Two years before standing on the whitewashed cliffs of Oia in a wedding gown, Tish saved a photo of Santorini to a digital vision board on August 16, 2022. It wasn’t until she was deep in the wedding planning process with her fiancé, Weston, that she happened to check the timestamp on that original photo. The date saved was August 16th, the exact calendar day they had chosen for their nuptials years later.

“I immediately burst into tears,” Tish recalls. “My past self had been quietly manifesting this for my future.”

For Tish and Weston, whose relationship began with a chance encounter in Fort Lauderdale and a bold cross-state move six months later, a traditional large-scale wedding was never the goal. “We knew from the start that a traditional wedding wasn’t for us — the stress, the guest lists, the pressure of performing for a room full of people,” Tish says. “Our relationship had always been something we kept close — private, a little mysterious, just ours. Eloping in secret felt less like a workaround and more like the most ‘us’ thing we could have done.”

With no large crowd to accommodate, the couple searched for an Airbnb capable of doing double duty as both luxury accommodations and a backdrop worthy of their vows. They selected a historic cave home built directly into the cliffside of Oia, accessible only via a steep, ten-minute climb up narrow stairs from the main street. Booking it completely sight unseen, the reality surpassed their expectations. “The moment we arrived and settled in, I was convinced we were looking at a green screen,” Tish says. “The caldera view was simply not real.”

While the rental provided daily breakfast and a hot tub tucked into the cave wall, the highlight of check-in was entirely unscripted. Shortly after arriving, a local stray cat wandered up to their terrace. After receiving a bit of cheese and attention, she left, only to return five minutes later carrying four newborn kittens.

On the morning of the wedding, photographer Meagan Lawler guided the couple out into Oia at 5:00 AM, hours before the island awoke. “We wandered through the silent streets of Oia in our gown and suit, shoes off, with nothing but a few stray cats, chirping birds, and the sound of the ocean breeze,” Tish recalls. “The whole town was still asleep. And we stood in the exact spot that I had only dreamt of on the exact day years prior.”

Rather than investing in temporary decor or lots of florals, the couple focused their energy and funds on outfit changes. “Each outfit told a different part of the story,” Tish says, “and switching it up kept the day feeling fresh and fun rather than one long production.”

The ceremony itself was split into two distinct, meaningful moments. First, Santorini’s sole official wedding celebrant performed the legal ceremony against the backdrop of the rising sun over the caldera. “The officiant’s accent made focusing on every word an adventure in itself — we had a few giggles trying to follow along — but that only made it feel more alive,” Tish says. Once the paperwork was finalized, the officiant stepped away, leaving Tish and Weston alone on the terrace to read private vows they had written to one another the night prior under a full moon.

Pulling off an international elopement without prior site visits required total trust in their vendor team. Local planner Maria of Jasmine + Mint Boutique Events walked the Florida-based couple through foreign marriage documentation and accompanied them to the local courthouse on the wedding day to ensure proper filing.

Looking back on their secret escape, Tish’s advice for couples considering a similar path comes down to intentionality: “Simplify and delegate. Strip it back to what actually matters to you both, and let go of the rest… Find your people and trust them completely.”