November Sunrise Elopement | Adventurous Wedding with Family in Shenandoah National Park | Brewhouse Reception in Harrisonburg, Virginia

Marion & Stephen’s wedding weekend started in the evening the night before - people traveled in from all over the States to spend the weekend with them. They rented out a ton of rooms at Skyland and had a rehearsal campfire where they gave out blankets to all their guests so they were warm for the chilly ceremony and gave them all the details for the 4am hike the next morning.

In the weeks leading up to their wedding weekend, they sent out emails to everyone with information and plans for the weekend - they also asked that everyone send flowers instead of gifts, so they used flowers from all over the United States (including Hawaii!) as their flowers for bouquets, flower crowns, leis, and to decorate the brewery for their reception.

For the hike, there were two ways to get to the ceremony location - all their friends and family and Stephen took the shorter hike while Marion, her parents, sister, and myself took the longer hike. When we reached the summit, everyone was there waiting. They had their ceremony RIGHT as the sun was rising. Marion walked up the “aisle” with her dad to bagpipes! After the ceremony, they had hot coffee with Irish Cream, bagels and cream cheese, and took tons of group photos. We hiked back down, took a small siesta, and then went to Restless Moons Brewery in Harrisonburg for a live band, delicious food, and brews.

Up on the mountain it was the absolute coldest I have ever been in my life - but by the time we went down to the brewery, the day had warmed up and it was perfectly delightful.

Foggy Sunrise Halloween Elopement in Shenandoah National Park

The day before Halloween I met up with this lovely couple at sunrise to photograph them in their wedding clothes. They were going to elope on Halloween day, but we set up their photo shoot for the day before. It was during the peak of the Fall leaf color, but it was a foggy and rainy morning, so there was no seeing the mountains and sunrise.

Nevertheless, the colors were absolutely spectacular. The oranges of the leaves and tall grass stood out against the fog, and Skyline Drive was quiet because no one was out and about on a rainy morning. It felt like being in a movie.

Rainy days can be the best days. So no worries when you show up to a shoot and fog is rolling in instead of a sunrise.

The fog was incredible, but the best part was how happy these two were to be getting marrrrrried.

October Sunset Elopement in Shenandoah National Park | Blue Ridge Mountain Elopement

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When I met up with Julie & Mohammed, it was just on Skyline Drive the morning of their elopement. I gave them an easy spot to find. We’d never seen each other before, and it worked out well that the spot I found was surprisingly secluded (especially during the Fall, Skyline Drive is CRAZY busy). They hopped out of the car, Mohammed asked me if I knew how to tie a tie, so I helped him with that - and then I showed them three spots nearby so they could choose where to have their ceremony.

They chose I sunny spot in the woods, and brought along their box. In their box they had three vows - one that Julie found that she started their ceremony with, a set a vows they wrote together, and then a set a vows they wrote separately. They also had their rings in the box. During the vows, they both kept crying, and laughing, saying “we didn’t expect to cry this much!”

After their ceremony, we went driving along to find a beautiful spot to watch the sun set. Once we found the spot, they got out some bubbly and enjoyed champagne while the sun went down.