Whimsical Beach Elopement in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara Beach//Jelena & Aashil chose to elope on the beach in Santa Barbara with their fur baby Rosie. We chose a spot near the stairs leading down from Shoreline Park, which also wasn’t too far from the popular Thousand Steps Beach. The couple had met on a group travel trip to Thailand ; Aashil was traveling with his befriend, and Jelena joined the group as a solo traveler. They had remained friends after their trip to Thailand, but at the time Aashil was living in Delaware and Jelena in Arizona. They knew long distance wouldn’t work, but a year later they had begun to talk more and make plans to meet up again. This all happened right before the COVID pandemic, and Aashil was able to work from home which meant he could visit Jelena in Phoenix, Arizona. Eventually they made the leap and moved to Los Angeles to take the next step in their relationship. They decided to elope while in Santa Barbara, and were planning to have a wedding celebration later with their friends and family. There had been a little bit of rain on my drive up to Santa Barbara from Los Angeles, but thankfully it had cleared out by the time we started the ceremony. I love capturing wedding ceremonies in Santa Barbara, and as a wedding photographer I love to capture all of the amazing moments during an elopement. I hope to have the opportunity to capture more destination weddings and elopements in the future!

See Jelena & Aashil’s Elopement Gallery Below

Melissa Rodriguez Photography is a Los Angeles based wedding and portrait photographer. She focuses on documenting the lives of couples at the beginning of their grandest adventure. Melissa is driven to create something gorgeous, powerful, romantic and authentic with her couples; such as with these elopement photos in Santa Barbara.