Laura & Justin

The cascading waterfall in a hidden Ubud spot was the most incredible backdrop for today’s elopement. The newlyweds, who cast their eye far and wide across the world, searching for that perfect spot to say their vows, landed on beautiful Bali.  Captured  by Maria Shiriaeva Photography, it was a day of romance, of beautiful intention and of a love story that was beautifully told.

Laura tells the tale of how they met. “We met at school just a few months before graduating and things evolved pretty fast with us living together abroad within the same year.
Justin proposed five years later in Paris during the sunset by the river with Eiffel Tower lighting up. He did really well and caught me completely by surprise.”

The couple chose Bali for their elopement after a detailed search, Laura explaining “We were engaged for more than a year and struggled to start planning out our big day. After many conversations over long walks by the beach, we came to the conclusion that the standard wedding scenario was not really for us. We started searching online for elopement weddings and other people’s experiences. We looked at Central America, Mauritius, Maldives, Jamaica, Thailand until we came across Bali. We fell in love with it. That was it.
We booked our flights in February for the ceremony in June. The full research of how to plan the ceremony started after the flights were booked.”

Laura tells “The day started with 5 am make-up and hairdo in Seminyak followed by a two hour trip to the waterfall venue in Ubud.

The venue was magical… all decorations were just perfect. Despite the beautiful setting, the most amazing thing was the atmosphere of the venue itself. The sound of the water falling and the vibe of the place felt truly special. We were and are so happy with our choice.”

Laura and Justin chose The Seven Agency to plan and style the day – the team looking after every detail. Laura says “The most difficult part was finding the wedding planner. I was expecting that we could just arrange a small ceremony with a hotel resort until I learned there is a price tag attached to it. Maybe we were just unlucky with our search but it really felt that prices even for an elopement wedding were a lot higher than predicted.

We got really lucky with The Seven Agency who did a fabulous job. We would not change a thing.”

Of their photographer, the bride says “Priority number one for both of us has always been the photographer. We were so lucky to have found Maria. Maria went above and beyond helping us to plan the whole thing, searching for venues and even a wedding planner in Bali in addition to my endless questions about the best locations for the photo shoot and Bali in general… Over the few months, I could not even count how many times we changed our mind from cliff ceremony to beach, to waterfall, to cliff again and back to waterfall… Maria was always ever so helpful with all my endless questions; it really helped with reassurance it will all go well.”

Laura tells “We had lunch and a photo-shoot in the mountains by the lake, and also visited the Botanical Gardens.
Our fairytale continued through the day and ended at Udhiana Resort in Ubud. We had 11 nights in Bali during which we stayed in Seminyak, Ubud, Gili T, Balangan and we even managed to do the night hike up the Mount Batur.”

Says Laura “The most important thing is to relax and enjoy every moment of your big day. It feels amazing but it goes very quickly, so make the most of it!!”

Congratulations on tying the knot, Laura and Justin! Thank you for sharing your beautiful day with us! Thank you also to Maria Shiriaeva Photography for sharing today’s beautiful day!