Intimate Beach Picnic Ceremony // Malibu, California

RACHEL + MIKE

One of the things I’ve found couples struggle with the most since the pandemic began is letting go of their original plans and learning to love and appreciate the new ones. There’s a sense of grief that I’ve felt for what “could have been” and it’s understandable. So many of us grow up dreaming of what our dream weddings will be like. We think of the location, what we’ll wear, what flowers we’ll have, the music we’ll play, the food we’ll serve. It can be really easy to get bummed and dwell on the fact that you won’t be able to get what you “wanted”. Having said that, what’s amazed me, even more, is the way so many couples have embraced that challenge and created something new and amazing!

Change Of Plans

One such couple was Rachel and Mike. These two were originally one of my spring 2020 couples and had their ceremony planned in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, at Sunshower Farms. It’s a local coffee farm and wedding venue on the mountainside and it was going to be magical and intimate. For obvious reasons, we weren’t able to continue with that plan. When Rachel and Mike knew they’re going to have to postpone their wedding day, they reached out to me with a whole new idea. Instead of trying to put off their wedding in Hawaii until it could go ahead without restrictions, they decided to completely move everything to Malibu, California. They live in Southern California so this idea was much more simple to pull off and of course, it was so much easier to manage everything from their home state.

When they told me their new date, I was so excited. It worked perfectly as I was already going to be in Oregon the week before for another wedding! It turned out that they were able to book the same videographer as well so they had a full-blown Hawaii Photo + Video team in Malibu with them- it was exactly what they had originally wanted! It couldn’t have come together more beautifully.

Intimate Picnic Style

We started the day of the wedding at the beautiful AirBnB they had rented. It was such a clean, bright and refreshing space for us to get ready in prep for the ceremony at the beach later. The space was simple but included quirky pops of color and wall art (which, of course, I had a lot of fun playing around with!). As we moved on to the ceremony, I really loved Rachel and Mike’s vision for the evening. I could see they just really wanted their close friends and family to enjoy their ceremony on the beach. The whole day was about the simple joys in life like picnicking together on the beach, connecting, making the sand their dance floor, and watching the sunset together. It was all they needed and it was perfect. They still had the traditional aspects of a big wedding like the first dance, speeches, and cake cutting but they just did it their own way.

The pandemic has thrown so many plans for a loop, but, as Rachel and Mike showed, you can create something else that is still totally you. Even though their original plans flopped, they still had the most joy-filled and special gathering. It was different from what they imagined but it ended up being just as amazing. Like I tell my couples, it’s a matter of accepting what has happened, letting go, and moving forward to make sure you are still creating something special. Postponing your day shouldn’t mean your new plans have to be lame. Make them magical and special in their own way!

Dress: Grace Loves Lace
Florals: Kenia Z. Florals
Hair & Makeup: Emma Lyn + Co
Videography: Visionize Media
AirBnB: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/32197617