Matt & Laura – Elopements

Recently I received a phone call from an aunt of one of our guests. She informed me that her niece was arriving the next day and that they were planning on eloping. She asked if would help to surprise them with a few gifts in their room and of course I was eager to oblige! I let her know that I am a wedding photographer and I have been in the business for the last 15 years in the Florida Keys and so this was an area, weddings, that I really enjoyed. She said they were eloping at Nayuca Waterfalls and that everything was already booked beforehand and so she wanted to do something a little extra for them. So before their arrival, we decorated their room with several different flower arrangements, all from our garden of course! Actually I can’t take the credit for the flowers as my husband is the florals in the family.

When Matt and Laura arrived, I am embarrassed to say I did not hear them pull up. I was in the back photographing the howler monkeys. We have a family of them that are always right in the backyard and there are a couple of new baby howlers that I just love to capture. Luckily I heard the car engine and realized our guests were here! So I ran down and apologized and said I was taking pictures of the monkey out back. They said that if I showed them the monkeys all would be forgiven. (They were only waiting 5 minutes but still, embarrassing!)

We got to talking and I immediately feel in love with all that is Matt and Laura. They are two of the most genuine people I have met and we all really connected. I showed them to their room and told them I heard they were getting married while they were here. Laura looked confused as she said no one knew where they were staying, but well, someone did. 😉 So we talked about it and she told me that a local company called Papaya Weddings was whom she booked for the actual elopement at Nayuca Waterfalls. I looked them up and I was very impressed with his gallery as he really has some gorgeous work! Laura told me that she had only booked him for a couple of hours and so I told her that if she wanted to take a few more pictures in the morning before they left and then after for sunset, I would be honored if they would allow me to do so. Plus we haven’t had a wedding here at Pacific Edge yet so it was a win win for all! They both agreed and we planned out how the morning would go. So I shot all the details, Papaya shot the vows and images at the waterfalls and we circled back and shot at the local beach and back to our property for sunset.

Laura really wanted to do a first look with Matt. So we chose to do an early morning first look out on the new deck. Laura loves the dark moody look and lucky for her the morning mist was in full affect. A little drizzle too. Most brides would be worried about a little rain but not Laura. “It was perfect!” She said and I honestly couldn’t have agreed more! After that they ran off to elope and then they celebrated the rest of their day sipping handcrafted Matt Mojitos (Matt you owe me one next time) and lounging by our pool.

Around 3pm we decided to head out to the caves at Playa Ventanas and to capture a few pictures of them down at the beach. It was such a great time and as you can tell these two looked breathtaking in all of them. They are sincerely one fun couple to photograph and of course just to hang out with too.

We decided it was time to head back to Pacific Edge for sunset pictures on the deck. Where they started this journey that morning and then finished it off with a perfect rainy sunset. At the time we had Nadya and Romain (of Nadya Travel Art) here painting murals in our cabins and they also wanted to do something special for our wedding couple and they offered to buy dinner for us all. So Matt and Laura’s dinner of choice, Pizza! There is a story behind that too but I will leave that for them to tell.

Here are a few of the sneak peeks and I will share the whole gallery soon.

It was such a wonderful group that week and we truly fell in love with both of them. They have a serious deep connection, mutual respect and love for one another, which was pretty infectious. We had so many sincere conversations in such a small amount of time and we got to know and love them like our own family. They are official PE family members now and we hope to see them again here very soon.

Matt & Laura, We sincerely miss you guys and I’m so honored I was able to photograph you during your stay. Congrats to you both and we hope you enjoyed your time and all the wonderful experiences you shared together here in Costa Rica!

Lots of love and hugs from your extend family at the Edge.

xoxox – Michaelynn