Sarah and Tyler wanted a small and intimate destination wedding, so when it came time to plan they both decided on a place they loved — California.  

The next step was choosing where in California was the perfect place to tie the knot. Through word of mouth they chose Big Sur, and as they did more and more research on the location they fell more and more in love with the idea of hosting a Big Sur destination wedding.

Halfway through their planning process, they discovered that distant family had a vacation home at Big Sur. If anything was telling them they chose the perfect destination, this was it.

The rest of the planning process went quite similarly to discovering their venue, simple and easy. The couple ran into no issues when planning their destination wedding.

The couple attributes the stress-free experience to keeping the wedding simple and small. Most of the research they conducted prior to the wedding was reading blog posts from other couples who tied the knot at Big Sur.

Many people pitched in to make the wedding perfect for the bride and groom. The bride’s sister handmade the couple’s vow books and the bride’s mother and sister made the bride’s headpiece and veil. Also, even the bouquet was DIY, created from fresh flowers from Whole Foods.

The travel also went smoothly for everyone. Most of the guests flew into the location except for the groom’s sister who drove with her husband and four young children.

The bride’s sister originally was going to be unable to attend the wedding, but with the help of the photographer, the sister surprised the bride in California.

Everything came together on the big day, and the couple says they believe the wedding would have been a lot more stressful if they had a hometown wedding. The couple did not have many vendors, which also kept to the simplicity of the wedding.

The bride advises destination couples to remember that the wedding is about the bride and groom. She also says not to worry about the weather, it always works out in the end!

Vendors: Photographer: River West Photography, Reception Dinner: Nepenthe in Big Sur, Florist: Fresh flowers from Whole Foods, Groom’s Clothing Designer: Suit from Macys