Juli & Sammy’s Magical Waterfall Destination Wedding Elopement in Costa Rica
It’s only been about a week and half since we were in Costa Rica celebrating Juli & Sammy’s Destination Wedding Elopement and I cannot tell you how amazing it was to be there to witness and capture!
I’ll never forget the morning I woke up to a text from Juli asking if I was busy December 29th, me saying no, and her saying wanna go to Costa Rica??
Ummm yes please!
And a few short months later Juli and Sammy had the whole thing planned out!
They found the perfect spot to have a Destination Wedding Elopement in the Catarata Del Toro Adventures at their Blue Falls area. And when I saw the pictures I knew this was going to be amazing.
Getting to Costa Rica proved to be an adventure in and of itself…
Shortly after we arrived on Thursday morning for our 7:30am flight the whole airport was grounded due to weather. Our flight was delayed till 8:00am. This doesn’t seem like too big of a deal, except that our connecting flight only had a 38min layover…yea.
I went up to the desk where they informed me that I wouldn’t be flying out that day unless I wanted to be stuck in Orlando…
Our options: Stand by the next day, or refund. Obviously we took the stand by option.
Day two, let’s try this again!
We arrive and cross our fingers that we are going to get on the flight to Ft Lauderdale this time.
They begin to board…then they call for two volunteers to reroute their trip as they are overbooked, offer vouchers etc.
I look at Chris and say “yea, we aren’t getting on this flight if they are paying people to leave”.
So I stand up at the desk, just waiting for everyone to clear to see what our options are.
As they board the last people, a flight attendant comes back and says “We have a seat!”
There were 3 of us on standby. And we happened to be the first ones in line, but it was only one seat.
Chris and I had already discussed what would happen if they only had one seat. We knew this was a possibility. We had decided I would take it. It’s my sisters Wedding, and I’m the photographer! So we told them we wanted it and I would be going by myself…. I literally started tearing up at this point. I was sleep deprived and just wanted to be able to enjoy this with my husband!
As I got on the plane, another flight attendant walked up and said “we have one more seat!” Flight Attendant 1: Go get her husband!
Me: His name is Chris
Flight Attendant 1: The one with the beard!
And then I was crying tears of joy!!
We both made that flight, spent 6 hours in Ft. Lauderdale just hanging out until our 11pm flight, and landed safe and sound in Costa Rica at 1am!
The next morning we woke up super early to get started with all things wedding. We packed our bags to be able to hike, started taking “Getting Ready” pictures of Juli & Sammy (made it real easy since we were staying in the same house!) and prepared for a full day of fun!
Riding up there was crazy for this girl! I have a crazy fear of heights, and we had to drive up a mountain with roads that were basically straight up and down, with hair pin turns…if you watched my stories you saw that I videoed it without looking! Haha!
But we arrived in one piece, and got on the trail.
Y’all, this place was incredibly beautiful! I can’t even begin to explain in words…pictures will have to do;)
Juli and Sammy took us to a secluded spot with a smaller waterfall behind them as the special spot where they chose to do their Ceremony.
A hush came over us all as we watched Juli come down the stairs, and walk towards Sammy. She looked incredibly stunning in her mermaid style dress that fit her so perfectly. She wore our Grammy’s diamond heart necklace as her something old and borrowed. It had been a gift from our PawPaw, she wanted to have a piece of them both there with her. She carried a bouquet of florals that we foraged from our airbnb that morning on our way out the door, the bouquet couldn’t have been more perfect.
They spoke words of blessing, did a hand washing ceremony, said their vows and sealed it with a kiss. It was beautiful and so incredibly sweet.
After the Ceremony we hiked to another bigger waterfall for a few more portraits, and for them to JUMP IN the blue water! It was cold. It was not warm in the least, and they didn’t care! They jumped in and we took a few minutes to grab some amazing pictures of the two of them in that water. It was all so magical and wonderful and I am forever grateful that I was able to be there.
Juli, thank you so much for having us there, for always being there for me, and for being the best little sister a girl could ask for. Love you more than you know!
Sammy, thank you for loving my sister so incredibly well! We are so excited to have you in our family, our kids love their Uncle Sammy! I’m so happy to call you my brother!
We love you both so much, and are excited to see where life takes you.
Ceremony Venue | Catarata Del Toro Blue Falls of Costa Rica
Reception Venue | Rancho San Rafael Heredia
Reception Coordinating | Rancho San Rafael Heredia
The Dress | Dressy Woman
Rings | The Jewelry Store
Invitation Suite | Minted
The Wedding Crew!
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