dress and made all of my wedding dress dreams come true!
How absolutely perfect are those accessories?!
The Vows
Haleigh had eloping on her mind from day 1:
I dreamed of eloping for as long as I can remember. It was the most romantic way I could possibly imagine get married. We wanted to avoid anything that would distract us from soaking up each and every moment, focusing on the promises we made to each other, and having the time of our lives on the best day of our lives!
My now husband and I set out to find a beautiful location that captured what we both love: him, the mountains for me, the ocean. Big Sur just so happens to be where the mountains meet the ocean—where two totally different landscapes crash into each other and become one. We felt like the melding of the two landscapes represented us in a lot of ways.
GORGEOUS!
Isn’t this just so totally magical?
Is this not the PERFECT dress?!
Be prepared for others to not understand your decision to elope. If you feel like you’d regret not eloping or doing something totally different from the norm on your wedding day, go with your gut!
I would also encourage anyone who wants to elope to go with the flow and not try to control every part of the day. Part of the beauty of our elopement was the spontaneity and adventure of it all! Our Plan A for the day turned into Plan B which turned into Plan C due to rain. We eventually just started driving down the coast until we found a spot with no rain. We wouldn’t change a thing!
Haleigh’s velvet wedding dress is bespoke, but we’d start here for a similar look:
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Soooo dreamy.
YES! Loving everything about this day! Such phenomenal photos by Allison Harp, right?! Congrats to H + C! We wish you the best, and many more well-dressed adventures in the future ;)
photography: Allison Harp // venue name: Pfeiffer Beach State Park, Big Sur, Califronia, USA // wedding dress: IconoClasp