Mary & Richard's Amangiri Elopement | Aman Resort Weddings
Amangiri Wedding Photographers | The Hearnes
Aman Resorts Destination Luxury Wedding
It’s no secret that we absolutely love photographing weddings at Amangiri Resort in southern Utah, so when Mary and Richard reached out to us about their elopement we were so excited! Amangiri is a stunning, private luxury resort nested among the desert mesas near the border of Utah and Arizona, just a few minutes from Lake Powell and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. It’s part of a world-wide chain, Aman, and every location is extremely unique, high-end, and complimentary of it’s local region. Specifically, Amanigiri was designed and built with the nearby landscape in mind and it’s clear to see as the lines of the buildings follow the lines of the surrounding mesas. Legend has it the entire design was initially inspired by the plans for the pool to wrap around the main mesa, and everything else was decided from there. We’ve photographed a few Amangiri elopements before, as well as adventure sessions, and can never get enough of it!
Mary and Richard had never been here before, but were inspired by our previous work and the draw of a stunning adventure elopement with the high-touch and relaxing vibe of doing so at Amangiri. The staff here are extremely passionate about every guest’s experience and pour so much care into everything, including small elopements like this one. We started their day with some getting ready photos in their rooms, and then a first look at the iconic reflection pool surrounded by towering sandstone cliffs.
Elopement Location: Amangiri Resort in Canyon Point, Utah
Bride’s Dress: Pallas Couture
Hair + Make Up: Lesley Lind
Dried Flower Bouquet: Reed & Rye
After their first look, we walked around the property and took some portraits in the various beautiful little nooks and crannies. We usually don’t do many photos with man-made elements, but Amangiri is build with the environment in mind and the elements of the design feel almost natural! It’s really fun to get creative with the lines and angles here, and we always love doing a set of photos in the main sections of the building itself. After that, we drove a short distance to a private slot canyon that one of the employees showed us on our first visit here. This region is famous for slot canyons (the most well-known one being Antelope Canyon on Navajo Nation) so it’s always fun to find little gems like this one! I especially love the iconic white sandstone found in this section of the Grand Staircase-Escalante region, it’s so unique and Amangiri is perfectly positioned in a patch of beautiful white sandstone features. Mary’s dried flower bouquet from Reed and Rye looked perfect out here!
After hiking and exploring the slot canyon, we headed back to the resort to relax and get ready for their ceremony. We explored around a little more, and then ordered some tequila shots to take care of any nerves before their big moment 😉And then we hopped in a car and drove around to another beautiful little trailhead for their private ceremony up against a mesa overlooking the area. Their ceremony was performed by one of the incredible Amangiri staff, and featured a traditional Navajo flute player. It was absolutely beautiful and truly felt like such a sacred moment to be a part of as they exchanged private vows and rings.
After their ceremony, we spent the last hour of day light hiking to the top of the mesa and watching the absolutely stunning sunset paint all the surrounding cliffs pink and orange! The views from up there were stunning, we could see all the way to Lake Powell and all of the Amangiri property. Every time we thought the sunset couldn’t get any better, it kept changing and we just had our heads on swivels looking every direction and soaking it all in!
To end their day, Amangiri set up a stunning candle lit dinner on one of their private balconies overlooking the desert. They popped champagne and enjoyed course after course of delicious food made specifically for them by the in-house world-renowned chef…something you definitely don’t expect in the middle of the Utah desert!
We weren’t quite done with these two…they decided to do a two-day elopement so they could fully enjoy every minute of it with no stress. The morning after their wedding, we met them in their room for a chill sunrise session where they sipped coffee and watched the desert come to life in the morning sun. The rooms at Amangiri are so stunning we almost always encourage our couples to do a session like this so they can remember how incredible it felt to wake up here!
We ended Mary and Richard’s elopement in an incredibly fun and unique way — they go to go horseback riding! I knew this was something Amangiri offered to guests, and as soon as Mary sent me a photo of her wedding dress and I saw the stunning full-length slit, I had the idea of doing some photos with the horses the day after their elopement! She absolutely loved the idea and knew it would be an awesome activity to do together to explore the property, and was stoked on how rad elopement photos with the horses would look! We had so much fun with these, they’re honestly some of my favorite photos we’ve done! The horses were an absolute delight and did an amazing job as well ;) Afterwards, Mary and Richard changed into some more adventurous clothes, we said our goodbyes, and watched them ride off into the desert horizon! Iconic! We dropped their formal clothes off at their room for them and spent the whole drive home to Moab in awe over the past two days. It was such a blast, and so much fun to be creative with this gorgeous resort again!
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The Hearnes Adventure Photography is run by Abbi and Callen Hearne, a husband & wife elopement wedding photography (and planning!) team with a major emphasis on adventure. Unless stated otherwise, all blog and social media posts are written from the perspective of Abbi!
We’ve completely built our life around adventures in beautiful places, and one of our greatest joys is sharing the adventure with our couples. We lived on the road full time for a few years and then fell in love with a little house in the desert of Moab, Utah; our favorite place throughout all of our travels. We still spend about half of the year living on the road, traveling to more favorites like Alaska, throughout the American West, and beyond.
We use our extensive experience and expertise in the outdoors to plan unforgettable custom elopement days for every couple. We usually work with couples to plan everything from their elopement location down to the vendors they’ll work with and the timeline of the day(s) we’ll spend together. We always shoot together and we have kept things intentionally small, working with a limited amount of couples each year such that we can bring our full value to every single planning email, phone call, and of course, elopement day!
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