DONNA + MATTHEW

Our Cherry Blossom Orchard Elopement

September 28, 2021

Anniversary, Couples, Weddings

Our Intimate Elopement on March 28, 2021

It’s been six months since we’ve eloped and I’m finally sharing my elopement photos from this special day!

On March 28, 2021 – I said “I DO” to my bestfriend and to the love of my life. It was the easiest YES ever..

March 28, 2021 also marked our 8 year anniversary of dating. March 28 means a lot to us. 3 years ago, on March 28, 2018 Matt proposed on our 5th year anniversary on the red bridge at Japanese Friendship Garden in San Jose. (You can find that proposal video on my Instagram highlight). I didn’t believe him when he proposed. I totally thought it was a joke and there’s a reason to why!

I remember back in college, I went to visit Matt at Stanislaus State while I was studying at Chico State. I found a ring box with a fake ring inside on his computer desk. He knew I seen it and I just looked at him and was so confused. In my head I was thinking ‘there’s no way this is happening’. As I opened the ring box, he just smiled and laugh and I immediately knew it was a joke. If I’m being truthfully honest – it was a relief. We definitely weren’t ready for that commitment, especially still in our 3rd year of college!

But this time, it was real! Yet, I still couldn’t believe it.

It’s true what they say, you basically black out during a proposal, ha. I can’t remember the words said when he proposed. All I could think about was the fact that it was really happening! Woah, Matt was down on one knee. What I found to be the cutest thing to me was the nerves he felt all day! (I should’ve known).

Fast forward to the year 2020 – the global pandemic hit.

Several couples around the world had to postpone their wedding just like us. We were having an intimate elopement on the coast of Monterey, but with the whole world on lock down we couldn’t even do just that. As I see the situation now, it all worked out for the better. Matt and I were still able to have our intimate elopement this year on our 8th year anniversary. We were joined by our closest friends and family in person along with many sweet friends live on zoom.

Our photographer who was also a friend of ours was able to get us this private cherry blossom orchard as our ceremony location. Oh man, if I told you how lucky we got with this location you would be surprise! This location was not ready for our ceremony. Just to list a few things, the grass was HIGH. The blooms weren’t ready. It was raining days before. So many bees, EVERYWHERE!

But it turned out perfect! Two days before our ceremony, the trees were in FULL BLOOM. It was beaming hot and sunny on our ceremony day. All our family that mattered showed up and we were at the perfect location to have our photos and ceremony.

If you know Matt and I, crystals are important to us. We found the best way to incorporate that into our untraditional ceremony. Our friend who was our officiant passed around our big pointed rose quartz to our friends and family who attended so they could wish good intentions for our relationships into the crystal. It was absolutely a wonderful idea and I’ll cherish this moment forever.

Having an intimate wedding and ceremony was everything for us and I’m happy we went with our intuition to do a intimate elopement because it was truly US.