Nicole and Pace’s Sonoita Elopement at Her Grandparents’ Home

A look into this Sonoita elopement at Nicole’s grandparents’ home, shot on digital and film.

A few weeks before their wedding day, Nicole and Pace drove down to southern Arizona to “elope” in Sonoita. Her grandparents weren’t able to travel for their official wedding, so the couple brought the wedding to them — right to their backyard.

Her grandparents moved to Sonoita a few decades earlier and built this place from the ground up. Every detail, every painting, every tchotchke felt like getting a peek into Walt and Nancy’s very own time capsule. I loved listening to Nicole talk about their family trips here — building forts up on the hill, playing with the fish in the pond, riding the tractor around the yard.

That morning, Nicole and Pace got ready together in the same room where her and her cousins used to squeeze in for sleepovers — bunk beds still in tact with the familiar 90s style bedding, home videos on VHS still lined up on the bookshelf.

Walt came dressed in his best suit, Nancy in her pearls, and they picked a spot by the flower beds in the backyard to watch Nicole and Pace read their vows for the first time.

Afterwards, they celebrated with cake and champagne for breakfast, and ended the morning by picking an album from her grandparents’ (very curated and very organized) CD collection and practiced their first dance. Her grandparents’ even got up for a song and taught them a trick or two.

(Nicole also surprised her grandpa with a belated birthday gift; the only thing he wanted — a framed photo of her LinkedIn profile picture.)

It’s such a privilege, to witness love like this. A marriage that’s stood the test of time, and one that’s just beginning.