What if you could have all the best parts of a wedding — a once-in-a-lifetime dress, the cutting of the cake, and professional photos of family and friends — without the exorbitant costs and stress often associated with modern nuptials? What if you could completely buck tradition and do exactly what you want? More and more couples are playing by their own rules — including this L.A. pair, who opted to have their cake and elope, too."I’m all about the marriage, but not about the wedding," says bride Kira Nasrat . "The wedding is one night. It’s a party that comes and goes. I’ve worked with a lot of brides in the past...and [when we got engaged], I knew what I didn’t want." Nasrat has a unique perspective, given her career as a makeup artist (she's Jamie Chung's go-to artist , and works with Gwyneth Paltrow and Margot Robbie). So when her longtime boyfriend — film and television producer Brooklyn Weaver — proposed last year, they quickly devised a plan that felt relaxed, romantic, and low-stress.The couple's genius plan? They cherry-picked just the traditions they cared about from those in a classic engagement party, wedding, and honeymoon, and rearranged them into an event that felt like them. Bonus? It was carefree, Nasrat reports. The shindig kicked off with a picturesque engagement dinner for 50, which had some of the bells and whistles of a wedding — and where they spilled the news to family and friends that they'd be eloping to Italy for a private ceremony.Ahead, Nasrat walks us through the couple's journey.