Santa Catalina Island lays just southwest of Los Angeles and is just a one hour boat ride away on the Catalina Express.
Jessica and Brian wanted to have an intimate wedding here with a small group of their best friends and immediate family. The brides side of the family has relatives that lived on the island, so it holds a special meaning to them besides the fact that it’s just jaw droopingly beautiful and has a really pleasant vibe.

As a group, we caught the Catalina Express from Long Beach which took us right to Avalon. From there, we grabbed some food and signed their marriage license in the bar with a very laid back fellow in a bucket hat, shorts and flip flops before the couple parted ways to get dressed for the ceremony.

The ceremony took place on on of the small beaches by the harbor with the iconic casion in the background. The couple read their vows from gorgeous custom vow books made by Copper Cloud Creative Co. and Jessica brought one little surprise of her own (you’ll have to scroll to see what it was)!

The three of us then caught a golf cart (Catalina Island’s alternative to cars) with the Mayor who drove us up to Buena Vista point for some couples photos–and it did not disappoint! Ever since moving to California I have been eyeballing this location wanting to shoot here and it’s just as gorgeous in real life as it looks in all the pictures!

We returned to a group dinner and drinks on the beach where every guest was gifted a pair of personalized socks.

As the sun was starting to set, we all boarded the Catalina Express once again to head back to Long Beach. The bow of the boat was insanely windy! We had wanted to take a few romantic photos here on the way home, but the wind was so strong that we tapped out and just went back to enjoying drinks and company for the ride home.