This El Matador Beach golden hour elopement was such a dream with this precious little fam.


Ashley & Omar decided to elope at El Matador Beach and it turned out absolutely amazing, as you can see below :)


Ashley works in the medical field as a pediatric cardiac nurse, and Omar is a physical trainer (talk about a power couple, am I right?). They got officially married & signed the dotted line at City Hall before meeting me at El Matador Beach in Palos Verdes for some fun, golden hour elopement and family pics with their beautiful little girl, Madison!


Would you believe it if I said that Ashley bought her dress for their elopement at the last minute on AMAZON of all places?!

Here are some similar dresses on Amazon for your own elopement if you're feelin inspired:


She ordered flowers from Hearts and Honey Do Events (@heartsandhoneydoevents on Instagram), an all-inclusive planning company based in Long Beach, CA. They did such a good job with Omar's boutonniere and Ashley's bouquet, featuring orange, pink, & white flowers. Such a beautiful color combo.


Their daughter laughed the whole time and made the session so fun, and overall, their celebration reminded me of one big thing: there's no one right way to get married.


COVID has wreaked so much damn havoc on weddings in 2020 but one of the best things to come out of it is that couples are learning they have options. They don't have to have a big celebration just because that's what they grew up thinking was the way to do it, or follow what their families/friends want. You can elope at the courthouse, hire an officiant to go into the mountains with you, travel to a new place (safely - we are still in a pandemic, lol), go to your local beach, or whatever feels most like what you'd do in your relationship. Pretend like it's one big date and you're just signing some really important papers along with it :)


At the end of our session, we had to hike back up what we'd hiked down at the beginning and it was rough - Omar carried Madison in the stroller the entire time. Guess that's a plus to being a trainer ;)


Congrats to these two - can't wait to see all that is to come in their future!