Groom picking up bride and pushing her against a wall in an alleyway

Saint Augustine Beach Elopement | Jessica + Gary

Florida Elopements

January 26, 2022

Jessica and Gary’s Saint Augustine beach elopement was utter magic!

Jessica and I met when she was a bridesmaid for one of her best friend’s weddings earlier in 2021 and I instantly loved her vibe. We’ve been following each other ever since and when I saw that her and Gary got engaged, I literally manifested that she would have me do her wedding! Not only are Jessica and Gary one steamy tattooed couple, but they’re so in love, so genuine, and so down to earth that having them join the Hazography fam would have been an a true honor.

Jessica planned for an intimate ceremony on Saint Anastasia State Park with a few close friends and family. She entrusted me to plan the post-ceremony photos and I wanted to make it extra epic. While planning our photo route, I wanted to hit on some of Saint Augustine’s most popular spots. I researched a number of popular Saint Augustine locations and the day before I drove around to the different options with stops at the Saint Augustine Lighthouse, Saint George Street, Saint Anastasia State Park, Castillo De San Marcos national monument, Saint Augustine Distillery, Flagler College, and National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche Chapel.

Based on my recommendations, Jessica and Gary loved the idea of making stops at Saint George Street, Saint Augustine Distillery, and walking some parts of Night of Lights. The entire vibe of the evening was go with the flow.

With the Night of Lights traffic being horrendous, there was two minutes left until closing at the Distillery, but I was not about to let that keep us from trying to snap some amazing pictures. The stars aligned for Jess and Gary because we were met by the distillery general manager who was gracious enough to give us a quick, private tour of the distillery. We were able to pack in a quick history tour, distillery walk through, and whiskey sampling within 10 minutes!

While photo scouting, I saw this amazing black barn next to the distillery that just screamed photo op. To really emphasize on it, Jessica and Gary popped champagne, pretend to be cheerleaders, and drink champagne before our next hike to Night of Lights.

Night of Lights was insanely crowed per the usge, but that added to the overall vibe. It was perfect, too, since Jessica really wanted to take photos in her dress in NYC so this brought a little bit of that vibe into the photos.

I’m not sure if it was the shots or the champagne, but Gary started coming up with these bomb photo ideas and I was here for it. He really wanted a shot in front of the Night of Lights sign that was on the way to the Tini Martini. Since they discovered the art of the dirty martini on this trip, Gary wanted to stop there for a final photo hoorah and introduce me to the dirty martini.

Like a dirty martini, this elopement was classic, unique, and full of good times. Nights like these are what I live for and couples like Jessica and Gary make this job so much fucking fun. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Drotleff for having me join in on the fun!

Want to see what we can do for your Saint Augustine beach elopement? Reach out and let’s send it!