Dani and Nicole had a true, run-away-to-New Orleans elopement that embodied what elopements should feel like!

While Nicole had grown up around the New Orleans area, Dani is originally from Bend, OR. They both individually ended up in Austin as adults, however this is not where their paths crossed! It wouldn’t be until they would both individually move to Arkansas where they’d finally end up meeting at a drag show. The two instantly hit it off, and they became pretty serious from the start!

Fast forward to this summer, they decided to get married. The couple originally planned for a larger wedding, but ended up changing plans, ditching the big wedding and running away to New Orleans to elope.

A True Elopement in New Orleans

While their elopement wasn’t full of elaborate florals, traditional wedding clothes, or fine dining meals, it was full of the thing that mattered, which was they had to get married.

In the aftermath of the pandemic that put large events on the back burner, micro weddings and elopements have both increased in popularity but also in how elaborate they can be! In my opinion, one positive outcome of the pandemic was that couples realized there wasn’t just one way they could get married, and many have opted for incredibly personalized elopements and micro weddings. While I absolutely love this trend, elopements have become more planned and less spontaneous, which somewhat deviates from their origin. 

Dani and Nicole however opted for an elopement to New Orleans that truly embodies the definition of eloping. They did everything on the spot, including purchasing their rings in New Orleans and hiring their officiant the day before the ceremony!

Modern Elopement in New Orleans

In the aftermath of the pandemic that put large events on the back burner, micro weddings and elopements have both increased in popularity but also in how elaborate they can be! In my opinion, one positive outcome of the pandemic was that couples realized there wasn’t just one way they could do a wedding, and many have opted for incredibly personalized elopements and micro weddings. While I absolutely love this trend, elopements have become more planned and less spontaneous, which somewhat deviates from their origin. 

Dani and Nicole however, opted for a true, last minute elopement to New Orleans where many specific details were left unplanned. They only priority for them was to get married (and also have incredible photos :)). The couple gave me a lot of creative freedom in the photos, which made my job easy and a lot of fun!

We started the day off at their eclectic airbnb in the Marigny, where we took some portraits inside since it was a million degrees that day! After the portraits inside, we went outside for some quick portraits before the start of the ceremony.

Elopement in the Marigny

Because it was a quick ceremony, we made a last minute decision to have it in front of the Marigny Opera House since the light was perfect at this time! Nicole and Dani had two witnesses and an officiant to round out their guests present.

After making it official with the ceremony, we went back to the airbnb, which was right across from the Opera House, for some celebratory drinks. We ended our time together with some final portraits with the beautiful golden light.

As a creator, the biggest take away from Dani + Nicole’s last minute elopement to New Orleans is that it doesn’t have to be elaborate to be meaningful and beautiful. These are some of my favorite images that I’ve captured recently, and I truly believe a large part of that is because of how real the day felt with these two.

When you strip everything that is “traditional” or standard about weddings away, when you are left with a clear image of love, it’s hard to capture anything but moving images.

Interested in seeing more inspiration for last minute elopements to New Orleans? Check out this blog post!