We met at a wedding in Kentucky. Lauryn was actually someone else’s date! We immediately clicked. At the time, Lauryn was living in Chicago and I (Scott) was in Boston so we kept talking/texting after the wedding. Scott was visiting Michigan for work and Lauren met him at a brewery in Kalamazoo. We talked for 6 hours. After that, we kept up the relationship long distance until I eventually got a job in Chicago.

We were still just talking, not officially dating yet, and Lauryn said to me, “I know we haven’t been dating long, but there’s this party that my friend’s family hosts in Michigan each year, and I promise, if you fly out here, it will be one of the coolest parties you ever attend. My parents will be there though…so it’s up to you.” I ended up flying out for it and we had a blast. I then asked Lauryn to be my girlfriend.

The party: Lauryn’s family friends own a pumpkin patch and every year after Halloween they host a party called the Pumpkin Smash, where we all get pretty drunk and smash the crap out of pumpkins. It’s amazing! Fast forward five years after the first time I attended this party, and we decided to travel back to Michigan for another pumpkin smash which would happen to fall on our 5 year anniversary (November 1).

The daughter of the “pumpkin smash family” is a wedding photographer. Her and Lauryn have been friends since…like birth. She asked Lauryn and I if we would pose for some fall photos for her blog. In the middle of the photoshoot, which was secretly set up by myself and the photographer, I got down on one knee and said that I fell in love with her at our fist pumpkin smash, and that I wanted this to be where I asked her to spend the rest of her life with me.

We had wanted a longer engagement when we planned our big wedding, but then COVID hit, and we had to push it back another year, making our “long engagement” a little too long. It was hard, and frustrating. We really struggled with the whole situation.

A few months later, Lauryn’s bridesmaid Lyndsay and her husband Dave were celebrating their wedding anniversary on the same date as our original wedding date. When Lauryn heard of their plans to travel to Catalina, Lauryn said, “please don’t leave me in Sand Diego on our would-be wedding date. Can we come?” Lyndsay said, “No, Lauryn it is out anniversary!” But, they eventually caved and let us crash their anniversary trip.

About two weeks before the trip, we realized that Dave is ordained! We could elope!

But to answer the main question, the atmosphere: If we did this, nothing could stress us out. Nothing could make Lauryn cry. It had to be easy and simple. We decided that if any of the elopement planning became stressful, didn’t work out, or made Lauryn cry, we wouldn’t do it. “The stars have to align,” we said.

Well, we found our rings at a pawn shop. We connected with Lisa at Pretty/Bold Photography, an amazing photographer who likes to travel to Catalina. Lauryn got her dress for $90 and it fit perfectly. We were able to get all of the paperwork done beforehand and Lauryn crafted together a bouquet at Vons that morning. The stars aligned!

It was simple, but it was also personal and so incredibly special. We didn’t tell anyone our plans. So there were no zoom calls, FaceTimes, nothing. The day was just about us, our love, and our marriage.

Catalina Island! We had never been, and Lisa, our amazing photographer, helped us pick the location!

Since our friends and family couldn’t be there, we both brought personal items to the ceremony. Cufflinks that belong to Lauryn’s uncle, a locket from her dad’s mother, a ring from her mom’s mother, and a bracelet that belonged to my mother. We even put our cat’s baby tooth inside the locked so he could be a part of the day.

Lauryn’s co-worker, her bridesmaid Lyndsay and Lyndsay’s husband Dave.

The best planning part was that it was so simple and easy. Everything just kind of fell into place and if it hadn’t, we wouldn’t have done it.

We didn’t have a speaker to play the song so we ended up singing our song and dancing together on the cliffs of Catalina. The song was, “You make me feel like dancing,” by Leo Sayer.

I have two! First, complete strangers on the island were so kind and happy for us. Our Airbnb gave us a complimentary wine tasting the day before our wedding. After the wedding, strangers helped us celebrate by buying us dessert and sending drinks over to our dinner table. Everyone was not just congratulating us for our marriage, but also for the fact that we were able to get married in the middle of the pandemic.

Second, we didn’t have any big plans for after the ceremony. So the four of us just went to dinner, and we spent the whole night talking about love, marriage, and what makes a marriage work. Since our two friends were celebrating their 11th anniversary, and we were celebrating our wedding day, the whole thing was pretty magical.

The whole day? Haha! But I’d say the two stories above were the highlights. That, and skipping rocks on the beach in our wedding attire, and having everyone on the island drive past us in golf carts, honking their horns and shouting congratulations to us from the road.

I think this actually might be the best part of the day. We weren’t anxious. We weren’t nervous. As we approach our one-year anniversary, we were talking about this just last night. We were, and still are, so sure that we want to be together. And not having a crowd of people staring at us helped keep things relaxed, simple, easy, and lovely.

Avoid things that stress you out. If things get stressful when planning a wedding, ask yourself if what you’re stressing over is WORTH the stress. If it’s not, you probably won’t miss it on your big day.

And I know it’s not for everyone, but I highly recommend eloping before you have a big party. It takes stress away from the big wedding and your ceremony/actual wedding will be so much more magical and fun.

Bonus: Who doesn’t want to celebrate two anniversaries!?

You are/were amazing! You made our day so special, and you captured the magic and love of the day perfectly.

Gown Shop: Lulu’s

Bridesmaid Dresses: Rent the Runway