Choosing to do an adventure elopement instead of a regular wedding is already untraditional, so why not embrace the rebellion and wear a black wedding dress too? In this blog post, I’m sharing a few of our edgy brides who have chosen to wear black instead of white - and why you should consider it for your elopement!
Oh my goodness, I could go on and on and on about these two. Eliza and Justen are two of the most incredible people we’ve ever met. We had so much fun getting to know them over the course of a year planning their wedding, and then finally hanging out with them on this wonderful weekend in Moab. We’ve been coming to Moab for almost 5 years now, and I’ll never forget the first time we discovered the La Sal Mountains. It was our second time coming to Moab, and after a miserable camping experience in the middle of the summer on our first visit, it was a bit of a redemption trip. We rolled into Moab in mid October and were immediately smitten. Gone were the hot summer days. The cottonwoods were turning yellow, the days were in the 70s and the nights cooled off enough to make a fire and wear our favorite jackets. I don’t remember who recommended it, but we ended up driving up into the La Sal mountains and when we caught our first glimpse of the golden aspen trees, we couldn’t believe our eyes. Growning up in Texas, fall isn’t really a season, it’s more of a changing of retail store fronts, and sipping “fall” drinks while wishing it’d cool down to 80 outside. We’d never seen leaves change colors like this, and the mornings would greet us with chilly fog the was from our wildest dreams. Since that trip, we’ve agreed the La Sals are one of the greatest gems in Moab, so when Eliza reached out to me about photographing their intimate wedding at an adorable little venue in the La Sal Mountains, I was stoked! Sitting high above Moab, this sweet little spot is temperate even in the middle of summer. Eliza and Justen’s wedding was in August, and despite the high temps down in Moab, their wedding day in the mountains was perfect. Warm enough to be comfortable in a dress, but then it cooled off at night and made for a perfect open-air venue.
In addition to the gorgeous mountains surrounding their venue, Eliza had mentioned they still wanted to have photos in the desert because Moab meant so much to them, so we decided to do a day-after session in Castle Valley. We absolutely love when our couples want to do day-after sessions, it’s such a great way to wind down from their wedding and have some time to themselves before going back to “normal life.” That being said, when Eliza and Justen said they were down for sunrise, we were a little shocked! I’m not sure they slept at all, but these two showed up to their day after session on time, at the crack of dawn, looking just amazing as they did the day before (we, on the other hand, probably looked like we’d been hit by a train but thats why we’re behind the camera 😂). I made Eliza some hot coffee on the jet boil and we set out on the trail to explore Castle Valley and soak in the gorgeous Moab desert. As we hiked, we watched the sun come up behind the mesas and turn everything around us golden, which really made Justen’s epic minty blue suit pop! They brought their dog, Cooper, along as well and we all talked about how much we love Moab, how much fun their wedding was, and how thankful we were to be in the desert together on such a beautiful day. By the end of their hike, Eliza’s dress has a gorgeous orange ombré from the Moab dirt, and we joked designers should pay us to make their wedding dresses look this rad :) I honestly didn’t want the day to end, but I’m so stoked we’ve found such great friends in these two and have no doubts we’ll be hanging out in the Moab desert again soon!
If you like the idea of eloping, but still want a more traditional wedding, doing an adventure session with us in your wedding clothes might be a good option! We love when we get to do adventurous wedding portraits for our couples, even if they get married elsewhere! This would be such a fun way to plan an epic honeymoon and get more rad photos in your wedding attire. We’ve photographed a lot of weddings and elopements in Utah (especially Moab!) and we work directly with the National Parks, Forest Service, BLM, and other public lands groups to pick beautiful places that are unique without causing damage to the land. If you’d like to elope in Moab, or schedule an adventure session with us in the Utah desert, you can reach out via our contact form and rest assured we will suggest amazing places and make sure we don’t have a negative impact on the public lands.
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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. They live on the road as full-time nomads, allowing them to serve a large portion of the western US. You can typically find them in Moab, Utah or Yosemite National Park, California, with side-quests to Patagonia and Alaska. They believe love is the greatest adventure and strive to create photos that are epic, romantic, true, and timeless.
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If you’re considering doing your elopement somewhere adventurous like Alaska, you should absolutely think about a helicopter flight seeing tour in Denali National Park! We took a helicopter out to two locations with incredible mountain and glacier views, and ended our tour landing on the Yanert Glacier for Morgan + Evan’s adventure wedding portraits.
We had so much fun exploring Hatcher Pass near Anchorage, Alaska with Autumn and Levi! These two are some of the sweetest people around. We met up at the Hatcher Pass Lodge, where we were both staying for the night (side note - they have the cutest little A frames, but read my review at the bottom if you’re planning on staying there!) and then headed up the mountain to make some dinner in the parking lot. Now, don’t go assuming this was fancy…Callen cooked up some grilled cheeses in the van and we enjoyed our gourmet meal in camp chairs at the trailhead. As we ate, we chatted about their wedding earlier that week (this adventure photo session was part of their epic Alaska honeymoon trip!), how they met, and other fun little topics. I have to share how they met — it is a hilarious story! These two met at a country dance hall. Autumn was there for her sister’s birthday and ended up dancing with Levi for fun. He thought she was pretty cool and asked her name, she said “Sam” because according to her, that’s what she would tell guys when they tried to flirt with her 😂). He tried to get her number and she said no, but eventually gave in and told him her instagram instead. They ended up meeting up and messaging, and Autumn totally forgot about the wrong name thing until she was meeting his friends and introduced herself as Autumn! Levi was thankful for the claification and despite Autumn still playing hard to get for a while after that, she eventually realized he was the man of her dreams :)
It was lightly raining throughout their adventure session at Hatcher Pass (classic Alaska!) but it made for such a gorgeous moody vibe. We hiked up a steep hill to one of the gorgeous ridge lines overlooking the mountains, explored around some pristine little lakes, and even found a sweet little snowy patch with a blue lake in the middle. These two Texans fully embraced the snow, dancing around, throwing snowballs, and chasing each other across the snow field! As it got a little dark we made our way up the ridge for one last glimpse of the sprawling mountains before heading down to the lodge. We spend the last bits of blue hour (around 11pm! Alaska is crazy!) walking around the beautiful property and admiring the adorable little A frame cabins. We ended the night sipping beers and eating candy in their cabin, taking about life, adventure, and marriage. It was such a treat to spend time with these two!
We absolutely love when couple choose to do sessions with us on their honeymoon! Whether you choose to bring your wedding clothes and do an adventure elopement-style session, or wear more regular clothes and capture your day-to-day selves in an epic place, doing a session on your honeymoon is such a rad was to celebrate that time in your life. It’s no secret that from Yosemite to Moab to Alaska and as far as Patagonia, we spend a lot of time in epic places that would make great Honeymoon locations and great places for a Honeymoon Adventure Session. This is also a really good option if you like the idea of an adventure elopement but still want to have a more traditional wedding back home, doing a session like this can be such a good alternative. We’ve even had couples choose to read their vows privately during their session instead of back home during their wedding.
We are so excited to be heading back to Alaska next summer, this time for three whole months! After our trip out there this summer, we have a long list of places that would be absolutely amazing for an adventure elopement, intimate wedding, or engagement session! If you’re considering eloping and like the idea of a destination wedding, but want to keep things relatively simple, Alaska is such a good option for your elopement! It was super easy to explore and navigate as a US resident (obviously) but felt like a far-off international destination! The landscape in Alaska is so amazing, you could literally have your elopement ceremony on a glacier via a helicopter and then be up on a gorgeous hillside for sunset wedding portraits within an hour. We found amazing iceberg lagoons, hiked some epic mountain passes, and explore some of the coolest terrain we’ve ever seen! We’ll be booking limited dates during our three months in Alaska next summer, so if you’re hoping to have your elopement or intimate wedding in Skagway, Cordova, Denali National Park, Girdwood, Valdez, or any of the other epic spots we explored, get in touch with us as soon as possible!
I mentioned we stayed in Hatcher Pass Lodge. When we posted about this on instagram we got a lot of questions about staying there, so I wanted to share my honest review here! First and foremost, their website says “no frills” and they really mean it. The cabins are small, yes, but they also have no running water, no amenities other than electricity, and the linens feel 40 years old. There is a community shower in the main lodge area that everyone shares, and one thing that was very uncomfortable for me was there is no lock on the door. I stacked a chair against the door because I’m pretty paranoid about that type of thing (especially when traveling) but thought it was worth mentioning. Also, there is a shared steam room, but they require that 4 or more guests are planning to use it before getting is prepped, and you have to let them know in the early afternoon. Honestly, our van would have been more comfortable and had we done more research we wouldn’t have booked a night there. If you’re wanting to stay somewhere that feels like a slightly nicer version of camping, this lodge might be for you, but if you’re wanting an escape from camping that feels like a “treat yourself” night (as we were), I do not reccomend it. I should have done more research, but I wrongly assumed $120/night would get me a little more than a roof over my head ;)
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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. They live on the road as full-time nomads in their big white van, allowing them to serve a large portion of the western US including California, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming. They believe love is the greatest adventure and strive to create photos that are epic, romantic, true, and timeless.
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Wow, these two are absolute gems. We honestly feel so lucky to have spent an evening with Danielle and Dillon in Alaska! We were actually in touch with them late last year to plan an adventure photo session for their ten year anniversary. We’d originally decided on an adventure session in Yosemite National Park, but due to some family events they ended up having to reschedule. We had talked about doing a later date in Yosemite, or even sometime in Moab to align with our travel schedule, but then I mentioned we’d be going to Alaska in the summer and Danielle loved the idea! They decided to make a whole trip out of their ten year anniversary celebration and meet us in Alaska. Danielle and Dillon had a super adventurous trip and even did a glacier tour the day before our adventure session!! We met up with them in Girdwood south of Anchorage, and decided to do their adventure session high on Mount Alyeska with a delicious luxury dinner in the middle!! It was an absolutely beautiful evening, with perfect fluffy clouds and gorgeous golden light. After about an hour of hiking around and soaking in the views, we took a break to eat dinner at the Seven Glaciers Restaurant, which was absolutely delicious!! We joked that we were crashing their 10th anniversary dinner, but they assured us it was all good ;) After an awesome dinner, we headed back out for sunset on the mountain. The views were so stunning, with some of the most beautiful pink colors in the sky, perfectly green grass on the steep hillside, and lovely little white flowers all over.
Danielle and Dillon are so absolutely amazing together, they truly have one of the sweetest relationships. We photograph a lot of engagement sessions and wedding + elopement couples, but there is something so special about photographing couples celebrating a major anniversary. These two have lived so much life together, fought through hard times and experienced some of life’s greatest joys. The bond between them is so special and was so amazing to photograph. We are so thankful for our evening with Danelle and Dillon, and hope we get to do another session with them on their 20th anniversary :)
We are so excited to be heading back to Alaska next summer, this time for three whole months! After our trip out there this summer, we have a long list of places that would be absolutely amazing for an adventure elopement, intimate wedding, or engagement session! If you’re considering eloping and like the idea of a destination wedding, but want to keep things relatively simple, Alaska is such a good option for your elopement! It was super easy to explore and navigate as a US resident (obviously) but felt like a far-off international destination! The landscape in Alaska is so amazing, you could literally have your elopement ceremony on a glacier via a helicopter and then be up on a gorgeous hillside for sunset wedding portraits within an hour. We found amazing iceberg lagoons, hiked some epic mountain passes, and explore some of the coolest terrain we’ve ever seen! We’ll be booking limited dates during our three months in Alaska next summer, so if you’re hoping to have your elopement or intimate wedding in Denali National Park, Girdwood, Valdez, or any of the other epic spots we explored, get in touch with us as soon as possible!
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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. They live on the road as full-time nomads in their big white van, allowing them to serve a large portion of the western US including California, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming. They believe love is the greatest adventure and strive to create photos that are epic, romantic, true, and timeless.
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