The joy evident on their faces for the first look pretty much stayed with Amara and Kalan for their entire ceremony and ensuing photo shoot. Bride and groom arrived separately and eyed each other for the first time that day in the redwoods. We started things off with the traditional first look. So, let’s get to the good stuff! The wedding day The fire only scorched a small area on the perimeter of the property so our beautiful redwood backdrop remains intact. They trusted me to handle the process for them and I kept them updated with the news (good or bad!) every step of the way. They seemed to intuitively know all would be well in the end. (And yes, we had a backup wedding venue waiting in the wings.)Īnd through it all, these two kept their cool. When did we find out for certain? Three days before the wedding! Yep–that’s when the fire department gave us the all clear to be onsite. We had to relocate three other late-August weddings from this site due to area evacuations and even with daily contact with the site staff, we had no idea if we were going to be able to hold Amara and Kalan’s there. To illustrate how close the flames got to the site, Big Basin State Park, which is just down the street, was radically impacted by the CZU Lightning Complex Fire and remains closed as of this writing. Well, then there was the matter of the California wildfires that began raging in August and threatened the very existence of our redwood fairytale site. We held our breath and crossed our fingers and… just when we thought we were good to go… The two shortened their guest list to bring it down to California guidelines. But we collectively decided to take a wait and see approach. By March, we all knew that was no longer the case, By April, we were talking about the possibility of rescheduling their September wedding. When Amara and Kalan booked their elopement package with us, it was January and Covid was little more than a blip on the screen occurring on the other side of the world. Not exactly an auspicious date for one’s wedding anniversary, but these two were willing to go for it. The only date on which we could accommodate them was September 11th. (Hint: if you’re planning a September elopement, plan ahead it’s the most popular month for weddings.) They wanted a September wedding and, even though they booked our services in January, availability of the site was limited. Makes for an interesting experience, and let’s face it, if planning a wedding was a piece of cake, no one would have any need for services like Blue Sky Elopements.īut I’ll own it–pulling off this wedding so that Kalan and Amara were spared any undue stress took a bit of doing!įirst, there was the matter of matching their travel schedule to Blue Sky staff availability as well as the availability of our redwood forest site. I think the best weddings are those where there are a couple of moderate-but-not-impossible-to-overcome challenges that crop up in the wedding planning process. So, of course there’s a story to their wedding planning. I sent them photos and video and they fell in love with it on the spot. I had the perfect site in mind for them– a private, yet affordable enchanted forest redwood setting in the Santa Cruz mountains. I think an elopement surrounded by redwoods could give us the romantic and outdoors feeling that we’re looking for.” The minute Kalan, Amara and I connected, I knew these two were perfect for our services.įrom Amara: “We really enjoy outdoors activities like hiking and camping and we want our wedding to reflect that. But we’ll get to that later… The wedding vibe they were seeking Not that there weren’t a few hiccups along the way. She’s the one that set up the Tinder account! That was back in 2015 and the first step to what ultimately brought them to us seeking an elopement with an “enchanted forest wedding” vibe. A Lighthearted Enchanted Forest Wedding for Amara and KalanĪmara and Kalan have Amara’s cousin to thank for bringing them together.
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