If you missed the post on why we decided to elope- read it here!
WHERE?
We decided on Santa Rosa Beach to elope. It has always been one of our favorite spots so we figured what better the place?
DRESS
My dress was by Justin Alexander! It was so funny because I tried on like a million dresses and it still didn’t feel right. Then, I finally found this one ON A CLEARANCE RACK- I think it was like 1-2 seasons old and fell in love! I found it at Gilded Gown in Knoxville!
EARRINGS/ACCESSORIES
My earrings were actually pretty simple, I ended up getting them from Target a few days before! The ones I had ordered didn’t get here in time- which it worked out because you couldn’t really see them because of my hair anyways!
FLOWERS
Charlotte’s Florals in Johnson City did my bouquet! She is SOO sweet and super easy to work with! Thank you again!
HAIR/MAKEUP
I did my own hair and makeup-mainly because I hadn’t found anyone down there to do it and we didn’t want to have to pay for that + travel of someone from TN coming!
ON LIAM
We wanted it to be simple and obviously comfortable- it was like 100 degrees and he’s only 2! So we put him in a white button down, khaki shorts, and a cute pink bow tie!
ON CALEB
Caleb wore a white dress shirt and a pair of J Crew dress pants ( in light linen)! He was still dying of a heat stroke- but no where near as bad as a full suit!
CEREMONY DECOR
All of the ceremony decor was put together by my grandmother and mom! It was mostly from Michales/Amazon- super simple. We needed something easy to put up and take back down. It all turned out exactly as I had imagined.
Questions Answered!
How did COVID affect everything?
We were actually super panicked- because the week before, Florida had closed the beaches for the 4th and there were rumors that they weren’t going to reopen, but they did! It didn’t really have any affect. Maybe if we were having a few more people ( we had about 20-25) it would have! This also will vary state to state.
What would you have changed?
I think pretty much everyone has things they think back and want to change. Nothing major- it was just hard at that time of day because there were a ton of people- and they were being super obnoxious. I wasn’t paying attention to them obviously during the wedding but while we were doing photos people got super close and were just oblivious. Which yes it’s a public beach (but we had a permit) and it’s kind of common sense. . .lol Clearly a wedding was going on.
How much did you spend?
I honestly have no idea. Haha. We only paid for few parts- Caleb bought my dress and a few other things and that was it. That being said my grandma and mom put in a TON of work. But we all also traveled down there. On the wedding itself including my dress I would say ballpark $5,000.
Worst part about eloping?
Obviously not having everyone we wanted there. We would have loved to invite 940572904524 people but given COVID and our budget it just wasn’t feasible. We even had people we invited not show up- so it was actually less than we planned for!
