Our Sunrise Wedding

When I awoke at 2:00 a.m. to a storm the morning of my outdoor wedding, I had a few concerns. My main concern was ensuring that our loved ones who – like us – had traveled to St. Augustine for the wedding wouldn’t get drenched from the rain or be blown around in the crazy wind. We were already asking everyone to wake up before sunrise. We didn’t also want to make everyone stand in a torrential downpour on a windy beach.

At 5:00 a.m., I woke up again and heard the rain hitting the roof. We didn’t have any type of formal backup plan, so it was a bit of an uh-oh moment. I decided to start getting dressed and not worry about the weather. If it was still raining at sunrise, we’d surely figure out another plan.

I remember sitting in the living room around six something when my brother-in-law walked inside and said that he saw light peeking through the clouds. That was the first bit of hope I had that the storm would let up. As sunrise neared, my worries about the weather faded in the distance. I finished getting dressed, and with the laughter and support of my twin sister and best friends, I made it out to the beach for our sunrise ceremony.

Our wedding was officiated by Kendal’s childhood best friend, Evan. He did a great job – it was so much fun and such an honor to have a friend lead our ceremony. We kept the actual ceremony very short, as we had an activity planned for everyone before brunch.

Kendal came up with the great idea of having everyone plant sea oats and railroad vines before exiting the beach. He went ahead and got the idea approved by the DEP and ordered the plants from a local nursery. (Big shoutout to Kendal’s parents for traveling with all of the plants and arranging them on the beach for us the morning of the ceremony!)

We didn’t tell many people about the planting portion of the ceremony. Instead, we surprised everyone with the sea oats and railroad vines once they got to the beach.

Of course, it would be difficult to dig the holes for the plants without some garden tools. Kendal ordered these trowels for everyone and had them engraved with our names and the date. They served as unique takeaways for our guests!

The planting was a huge success! Everyone had so much fun and loved the idea. It was also a great way to celebrate Earth Day, which was the following day.

Before heading to brunch, we took a ton of family photos, some of which you can see below. All photos in this blog post are by the talented photographer Cody Coleman of Cody Coleman Photography. I highly recommend working with him!

Thanks for reading about our destination sunrise wedding!

Photographer: Cody Coleman

Dress: Self-Portrait

Shoes: Ted Baker London

Flowers: Flower Works (St. Augustine)

Location: St. Augustine Beach, FL

Thank you to all of our family and friends who traveled to St. Augustine to celebrate with us! We love you all.