Max and Lauren // Santa Barbara Courthouse Elopement

Max & Lauren in Santa Barbara at college and have been together ever since.

I was lucky enough to meet Max last year while we staffed a Birthright trip to Israel, and I was SO grateful to have his calm, calculated, brilliant mind as my sidekick. We faced a boat-load of challenges along the trip, and he was always my rational, helpful right-hand man.

On our trip, Max told me about recently proposing to his girlfriend at a concert. He told me about how he and Lauren are SUPER casual, low-key people (no surprise after getting to know him), and that they would likely plan a small intimate wedding.

I was thrilled when he asked me to capture their Santa Barbara Courthouse elopement, and excited to see him after the year we’d spent on opposite ends of California.

Their elopement was simple, elegant, and personal. At a record-breaking 3 minute ceremony, family & friends gathered at the bell tower (many dressed in street clothes since the elopement guest limit is, like, 12) to watch Max & Lauren put each other’s wedding rings on the wrong hands. It was a crack-up mistake that they’ll be laughing about for years.

When the ceremony was over, we walked around the beautiful venue to capture some images of just the two of them. It was lovely to spend the afternoon with two down-to-earth, kind & gentle humans who found each other in Santa Barbara & returned to their roots to say “I do.”