San Diego, California
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Where to even begin?! When Avery first reached out to me, I couldn’t have been more excited — and flattered! Avery is an incredibly talented wedding photographer herself, and it is always such an honor to shoot another wedding creative’s special day. Honestly, it’s also a lot of pressure! Immediately upon hearing Avery’s vision for her San Diego elopement, I was like… I NEED this to be perfect for her. As a photographer who had my own wedding last year, I know what it’s like to be on the other side of things for once and feel the pressure for it to go perfectly according to plan. Of course, all couples want to their wedding day to be perfect but as someone who is at another wedding every weekend, we see a lot and have the highest of expectations for our own celebration!
Avery and Chris are a bi-coastal couple, but with Chris primarily based in San Diego they decided to hold their elopement there. No complaints from me! Although I had never been to San Diego before, I had only heard the most amazing things (primarily about its incredible, year-round beautiful weather). Once we found a date that worked, I booked my flights and Airbnb and started counting down the days!
For anyone who follows me on Instagram, you’ll already know my travel saga leading up to the elopement. Long story short, we were departing out of Newark on Alaska Airlines on a 6:59pm flight the Saturday before the Tuesday elopement. I give myself plenty of buffer days when shooting destination weddings in case of delays. Well, we ended up getting our flight delayed continuously because of maintenance issues until 12:30am the next morning when they finally cancelled it due to the flight crew timing out as we began boarding. It was eventually rescheduled the next day to 12:30pm, so we had to go home (through a torrential thunderstorm, might I add). We woke up the next morning to find it was delayed again until 4:30pm, and when all was said and done we didn’t actually depart until 7:00pm on Sunday — a FULL 24 hours after our originally scheduled departure. Needless to say, I will never fly Alaska Airlines again (despite them giving us flight credits instead of a refund… so helpful).
While it was really unfortunate our trip to San Diego was cut so short — we would literally only be there two full days — the most important aspect of our trip, Avery and Chris’s elopement, was uninterrupted. Although we didn’t get to experience the beautiful San Diego weather everyone always talks about (it was pretty cloudy for most of the two days we were there) it was still so much fun to see a new place, and even more fun shooting there!
Avery and Chris chose to get ready for their wedding day together, which I absolutely love. They chose the beautiful Orli La Jolla as their wedding day hotel, and it was a stunning space. While Avery finished up hair and makeup, Chris steamed her veil and I styled their exquisite invitation suite. Avery stepped into her dress privately and the two shared an emotional first look before Chris helped her finish getting ready, zipping her dress and helping her step into her shoes. They spent a few moments quietly listening to a custom record Avery had created for Chris, and then before we knew it we were off to Balboa Park for photos with their sweet furbaby!
Although we did hit some unsurprising SoCal traffic, we were able to shoot in Balboa Park for a few minutes and I had the pleasure of meeting Skype, Chris and Avery’s six year old Golden Retriever. He posed like a pro with his parents, and soon we were headed for Sunset Cliffs for the two to exchange vows.
Sunset Cliffs is truly what photographers’ dreams are made of. With a beautiful landscape and insane views, it was truly the perfect setting for these two to privately share vows and make their union official. Although we didn’t get an actual sunset, the soft diffused light created such a serene ambiance. Beyond the stunning views, Avery had also arranged a vintage Porsche for photos as well as styled picnic for their cake cutting! I literally felt like I was photographing an editorial, but it was even better because these two were actually celebrating their love.
I couldn’t be more grateful for Avery and Chris to have trusted me to document this special day for them (and for flying me across the country), and I will be forever dreaming about this incredible experience with them! Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Kimbrell!
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Vendors:
Photography: Jill Sahner Photography
Videographer: Josh Medlin
Makeup: Kyla Stuart Makeup
Hair: Blushin Babe Beauty
Florist: Angelical Flowers
Gown: Ava Laurenne Bride
Stationery: Elephant Limbo
Cake: All That Cake
Vintage Car: Seaside Classics
Picnic: Picnic by Nature
Suit: Indochino
Lashes: Jordan Lashes
Esthetician: NDH Skin
Boutique Hotel: Olri La Jolla
