We live in a time that more people are eloping because of the expense of a wedding. However, you can still have beautiful pictures! Joy & Dustin from Louisiana decided to get married at the Sand Rock Farm here in Aptos, California. Dustin’s parents decided they wanted to watch their son get married, so it was just the four of them.

It was possible to do about an hour shoot with them after the ceremony at this lovely venue and I later told Joy that the advantage she had (besides saving money) was that they got to have a whole hour of couple photos, whereas at a wedding of several hours with more than 40 people, it’s typical to only have about 15 to 20 minutes of the bride and groom alone.

Joy also shared that their families decided to give them a party when they got home, so it sounded like it was the best of 2 worlds!