A 12-Guest Dana Point Gazebo Coastal Elopement

Getting Ready for a Dana Point Gazebo Coastal Elopement

Natalie got ready in a hotel room by the water, padding around in fuzzy white slippers while her hair went up in a soft, curled updo pinned with a pearl. Her gown was a white halter with a crossover neckline and a fine beaded belt, and over it she wore a long cathedral veil scattered with dimensional flower appliqués down both edges — worn forward, it fell like a cape. Her mother, in lavender sequins, helped her with the halter tie, and a bridesmaid in pink stayed close, the room full of laughing.

Her bouquet, from The Bloom of Time, was a hand-tied gather of ranunculus, roses, and sweet pea in pink, blush, peach, and lavender, with pops of light blue, its stems wrapped in ivory satin ribbon and pinned with pearls. Greg dressed in a sage-green suit with a pink floral tie, a boutonniere built to match her bouquet. Out at the bluff, the same florals dressed the gazebo — a lush swag of peach, apricot, and blue delphinium worked loose across its entrance, greenery running gestural through the blooms.

The Ceremony at the Gazebo, Palisades Park

The gazebo sits right at the edge of the bluff — a circular white structure with square pillars, a wooden spoke roof, and a curved built-in bench following the ring of it, the Pacific and a line of palms filling the view past the rose beds. Natalie and Greg had their first look there before the ceremony, and Greg turned to see her come in under the flowered arch, the ocean bright behind.