A Private-Home Elopement in Antioch, Arrived by Limo

An Intimate Home Ceremony

The ceremony was in the backyard, the two of them standing in front of the family and friends they'd chosen to bring into it. The officiant the team had found for them led the vows, the detail the couple came back to afterward, the person who married them turning out to be exactly right.

An intimate home ceremony in the East Bay asks for less choreography and gives back more of the day. Everyone there was close enough to hear every word, and there was nowhere anyone had to be but present for it.

“Even down to finding the perfect officiant, every single detail was covered.”

Family in the Backyard

Family portraits happened in the yard after the ceremony, no move required, everyone was already exactly where they needed to be. Antioch sits in the East Bay along the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, one of the oldest towns in Contra Costa County, and on a July afternoon the light held long enough to get through the groupings without anyone hurrying.

A backyard elopement keeps the people close together, which is most of the point. The portraits came easy because the whole group fit in one frame.

Dinner at Home, Then the Limo

Dinner carried the evening in the backyard, a plated meal, a cake, and the small crowd they'd brought together settling in as the light went. The florals that framed the ceremony carried over to the tables, and the day slowed into the part they'd been looking forward to: time with the people who'd come.

When it was over, the limo was waiting at the curb. Tyra and Robert climbed in and it carried them off from their own front door, the last detail of a day they never had to run themselves.