{Positano Elopement Wedding Photography | Destination Wedding Photography} – With over 10 years of photographing destination elopements, Casey and Andrews’ Positano Elopement Wedding was one of the most beautiful weddings I’ve ever photographed. They had an intimate civil destination wedding in Positano. Both are from California. I got to know them well as I also photographed their engagement in Palm Springs, California.
So for all the couples out there who want to have a destination elopement in Italy with a civil ceremony, you’ll find tons of inspiration from Casey and Andrew.
Let’s hear it from Casey, the Bride:
What inspired you to choose to do a destination wedding in Italy?
Honestly the cost of hosting a wedding in California was the first thing that made us seek alternatives overseas. A 150+ person wedding would have set us back way more money than we were willing to spend so we decided to do a complete 180 and have an intimate ceremony thousands of miles from home in Positano.
In what ways did you personalize your wedding day?
I feel like everything about our wedding day was so personal and specific to us. I guess the thing that stands out the most as being personal is that Andrew and I wrote our own wedding vows to read to each other and each chose a reading that we felt described the love we feel for one another. Andrew chose an excerpt from the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I chose Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda. Both of these couldn’t be more perfect and are pieces we can read when things aren’t going “perfectly” to remind ourselves just how deep our love runs.
What were your favorite wedding day details?
The wedding certificate that Andrew and I had commissioned was by far my favorite detail. It is a piece that we wrote and designed together. It has symbols of California on one side (my home state), Oregon on the other (his home state), Positano at the top, and our dog Ella at the bottom. It is all woven together in a circle by roses and poppies (OR and CA state flowers) and artfully represents our coming together as couple. Each of our guests signed it as a show of their support for our union and will hang in our home as a constant reminder of the love we felt on our wedding day.
Did you have any DIY (do it yourself) details?
If so please, explain below. Having a destination wedding made DIYing a bit of challenge, but I wanted a few personal touches so I designed a few banners, the programs, and the menus to help tie everything together. One of my favorites was our tiny “Mr. & Mrs.” cake banner. Our amazing tiramisu wedding cake was topped with a handmade banner and tiny wooden figurines that I ordered from Etsy of Andrew and I, plus our dog Ella since she couldn’t make it on our Italian adventure.
Tell us a little bit about how you chose your invitations, flowers, venue, and dress:
Even though it involved a few additional steps, we chose to legally marry in Italy, instead of having a symbolic ceremony. With that said, having a legal official marry us was part of the deal and lucky for us the town hall, or “commune”, in Positano is a beautiful place complete with a gorgeous view of the town and the sea. Our cocktail hour was held at ______ on the beach, which gave us the opportunity to fun photos with ocean and all of the colorful buildings in Positano as our backdrop. Finally, our reception was held at La Tagliata, an amazing farm-to-table, family owned and operated restaurant high in the hills to give us just one more perspective of the town and all its beauty.
There was no trick to choosing the dress… I literally tried it on and just knew it was the one. The veil was something I wasn’t sure I wanted, but am so glad I purchased because it ended up being a fun piece that really came through in the photos.
Choosing everything else from flowers, to invitations was just about keeping it simple. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking for inspiration and sending those photos to our wedding planner hoping that he could (and he did) make my ideas come to life.
Overall, do you have any special advice you would like to share with other brides to help prepare them for their destination wedding?
Remember that there is only so much you can control and try not to lose sleep (like I did) about the things you can’t. Choose a great team that you can trust so that you feel at east and enjoy the process. Slow down, breathe deep, and savor each and every moment because even when you do, do those things it will still fly by.
Is there anything else you would like to share from your big day?
We opted for a “unplugged” ceremony for a couple of reasons. For one, we didn’t want our photos to be pictures of people of taking pictures. Second, and more importantly, we really wanted everyone to soak up the moment, the words, and the love with us without the distraction of cameras or phones. It is not often that we are able to just be in the moment anymore and this little request really helped to make us and everyone with us more present both mentally and physically.
