Cassidi and Lauren fell in love with San Diego two years ago after visiting for a birthday getaway. Since they’d planned their wedding to be just the two of them, they thought that traveling to somewhere they loved would be fun. “The two family weddings we’d been to together inspired us to start away from tradition,” they explained.

They were surprised by how easy and stress-free wedding planning could be. “It always sounded like such a stressful ordeal from stories we’d heard, but we just didn’t get too wrapped up in expectations and let things fall into place – it could not have been more perfect.” They kept things simple; a quick ceremony in the gardens of the courthouse, followed by running around their favourite spots with photographer Jasmine taking photos and eating pizza. They wore high street, non-wedding dresses. There was no seating plan to agonise over, no decor to tie together. They just had a spontaneous day to celebrate their love for one another.

On their favourite story from their day; “While taking pictures in Balboa park, Jasmine overheard a young girl ask her father why we were getting our picture taken. He said that it was because we had just gotten married and then she accepted it without any hesitation. That was one of many small moments that we are not used to. Living in Arizona, we aren’t used to being able to publicly show that we are together but the entire day was filled with strangers’ excitement. It definitely added to our already perfect day.”

“Dealing with family reactions to not being invited was the worst party about planning our wedding. Just about everybody was very understanding but it was still hard to know that our favourite people weren’t going to be a part of our favourite day. However, it was definitely the right decision. We wouldn’t change a thing. We’d advise future couples to make sure they make decisions based on what they want – not other people. And to communicate with one another!”