Having our wedding whilst the world was seemingly ending was one of the most emotionally challenging times of my life. In the final 30 days of our 16 month engagement, COVID-19 made its debut into society and wrecked everyone’s plans with it.

As things got more and more serious and everything began to shut down, Eli and I grew less and less hopeful that we would be able to ring in our marriage with 124 of our closest friends and family. We had every last detail mapped out for our Charleston, South Carolina wedding– from the custom logo I created and included on every piece of wedding collateral, to the signature his and hers drinks we’d be serving. We put a lot of love into our planning and excitement grew with each decision made.

When Charleston finally put a ban on 70+ people gathering and at-risk family members needed to regrettably cancel their travel plans, we knew postponing our wedding was best for everyone involved. We were absolutely heartbroken after looking forward to April 11th, 2020 for almost a year and a half–but were overwhelmingly reassured when our family and friends supported us with an understanding heart.

Even though we had to reschedule the celebration, Eli and I were determined to begin our marriage. We were so ready to start this next chapter of our lives together, delaying any longer never even seemed like an option for us. We quickly began to make plans for an intimate elopement, making the rescheduled wedding of April 9th, 2021 act more as a vow renewal and first anniversary celebration. As the weeks past, regulations increased, open businesses decreased, and leaving your house for anything other than groceries was discouraged.

While the world flipped upside down, so did our elopement plans: the location, the location closing, the officiant, the officiant canceling, our family coming, our family not being able to come… As our plans changed every day, our love for one another fueled our resilience, making it impossible for us to give up.

All that being said, 4.11.20 could only have been orchestrated by God. He was watching over us as we drove down to Charleston, just the two of us, to elope at our original venue (the Gadsden House) who graciously opened their doors to us. He was watching over us as love from every corner of our network poured in to make us feel as surrounded in support as possible.

He was watching over each of our vendors like hair, cake, and florals, so we could still have a small piece of our original arrangements. He was watching over our photographer, Jessi Lancaster, and her travels to be able to BEAUTIFULLY capture our entire day so we can share it with others and treasure these moments for the rest of our lives. And he cleared every. single. cloud. from the sky to give us a beautiful day full of warm (but not too warm) sunshine.

Our ceremony was conducted on Zoom – my cousin officiating the wedding from Portland, Oregon, with our immediate family as virtual witnesses. It’s something I would have never imaged for our wedding day but it was so incredibly special – and I’m so thankful that even though we weren’t physically surrounded by our loved ones, we felt wrapped in their support.

We exchanged our vows, sealed forever with a kiss (or two,) popped champaign, and had our first dance while Jack Johnson’s, “Never Fade” played from Eli’s phone in his pocket. We laughed uncontrollably as we ran around the empty streets of one of our favorite cities, were showered with love from our bridal party and closest friends dressed to the nines over Zoom, and ended the night with wine, pizza, and a sweet miniature version of our wedding cake. Our wedding day may not have looked like we originally hoped, but it still looked pretty damn good.

We are officially married and could not feel more loved or blessed or lucky to begin the rest of our lives together. And now we have the craziest story to tell our grandkids!

Our Vendors

Photography: Jessi Lancaster Photo

Venue: The Gadsden House

Hair & Makeup: Ash & Co

Florals: Roadside Blooms

Cake: Ashley Bakery