the hearnes best of 2024 » outdoor weddings, elopements & adventure portrait photography

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Written By Abbi Hearne

Best of 2024 // Elopements + Adventure Sessions // Utah & Alaska Adventure Wedding Photographer

I really look forward to this blog post at the end (or, in this case…the start) of every year. I’ll be honest and say I don’t necessarily look forward to the amount of time and effort it takes to put together, but I really enjoy having a summary of our year all in one place. It’s a glimpse into our annual portfolio and the opportunity to reflect on the couples we’ve worked with, to see the images we’re most proud of, and to dream up our hopes for the upcoming year.

This is my 9th “Year in Review” blog post, meaning our photography business that I first started as “Abbi Hearne Creative” from our little apartment in Houston, Texas in 2015 will turn ten (!!!!) this spring. It’s certainly shocking to me that we’ve already been in it this long, and at the same time, I feel like 2015 was ages ago. We’ve grown up so much since that first year, our life has changed drastically, and yet, our dreams have only become bigger and more daring versions of the ones we first considered when we started. We could have never imagined that almost a decade in, we’d be more comfortable helping a couple navigate an icy cave deep in a glacier than we ever were managing hours on a reception dance floor in Texas. I wish I could show these images, many of which were created in what are now our own local hiking trails and personal adventure spots, to the version of myself desperately searching the golf course for a patch of trees that looked more wild for some portraits at the many country club weddings we shot that first year. Places that only existed on my wildest dream Pinterest boards are now casual jaunts for us, but I can still easily put myself back in the mind of that young version of myself and picture how she’d react to everything this business has become.

That being said, despite how epic the images are and how thrilling the adventures feel, by and far my favorite thing about this job is the connection and experience we have with our couples. We spend so much time talking and planning ahead of their trip that by the time we meet up, we’re often immediately hugging and jumping right into real conversation, having covered the niceties in emails or phone calls months prior. We spend the day with them, often sunrise to sunset, experiencing incredible things in wildly beautiful places. More often than not, we’re doing something that Callen and I are comfortable with and have done many times, but is a new experience for our couples. Things like pack-rafting with icebergs, Jeeping down remote desert roads, flying in a private helicopter to a glacier or private plane to a backcountry airstrip. These things aren’t arbitrary, they require bravery and an openness to trusting not only us, but themselves as well. It’s an incredible experience to do this with our couples, alongside one of the most significant days of their life. To be able to also be taking photographs the entire time? Truly a dream come true.

I wrote this in 2023’s post, and I am leaving it here because it remains true: A prominent word for me this year has been creativity. Such a simple, yet very significant word. After a few years of shooting in familiar places like Utah and Alaska, places that are now our homes instead of just destinations we travel to, it could be easy to “rinse and repeat” experiences (although, no two days are ever the same because no two couples are the same!). Instead, having the familiarity and comfort within these locations allows our minds to expand creatively. We already know the “best shots,” we know the moments people will be in the most awe, we know the best places for a quiet break where they can soak it all in. Because we’re not having to spend much energy thinking on these things, we have room to discover the new moments of each day. We have room to observe our couples closely and learn their quirks and the way they reach for each other when they’re excited or nervous.

I was afraid that narrowing down our locations and creating a certain consistency in our elopement experiences would limit our creativity, but it’s been quite the opposite. That is what I see when looking through this year’s photos. I hope you experience the same.

I feel the word I can add for 2025, one we’ve mastered for a long time now but will never stop pursuing is connection. My biggest goal when creating images for our couples is to accurately tell the story of their connection to each other and their connection to the landscape. It often feels easy to focus on one of these things, sometimes at the expense of the other, but I truly believe mastery in our niche requires a clear and consistent balance of both. Looking through these images, I’m proud to say we’ve done that extremely well. I’m already eager to hear what you think, and to see what we create in 2025!

From Instagram :: August 15, 2023

It’s no secret that weddings are a huge deal, and a wedding day is a big turning point in a couples’ life. But one of the things that I love about the adventure elopement experiences we give our couples is how it often inspires them to lead a more adventurous life. We’ve had multiple couples end up traveling much more after their experience traveling to a new place for their elopement. Couples who get more into backpacking and hiking after spending their day in a National Park with us. Couples who buy packrafts as soon as they can after borrowing ours. We even have two Hearnes couples who have moved to Alaska since their trip to elope with us up here (and one more coming up in a few months)!!

The thing is, I truly believe these places call to people more than they expect. I think that while choosing a location for your destination elopement might be a decision mostly based on photos and online descriptions, nothing can prepare you for how it will actually feel. Even for couples who have spent a lot of time traveling, or a lot of time outdoors before working with us, I have found that the day is unforgettable for reasons they can’t possibly expect. Sometimes we call it positive peer pressure, but the truth is, once you get a taste of a life beyond the expectations and standards of “normal,” you start to question everything else too. Once you toss out the traditional wedding plans for something like this, you realize how many other parts of life are worth re-evaluating as well.

Plus, selfishly, we just really love having more friends nearby, so we’re always psyched when our couples can’t keep themselves away from these places after their elopements out here :)

From Instagram :: February 15, 2024

#HearnesTinyCouples photos are a staple in our galleries. These days, it’s something almost every couple is sure to mention, which I love. I think it’s because these shots embody why we love these elopements so much, and they embody why our couples were drawn to this idea in the first place.

You see, for this photo to happen we (the photographers) have to be pretty far back and our couple feels truly alone in the landscape. They can walk or just stand still and they get to really soak it all in. They can be talking to each other, processing the day so far, or just completely silent hearing only the wind. This experience is unique to adventure elopements, it’s simply not possible in a ballroom or big city.

The photo itself is usually what people choose to print for their home, considering it’s a stunning landscape photo yet still a portrait, uniquely theirs. It serves as a reminder of their wedding day and the ways it inspires their everyday life, it’s a place they can return to in their minds whenever things feel too busy or too overwhelming.

To us, this is the magic of photographs, and getting to share that magic with every couple is one of the best of this job 🤍

From Instagram :: January 4, 2024

I learned so much from my fine arts degree, but I can’t say I ever felt like I fit in during the process. Initially, I was focused on painting and my favorite subject was landscapes. Living in central Texas, I wasn’t very interested in my immediate landscapes. Instead, I felt drawn to mountains, glaciers, and far-away desert scenes. Whenever my assignments allowed, I worked landscapes into my portfolio, but it was often met with eye-rolls and shrugs from my professors. Landscape painting wasn’t cool anymore, it wasn’t modern. As I started selling pieces to friends to help pay for my supplies, I had a professor scold me, saying I shouldn’t be painting things to sell at this point in my career.

Once I got into photography, this pressure to be more modern, and to not make money from my art only increased. I never admitted to my professor that I was working with a local wedding photographer as an assistant. I certainly never expressed my interest in that career path after graduation. In my final semester, I’d booked photo sessions here and there: senior portraits for friends, family sessions, and even a wedding two weeks after my graduation. I decided, against the advice of my professors, to pursue professional photography.

The thing is, I do understand where they were coming from, and I never made artwork quite as…creative as my classmates. But I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart and when I found this work, I fell deeply in love with it. To look back and know now what I’ve made of it, I like to think my professors would be proud. But I don’t really care either way, because this work matters to me, challenges my creativity, and is my dream job I could have never nearly imagined 🩵 And, I use things I learned from my art degree daily, even though it may not be in the ways they anticipated.

From Instagram :: January 9, 2024

“Make sure you hire a good photographer because your wedding day is just a blur, I barely remember anything from mine!”

This advice is given out to engaged couples all the time. And as a photographer, maybe I should be glad because I do believe good photographs are super important. But I want your photos to accompany your incredible memories, not replace them. I want your experience to be so visceral, so memorable, and low-stress enough that it’s easy to recall the details.

We are super intentional with our elopement timelines because we want our couples to have plenty of moments to pause and really soak it all in. We make sure we’ve built things out such that we can take incredible portraits when the light and scenery is this good, but also have plenty of time for you two to stand hand-in-hand and just enjoy it. I like to think Lynsi & Louis love their photos of this moment (in fact, I know they do), but I also love to know they remember this. They can bring themselves back to this feeling whenever they please.

From Instagram :: January 27, 2024

The majority of our elopements each year are just us & the couple. Often we’re helping them get dressed, signing as their officiant & witness, driving them between locations, handing them tissues for the inevitable tears, and sharing the adventure with them all the way through. We love this.

But we also love when our couples decide to bring some guests along. A small selection of their closest people, family and/or friends. The people they trust and love dearly, people they can’t imagine spending this day without. It’s so fun, and such a wonderful glimpse into who they are as a couple and as individuals. It’s beautiful to see their people get to know this side of their lives, and to see people who often otherwise would never come to a place like this, embracing it fully. We love to watch as everyone loosens up and embarks on their own kind of adventures, showing their personalities and excitements for the place they’ve found themselves in.

For us, this job has always been about adventure and the connection it can inspire between people. So to get to be a part of that connection between families and friend groups as well is a really special treat 🏜️

From Instagram :: July 28, 2024

People are sometimes shocked when they see that our shortest elopement package starts at six hours, but the reality is most of our couples book eight or more hours, sometimes even more than one day.

Depending on the location & things we want to do, we usually split the time up so we can spend sunrise together somewhere beautiful, have plenty of time in the morning & afternoon to adventure, share a meal, spend time with guests (if applicable) have a relaxing ceremony that doesn’t feel rushed, and then go somewhere for sunset. These two even opted to go back to their ceremony location, this time under the stars, to reflect on the day and really soak it all in before we were finished✨

This timing gives room for a wide variety in places and plenty of time to just enjoy the moment and remember all the little details instead of rushing through it all. And yes, we almost always take a break for naps & rest between the adventures 😴❤️

2025 GOALS:

Over the years, we’ve noticed our goals are always quite similar, with the same “blanket terms” and a few small adjustments. I love to look back over them at the end of each year and see how we did, as well as consider how we can improve and do even better in the new year. I love reading through these at the end of each year and reflecting on how we did with our goals, and dreaming of ways we can work toward them in the coming year.

Bookings » We were really happy with the balance in 2024. We loved every couple we got to work with, and I (Abbi) got to work with quite a few families and people on my own since introducing my one-hour sessions in Moab, Alaska, and Yosemite. This was my first year shooting in Yosemite again since taking an intentional hiatus on bookings after the 2020 season, and it felt really good to get to venture into that world again with everything I’ve learned. We’ve explored a few alternative income streams this year; continuing my private IG group (I love!!!!) and introducing merch. For 2025, my goal is another great year with a solid balance of spring/fall heavy bookings so we can get after the adventures in our summer and winter off seasons!

Play More » This is actually the secret sauce to the work we create. The reason we’re able to put together elopements we’ve never seen before doing them; like aviation weddings in Moab, kayaking with icebergs in Alaska, Jeeping new roads, hiking new trails, and so on, is because we do those things. We spend our time off living the adventures we create for our couples. Our ideas come from our own life, our own passions, and the reason we’re always bringing new ideas to the table is because we’re seeking them ourselves! 2024 Felt like an amazing year for this with our little boat in Alaska, new and old favorite hikes in Moab, and fun road trips each season. I’m really excited to see what we get into in 2025!

Have A Positive Impact » This looks a little different every year. In 2024, we continued to work closely with our local Moab BLM office to improve their permitting and guidelines for wedding-specific events on BLM lands, as well as give back a percentage of our earnings for them to protect the land and improve every visitor’s experience. We also regularly donate to organizations like Access Fund and Honnold Foundation, spend time educating people about their impact on the lands, and be conscious of our own footprint as we travel, live, and recreate!

Be a Better Wife, Mom, Daughter, Friend, Human » Every year, this goal has been such a good check-point for me to look back and see what I’ve done well this year and what I could do better. I am really excited to say I truly believe this is my best year yet in this realm. With our current work-life balance, we’ve both been able to take time to focus on Hyder and really spend a lot of our days with her. We’ve also been able to make time for friends, and even friend trips. This coming year, I am hoping to prioritize more time for us to spend together (not counting work!) and to really enjoy each other again now that we’re not in the trenches of parenthood.

Keep Growing, Learning, and Improving » My hope is that every year, I look through these photos in this blog post and feel proud of our growth. That every year, I feel our couples are even more cared for, and feel even more value from their experience with us. We absolutely love this job and are so thankful (and amazed) by this past year. Next year we will aim to work smarter and make our clients even happier than ever. I never want to think I know it all and I'll never stop growing and improving. One of my favorite pieces of advice I received when I was a skydiver was to learn something new with every single jump. I believe in applying that to all that I do, so in 2025 I hope to continue learning something new with every adventure session and wedding!

Lead Our Industry In A Positive Direction » I’ve realized this year how big of an impact we have on the photography industry. In the past few years, we’ve poured a lot into the industry in the realm of sustainability, caring for the places we’re shooting in, and giving back to the communities where we work. This year, I hope to maintain that influence, and I’m dreaming of adding another detail that I’ve felt passionate about lately. I want to show photographers that our work is better when our life is better — that working all the time is not the goal. Hustle culture is so damaging, and while I know working hard and often comes with launching any business, it doesn’t have to remain that way once you reach a sustainable income and create consistent, effective systems for yourself. I want to inspire people to play, adventure, and get after the life they desire.

Maintain The Right Priorities » This one sums up most of what I’ve said above. I’m no longer worried about being the “best,” having the most followers, or seeming like we’re at the top of the industry. I’m interested in living a beautiful life, working with couples that I connect to as people, and creating work that I’m proud of.

If you made it to the bottom of this, you're an angel. Please comment on this post so I can thank you!! There is no way we could do what we're doing without the support of our online community. Every follow, comment, like, share, and late night spent browsing the website means the world to us — it literally gets us to where we are now (what a time to be alive!). We are so appreciative of you ❤️

Abbi Hearne http://www.thehearnes.com
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Kayla + Kat’s Elopement in Yosemite | Sneak Peek