Princess Place Preserve Elopement by Laura Yang Photography

Oh my.. I've always wanted to feature an elopement and when Laura Yang sent me this pretty and intimate elopement, I kind of squealed. Small and intimate. Just the two of them. So sweet. Thank you Laura for sharing this with me!

From Laura: Nikole + Arun wanted a really simple, really sincere wedding, so they scrapped their plans for a big shindig in Asheville, NC, and eloped practically in their own backyard, with only the trees and us as their witnesses. They'd never seen Princess Place before they decided to elope, and as they were researching eloping in Florida, they stumbled across a styled elopement shoot I had done last fall at Princess Place -- and decided on the spot that Princess Place was where they had to get married, and I was the photographer they wanted to capture it. (Which, off the record, was one very exciting first for me!)

To make sure their elopement felt like "them," Nikole + Arun had planned for a completely casual day, with personal gifts, like the wedding vase Arun handcrafted for Nikole, and a sundress-bedecked bride and a groom in Sperry's. The Sperry's ended up happening, but Nikole got cold feet about wearing just a sundress and decided to find the princess gown of her dreams -- and once she did, she absolutely looked the part. But she kept things funky with a fun pair of raspberry pink wedges, and she kept things real with a few tissues ticked into her dress for their vow exchange under the oak trees. That was smart: She needed them. Nikole + Arun both cried, they laughed, and they looked utterly and hopelessly in love as we spent the rest of the afternoon photographing those first, deliriously happy hours of their marriage.