Sunrise in Arches & Sunset in Canyonlands National Park
the hearnes » adventure elopement photographers
Kigan + Phil’s intimate adventure elopement in Moab, Utah | Sunrise first look in Arches National Park + Sunset ceremony in Canyonlands
Oh my goodness, I am so excited to share this elopement with you!! When Kigan and Phil first reached out to us, they were super flexible about their specific locations, they just really loved our approach to elopement photography and trusted us to help them plan something incredible. Their original plan included about 30 guests, and after talking through details and their vision with them, I suggested Zion National Park in Utah. It’s one of our favorite places and is so wonderful for small weddings because the gateway town of Springdale is super easy for guests to find lodging, and there are a lot of vendors based out there or in nearby St. George that make planning an intimate wedding so much easier! We had their whole intimate wedding planned out and were so excited for it, but as is the full on theme of 2020…those plans needed to change.
When COVID began spreading rapidly in the US in March, we reached out to all of our couples to let them know their options, including how we’d be responding should COVID be a long-term concern. We told our 2020 couples that if their original wedding date/location wasn’t doable because of COVID, we could reschedule them to a new date within our travel schedule. Thankfully, we have narrowed down our travel schedule quite a bit and we go to the same places pretty often, meaning so far every couple that needed to reschedule has had the option to reschedule in the same location if they wanted to! When we reached out to Kigan and Phil, we all agreed it made sense to wait a bit and see how things played out before making any permanent decisions. In April, as things continued to get worse, Kigan reached out to let me know they didn’t feel comfortable having their closest family and friends travel across the country the following month for their elopement, a decision we fully supported them in! We gave them some options for postponing and they agreed their main priority at this point was to just get married, however possible! Kigan also laughed that they’d both originally loved the idea of an elopement with no guests, but felt like they needed to include some people. Now, they had an excuse to do just the two of them! They ended up choosing a date in Moab a few months later, and we jumped into re-planning their elopement!
In the end, their elopement day in Moab was such an amazing day and we all agreed it was exactly how things were really meant to be! We’d spent so much time talking and coordinating with them that by the time they got to Moab, we felt like they were good friends that we were finally getting to meet! We started off their elopement day with a sunrise first look in Arches National Park — Kigan’s hair + Make Up started at 2am!! We met up in the dark and Callen walked Phil out to a little spot I’d scouted the week before while Kigan changed into her dress in our camper. Then she and I walked out and they shared their first look just as the first light was beginning to peek into the valley. We soaked in the gorgeous early summer sunrise, then made our way to a few favorite spots in Arches National Park, exploring some of the iconic views and scrambling to a few hidden spots! Callen and I had scouted a really cool little canyon earlier that week and I was stoked to bring them out there, but it required a little bit of scrambling that wasn’t *easy* in regular clothes so we knew might be more difficult in wedding clothes! Kigan and Phil are rock climbers, so we discussed the sections with them beforehand and made sure they knew that nothing was a “must-do” because there are plenty of cool spots without any scrambling! But we got out there and Kigan (and Phil) handled the technical sections like champs!! It was so fun watching them stem out and do some other more technical moves in their beautiful wedding clothes, and they had SO much fun with it! We had an incredible morning together. Then we headed back to town for breakfast and some naps (recovering from that early wake up call is no joke!).
After we were all fed and rested, we met back up in the afternoon for their sunset ceremony. Callen picked up pizzas in town for us to eat on the drive up (gotta stay nourished) (in separate cars because covid). We arrived at one of our favorite hikes in Canyonlands National Park and Kigan got dressed in the truck again before we all hiked out to the epic overlook! It was so fun bringing these two on another hike that was so different from the first few…Moab has SO much variety and these two really got the grand tour with two National Parks in one day! We spend the evening exploring the cliffs and hopping across rocks, soaking in the golden light and 360 views of all the canyons and towers below. Right at sunset, they picked a quiet little spot on the cliff for their elopement ceremony…just the two of them and the vast desert promising their lives to each other forever. Then they shared their first dance in the blue hour light and we hiked back with headlamps counting the stars as they started showing up in the sky. When we got back, I signed their marriage license as their officiant, Cal signed as a witness, and we ate leftover pizza while we talked about how perfectly the whole day worked out to be just theirs, and no one else’s.
I know COVID has ruined so many things and so many plans this year, but it’s truly so uplifting to get to see how our couples have handled it. Kigan and Phil’s elopement was definitely one of the great examples of finding light in the darkness, working with what you’re given, and making absolute magic with the results.
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The Hearnes Adventure Photography is run by Abbi and Callen Hearne, a husband & wife wedding photography team with an emphasis on adventure. Unless stated otherwise, all blog and social media posts are written from the perspective of Abbi! Our photography style is adventurous, full of stoke, and centered around telling a true story. We are nomadic wedding photographers living on the road, which allows us to photograph your adventures anywhere in the world. We especially love the sierra mountains in California, southwestern desert in Utah, and the glacial landscape of Alaska. We have updated passports and are willing to travel anywhere in the world.
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