elopement

Why did we elope?

First of all, it is all very surreal. I sometimes feel like things are happening faster than I can process them fully.

When John and I made the move out to California, we booked our Joshua Tree Trip within a week or so, planning to elope. Y?

Life doesn’t always work according to plan. My ‘plan’ was always to graduate college, & eventually get married and build a life with my person. Of course life happens to do whatever it wants and doesn’t follow according to your plans.

John wanted to pursue a dream/adventure of moving out of NE and explore together. Supporting that was very important to me. So, when John was offered a job out in CA we packed up my things and flew out!

Since we were moving out of NE we knew it would be a long while before we could afford to have a wedding. Our hearts were pulled toward eloping because after being engaged and becoming roommates, it was as if we were already married. There were a few things that led us to this decision. We didn’t want to wait until we could plan/afford a wedding back home, we truly felt like we were already married & we loved the idea to just have something special for the two of us.

So many people have said that planning a wedding was the most stressful thing they have ever done and that there wedding day was amazing but overwhelming & fleeting. We truly didn’t want to have that be our only memory of getting married. Every time we talked about planning a wedding it would be so stressful and overwhelming. I am not sure at what point we thought about eloping but once we brought up the idea, we realized it could be a real possibility and went for it!

We did some research (and when I say we, I mean mostly John) on local photographers and cute locations for a minimoon. We knew if this was gonna happen we wanted there to be someone to capture the moment and a cute spot for us to have the weekend to spend together. Both of us had Joshua Tree on our list of a place to see in CA, so John checked out some airbnb spots and found this magical little place that we ended up staying in. To summarize, we figured out where we wanted to go, who was going to take the photos and the logistics of actually signing the papers.

feels?

Moments before we signed the papers and were legally and officially married, we were so nervous/excited but the moment we were married and out in the desert, listening to the quiet of Joshua Tree, we felt an overwhelming feeling of peace. We knew there was now no pressure of planning a wedding unless we wanted to. I felt so whole and happy in that moment. Every stressful thing melted away and was nowhere near me. The entire time we were wondering about Joshua Tree National Park we could not believe its tranquility and relaxed temper. It was so quiet that it was peaceful but not too quiet that you couldn’t walk around or talk. Just the perfect place to stand there and vow to one another our love and faithfulness.

I think my favorite part of all of this is feeling so happy with our decision. In making this decision, we didn’t tell a lot of people so we knew it was going to be a shock and to be honest we didn’t want to tell a lot of people because we didn’t want to open up the gates to everyone’s opinion on our choice. I just am so happy we did what felt true to us and made us feel happy, instead of just keeping with tradition. Not only will Joshua Tree always hold a special place in our hearts but we have a stress-free, magical moment shared between just the two of us.

x Mrs. Parker