Vanessa + Matt ⎢ Palm Springs Elopement

June 18, 2020

I don’t even know where to begin with these two! Back in March (literally the week that Covid broke out), I attended Rooted – a workshop started by Dani Purington and led by herself, Alyssa, Shannon, and Whitley all of who are AMAZING photographers and all have one major thing in common- the foundation of Christ. I had known I wanted to attend this workshop for a while as this was a chance to connect with other Christian girls in the photography industry and spend several days building relationships, learning, growing, and ultimately expanding my business through education. This was months in the making since I had bought tickets in August of last year and the workshop dates were set for this March.

Well fast forward to the week of the workshop and going into it there was a worldwide pandemic building and increasing, leaving each day with unknown circumstances for what this rapidly spreading virus was going to do and how it would affect this workshop. Day 1 and all of us girls arrived eager and hopeful for what the week held. We were all excited that despite the downfall of Coronavirus, we had this workshop as an outlet of excitement and distraction for what was going on, HOWEVER things took a turn very quickly!

Going into the first gathering where all of us girls sat down in the living room to kick off the workshop, the leaders advised us that they were at the mercy of state and city regulations and guidelines on how to best navigate the situation we were in and that they wanted to do right by God and by authority as to whatever that would look like during the week, which was very noble and the hardest decision they had to make. But ultimately they wanted to do what was best for all of us and our health and safety. Unfortunately, the county of Riverside issued a Stay at Home Order within the first 24 hours of us arriving, meaning we had to pack in as much education as we could into 1 day before we all had to depart back home. And we made it happen with the limited time we had! The leaders separated us into smaller groups and divided us by houses and taught their lectures multiple times in order for all of us to get all of the information and education they presented.

We were originally suppose to have a total of 3 styled shoots, but with the week coming to an urgent halt AND models cancelling, due to the dangers of Covid and precautions that were being instated, all of the shoots of course couldn’t pan out the way they wanted. Things were taking a turn every couple of minutes but ENTER VANESSA & MATT! They were the floral husband-wife team from Cultivated by Faith who were there to design and set up the flowers, however they instantly became the go-to models for our styled elopement shoot and they KILLED IT (as you can see below)!!

These two were high school sweethearts with such a cute story to tell! They were the couple where the guy wanted the girl, but the girl thought she should see what else the world offered, soon realizing that all she really wanted was the guy that never left her…straight out of a movie!! After a little while, Vanessa went on to date other people but eventually came back to Matt and they ended up getting married! They’ve been married for 2 years now and they just had their vowel renewal to re-establish their love for each other and solidify their vows after being together for so long mixed with growth and change.

So after setting up the beautiful floral arrangements they quickly showered and changed into a stunning dress and tux that couldn’t have been more perfect for them! They went from setting up to becoming the most authentic and real models and saved the day for our styled shoot! The only one we had during this trip and it couldn’t have been better!

Everything about this setup was so dreamy…you’d never know it took place in our Airbnb driveway 😉 And getting to attend Rooted even for all of the 36 short hours that it ended up being, my life and business were changed forever! The leaders and the girls that I got to meet and spend a crazy whirlwind of a time with are some of the best people and I am so thankful for each one of them. It’s incredible what can happen when you invest in your education and in the community that the photography world offers!

I can’t thank the following vendors enough for pulling together and making this shoot so magical! Check them out on Instagram! You won’t regret it!