we eloped!

You know what’s hard? Being in Hawaii for a week and not telling anyone. You know what’s even harder? Planning a wedding in Hawaii and also not telling anyone. 

But that’s what we did! We eloped to Kauai and married May 30 ♥

Nick and I have long talked about getting married – about having a big wedding, something smaller with family and our closest friends, or something just us. After much discussion, we decided to elope to our favorite place: Kauai. It’s not that we didn’t want to celebrate with loved ones (don’t worry, we’ll have a party at home soon!). It’s that we’ve been together nearly eight years and instead wanted something intimate on a beach. We also didn’t want to spend upwards of $25k for something in Minneapolis – it still blows my mind that that’s the average cost of a wedding and that people don’t flinch about paying it. We’d rather put that money toward our master bathroom renovation! 

And you know what? Neither of us would change a single thing. Eloping was perfect for us ♥ (For those asking, we planned to elope for no other reason than we wanted to get married. We picked a date, found our officiant, booked our flight, and off we went with our little secret.)

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So a little backstory!

We spent our first day on Kauai at one of our favorite beaches: Polihale State Park. After reading and relaxing for a couple hours, we took a walk to the end of the beach where the Na Pali Coast starts. Being the good instagram husband he is, Nick told me to look at the coast so he could take my pic. As I was standing there for what felt like an awkwardly long time, he finally told me he was done taking my pic. And when I turned around, he was down on one knee – wearing a fanny pack, ha! – proposing. So sneaky! He said he had to ask to make it official, even if we were only engaged for a few days before getting married ♥ 

Location: Anini Beach
Photographer: Christian Kahahawai
Officiant: Daphne Sadler 
Dress: BHLDN
Shoes: TKEES flip flops
Rings: Filigree Jewelers
Swimsuit: L*Space