Payton and Ashley met during their junior year of high school and started dating soon after. Not only are they high school sweethearts, but they are each other’s first and only boyfriend and girlfriend! How sweet is that?! Over the years as Payton slowly began to plan how he was going to propose, he started collecting hints on what kind of ring Ashley would like based on things she had mentioned to him. The proposal took place at the Butterfly Beach and man oh man was it STUNNING. From the get go we have LOVED this couple and we had been looking forward to their wedding day ever since we met them for the first time!

The wedding day started off with all of the girls getting ready together. The atmosphere was so chill, mellow, and full of laughter. Ashley, who is wise beyond her years, had everything all planned out and organized perfectly. As she was getting her hair done, we were gawking over her gorgeous, long hair. Then we found out that she grows it out and then donates it to locks of love. It is the perfect picture of how kind, caring, and overall incredible she is. Payton surprised her with gift that morning, which was a Bible that had her name on it! So thoughtful! After that, her sister surprised her with a lovely Tiffany’s rose gold and pearl bracelet that she ended up wearing on the wedding day. Talk about perfect wedding day gifts!

After Ashley finished getting ready, Jess walked her down the stairs to the first look. As they were walking, Ashley told us that she had been telling Payton for months that her dress was hot pink and covered in feathers! Although Payton knew that she was lying, he really had no idea what her dress was going to look like. This made the moment when he turned around and saw her for the first time absolutely priceless. His reaction was perfect and they both laughed, cried, and hugged. It was such a beautiful moment to get to watch two people who are clearly best friends share in together. They have absolutely found their match!!

The ceremony took place at a family friend’s private estate. Payton and Ashley stood on a set of stairs on top of a rock formation during the beautiful ceremony. They exchanged heartfelt, personal vows that left us all in tears!! Cocktail hour followed, which took place at the top of the hill and then everyone transitioned to the reception which was on the lower part of the property.

During the reception, the bride’s sister gave an amazing speech. She is 9 years older than the bride, and she joked that she’s even though she’s the older sister, she’s always considered Ashley to be her “mom” since she was born. She said she knows Ashley will take such great care of Payton, because she’s already such a good “mom”. Since Ashley and Payton have been together for eight years, she also joked that she’s really surprised they decided to get married so fast, and how impressed she was that they pulled everything together so quickly…since they had been together so long everyone thought it was hilarious!!

After the speeches, everybody worked their way over to the dance floor. Payton and Ashley decided to do an anniversary dance where they had all the married couples come out to the dance floor. They first had people who had been married five years leave the dance floor, then 10, then 15, and so on. The couple who had been married the longest was married 42 years. The DJ, DJ Hecktik, asked them to give some marriage advice. Their marriage advice was simple: “Marry your best friend (which Payton and Ashley definitely did), never go to bed angry, and wake up every morning by saying I love you to each other. We’ve been doing that for 42 years and it worked well for us!!” So sweet and such good advice!! DJ Hecktik did an amazing job keeping the dance floor packed the rest of the night, and we whisked Payton and Ashley away for some sunset photos with the beautiful Santa Barbara mountains in the background! It was such a beautiful day and we are so excited to share the photos with you!

Location: Private Estate
Coordination: SB Wedding Coordinator
DJ: Dj Hecktik 
Florals: Christina Welch Floral
Dress: The Dress Bride by Martina Liana
Shoes: Badgley Mischka

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave