Alyjah and Kevin at Edel Haus Farms

How did you meet?
We first met working at Michael’s craft store when I was a teenager. We didn’t talk much but were Facebook friends, and a year later started to realize how much we had in common whenever we commented each other’s posts. We set up a day to hang out and were together nearly every day since.

How did you get engaged?
Kevin and I are wedding photographers, so Kevin had my best friend create a fake email, posing as a client, to set-up an engagement session at a Christmas tree farm in Princeton. I’m obsessed with Christmas, and Kevin knew I always wanted a Christmas-themed proposal. When we arrived, to what I thought was an engagement session for our clients, the trees were decorated with ‘Marry Me’ ornaments and Kevin got down on one knee and proposed with the Heidi Gibson ring of my dreams!

Details of the day!
Ever since middle school, I dreamed of getting married on June 7th – something about the date felt so special. When our 06/07/20 wedding date rolled around, we were stuck at home due to Covid. We had postponed our wedding to August 16th, and when we got the bad news that we’d have to postpone once more, we decided to have a mini wedding on August 16th so that we could be married before our big wedding in 2021. We found Edelhaus Farms and knew that eloping would be extra special if we could run around with alpacas after saying ‘I do’. It rained all morning, and we filled our living room with candles and florals, and got married by my brother standing in front of our fireplace, surrounded by only our parents and my best friends. Right after the ceremony, the sky cleared and there wasn’t a drop of rain during our photos. Our photographer, Jenna Brianne, made the day feel so special as we played with the alpacas and posed in front of the gorgeous barn that just happened to be painted our wedding color.

What was on your menu
After our ceremony and photos, we went to our favorite restaurant – Dock’s Oyster House in Atlantic City.

All about your gown!
I didn’t want to wear my BHLDN wedding gown for our mini-mony, and I’m glad I didn’t because I definitely got plenty of mud on the train of my dress during our photos! I ordered a dress from Baltic Born and went for a vibe completely opposite of what our big wedding will be, so that we could live out every style we love.

What was your favorite moment?
My favorite moment was chasing around the alpacas and feeding them from our hands! I also loved dressing my dad’s French Bulldog in a little white dress we found in the baby section of Target so that she could walk down the aisle with me and my dad as my ‘flower girl’.

One detail you couldn’t live without?
My mom has been collecting brass candlesticks from Habitat for Humanity for me for the past two years to use as decor at my wedding – those candles are what made our ceremony so magical when we had to have it in the living room. They set such a romantic vibe and allowed us to feel like we weren’t just at home.

Did anything go wrong?
Essentially, everything went wrong! From Covid postponing our wedding twice, to rain moving our ceremony indoors. But just as everything went wrong, everything went right, because each detail is part of our story and the pieces that made up what was ultimately such a beautiful day.

Any advice for future brides?
My advice for other brides would be to not throw in the towel when it all becomes too overwhelming. We’ve been planning our wedding since 2017, and when we got the news we had to postpone a second time, just a few weeks before the big day, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t break down. I had stayed positive throughout the whole process, but that second postponement had me bawling my eyes out and positive there would be no wedding at all – but after some much needed tears, I pulled myself together and now I get to have two weddings instead of one. I couldn’t be happier with our decision to have this mini wedding before we could have the big party.