#SMITHSGONEMILD: A Major Plot Twist in Wedding Plans

Sometimes when real life hits you smack dab in the face, you might be left announcing a major plot twist in wedding plans. That’s exactly what happened to us, so grab a cup of coffee and brace yourselves for this one– we’ve decided to cancel the Harbour Island destination wedding plan.

Before I get too chatty, we did a TON of debating back and forth before coming to this decision. At the end of day, we feel a huge sense of peace about it! Amid several family circumstances, all of the planning and trying to coordinate people on a little island etc, it was best to start over and make it simple again.

The whole point of wanting to have a super small destination wedding to begin with was so that it would be intimate, genuine, and simple. I won’t go into detail about family circumstances, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t worth the planning and money if the people we loved most couldn’t be there with us or feel isolated by not being able to manage the trip. We no longer have the energy to start from scratch again, so instead we’ll be eloping with just our parents and siblings by our side, and we couldn’t be happier!

I wanted to wait to tell you until we had a new plan in place (hence my lack of wedding updates recently!), which depended a lot on how much, or how little, of our deposits we would get back from the original plans. We’ve finally decided on exchanging vows in White Sands, NM, and going on an extended honeymoon instead.

While I/we have ideas for White Sands, I still wanted to show you the original mood board with inspiration that the ladies and I at Two Be Wed came up with for Harbour Island, plus show you our original wedding invites! Hopefully it will give some of you ideas for your future destination wedding. Be sure to think of me and what would have been, haha!

Because we already had a lot of things ordered/picked out, we’ll still be using a lot of the same tabletop items (for a small cocktail and bites setup after our vows!), same dress/suit, same color scheme, etc. I don’t want to kill too much of the surprise, but it will definitely still look familiar to the mood board once you see it! It will just be much, much smaller.

These are also the original fabric swatches, gold and marbles tones, BHLDN coupes, and invites (here and here from Minted) that we’re still sticking with. I’m still equally excited to see it all come together, and even though we won’t be vacationing with our families and close friends in Harbour Island for the wedding week, we’re still hoping to get to go back this year to celebrate anyways.

This wasn’t exactly meant to be a mic drop/shocking moment, BUT, it was definitely unforeseen to all of us. We feel really grateful for all of the love and understanding we’ve received though! We’re all about pretty photos and occasions as much as the next blogger couple (ha!), but what’s most important to us is the meaning behind what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it. I’m really glad that Jared and I are connected and centered enough to be willing to stand together in a decision like this based on love and sincerity, even if that means overcoming a few obstacles along the way.

I also hope some of you that are planning your weddings feel a little peace in knowing that we all go through a million different plans and changes before coming to one set course that works for each of us! Stay tuned for more eloping plans/inspo soon!

For those of you wanting more to follow along with, we’re headed for my girls weekend/bachelorette trip this week, so be sure to follow along on Instagram/IG stories!

Please note that we may earn a commission for some of the above affiliate links. However, products featured are independently selected and personally well-loved by us!