Cavin Elizabeth Photography

Practical Financial Planning Led to this Caribbean Elopement

Vanessa of Vanessa Rose Photo shares her detailed story about her well thought out decision to elope. She says, “Deciding to elope was a really hard decision for me. On one hand I really wanted to marry him obviously, we'd been together for 7 years and the timing just finally felt right for us. We were in a good place financially where we didn't have any debt and were solid in our jobs. On the other hand I had always wanted a traditional wedding. And when I say wanted a traditional wedding, I mean that I had been dreaming about getting married since I was a little girl! Brad on the other hand did not want a big wedding production. He said he was actually dreading it and that was one of the reasons he think it took so long to propose because it meant having to plan a wedding that he didn't really want to have. He wanted the marriage, not the wedding.

Once I started looking into planning a wedding when we returned, I realized, WHOA weddings are crazy expensive! I mean I knew they were expensive, but dang. We had a nest egg set aside for a down payment on a house. If you know anything about San Diego you know how expensive it is to buy a house here. So while we did have the money for the wedding, and wouldn't have had to go in debt for it, we wouldn't have a big down payment for a house. So it was wedding or house. Wedding or house. Wedding. Or. House.

Well, financial responsibility won in the end. After dating for 7 years, my husband Brad and I got married in July of 2017 in a private ceremony on the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean. I arranged everything with the hotel we were staying at (The Westin Dawn Beach) that was absolutely wonderful. They recommended a local photographer, florist, and officiant. The day of the wedding the florist never showed and the hotel staff ran around collecting flowers on the property and made me a bouquet! It was the sweetest thing ever and meant so much to me. The officiant was a sweet ole Caribbean pastor who was kind enough to wear a suit even though it was insanely humid outside. He said both of our names wrong during the ceremony, haha, but was so sweet and handed me a tissue when I started ugly crying during our vows. The whole thing was a perfect disaster in the best way. From there we left the next morning with a group of 10 friends to go island hopping on a catamaran around St. Martin, St. Barts, and Anguilla for our honeymoon. It was an amazing trip and I will never forget it!”