Zeth & Stephanie’s Pasadena City Hall Elopement
Zeth and Stephanie got married at Pasadena City Hall more than two decades after they met, which happened in preschool. Both sets of parents had immigrated from the Philippines and become friends, so the two of them came as a package deal until Zeth's family moved away. That was that, for a while.
Stephanie found him again the summer before high school and introduced herself. Zeth knew inside the first year, then waited another eleven and a half to propose, at Yosemite. They got married on the anniversary of the day he asked. Stephanie says there was an invisible string the whole time.
Sunrise ceremony, then coffee.
They had the place to themselves. Pasadena City Hall at sunrise is quiet and almost entirely empty, with the light coming in low and sideways through the arches, and the two of them walked in together to find their officiant and got married under it. Just the two of them, the vows, and the rings they carried in their own pockets.
Portraits came next, through the colonnade and down the staircase while the light was still soft. Then Old Pasadena, coffee at Nostalgic Cafe, a few more frames inside, and the brick streets mostly to themselves with nothing left on the schedule but pastries and a nap. Married before most of the city was awake, with the whole day still in front of them.
