Best Elopement Photos of 2020

2020

A Year in Review

We’ve all reached that point, now, right? Doomsday story after doomsday story, on the backdrop of a worldwide catastrophe and a societal reckoning. Sick of it doesn’t begin to cover the feeling. If I never hear the word unprecedented again, it would still be too soon. The work isn’t done, but like everyone else, we could really use a happy story about now. This brought us to the question:

How do we even begin to write about 2020?

The longest, yet somehow fastest year ever. Admittedly, the scariest and most stressful of our career. In March we weren’t sure if our business would survive, or if we would be able to afford our home. We mourned with our couples when they had to cancel their elopements, and scrambled to rework plans (sometimes more than once) with others. We never thought we’d read this many public health orders, or sit in on so many online meetings with our elected officials. Sleepless nights, anxiety-ridden days, and many difficult conversations, but we were fortunate to have a glimmer of hope. That hope was 26 incredible couples.

Even on a “normal” year, we often find ourselves pausing to reflect on how incredible it is to be elopement photographers and videographers. Helping our couples create a day that is uniquely them, and providing a safe space to focus on each other, is a dream come true. For us, the two nerds who aren’t even getting married that day! I can’t count the number of tears shed or tissues needed to cope with how overwhelming it is. To be consistently welcomed into all of those big, intimate moments. Most years, we work with couples who commit to eloping early on in their wedding journey. Couples who couldn’t see themselves having a big wedding, and craved a wedding day full of adventure in the outdoors. And while we still had many of these couples in 2020, we also worked with couples whose big wedding plans were no longer an option. For these couples, it went beyond just being their elopement photographers, videographers, and planners. We did our best to help navigate the heartache of letting go of their original plans, finding ways to hold some semblance of family involvement across impossible distances, and starting from scratch with a new day that was safe and full of just as much gravity as they dreamed it would be.

We’d be lying if we said that we were sad to see 2020 go. But we are so thankful for the relationships we built this year. And to our couples who postponed to 2021, we can’t freaking wait for your wedding day to be worth the wait!

Stick by after the photos to read our favorite stories from each of our elopements this year!

We love all of you, see you in 2021!

And last, but certainly not least, we finally adopted a pupper this year! We would love to formally introduce our little goofball, Poppy! Sorrynotsorry for how much you’ll have to listen to us talk about her.

Stories that warmed our hearts in a frigid year.

Did you know that in Colorado you can have your dog sign your marriage license as a witness? Katherine + Alex did, so they brought a stamp pad and now forever have Dink and Waffles paw prints to signify their wedding.

At 10 PM on Sunday, we agreed to call an audible on SueAnn + Frankie’s Tuesday elopement and switch it to Monday instead, to beat some weather. Good thing we did, because despite some storm clouds we had perfect weather!

Erica + Ryan were our first couple of the year to schedule some FaceTime/Zoom calls with family after their ceremony, and they even gave speeches that had all of us almost in tears. Okay, maybe there were tears, who knows.

Stef + Jon decided that the perfect way to elope was to adopt a puppy in Colorado, and make the trip both an elopement and a pickup of their new furry best friend!

Before Tara + Nick’s elopement, Tara hurt her ankle and had some serious bruising. But she still set the pace on their 4 mile hike to the ceremony, and then went rock climbing on a Via Ferrata afterward!

As Renee + Cody finished their vows and went in for a kiss, their dog Bixby suddenly got a little less distracted by her bone and tried to come intercept the affection.

During Jacqui + Steven’s post ceremony picnic, Lisa was busy with a quick photo shoot that their daughter requested, when Steven asked Alex how to eat charcuterie. As Alex was fumbling with how to explain it, Steven put plainly, “So an adult Lunchable, got it!”

On Maddi + Daniel’s wedding day, Maddi’s ride to the first look was her parent’s “Earth Roamer”, which we had never heard of before. It’s like a campervan, but if a campervan was an enormous, off-road capable truck. You should absolutely look them up.

Rachelle had one of their best friends surprise Trevor while he waited to do a first look, by sneaking up on him dressed as Chucky.

I don’t know if we’ve ever seen so many tears on a wedding day as we did for Amy + Dale! We won’t call anyone out specifically, but lets just say there were tears from parents, grandparents, brothers, friends, and one person cried through almost the entirety of the other person’s vows haha!

Natalie + Michael specifically sought out a very nice bottle of champagne for after the ceremony, but forgot champagne flutes or even cups to drink out of. So if you’ve ever tried to drink very bubbly champagne from the bottle, I’m sure you can imagine the mess that was made!

Danielle + Joe brought their two mini Australian Shepherds and any time they could see their parents but not get to them they’d squeal with excitement. It was at this point in the year that our own dog fever reached full force.

We had just gotten done telling Steph + Deric that seeing a moose probably wasn’t super likely, when a curious, young fella came strolling through the lake right near their picnic. Seeing one was high on Deric’s to do list for the trip to Colorado, so mission accomplished!

Sara + Ian’s dog Luna decided all day that Sara’s train was a brand new dog bed just for her. And their wedding meal was quite possibly the best we’ve ever had, from the caterers Juli y Juan’s Kitchen!

Allison + Chris knew they wanted an off-road tour to be the focal point of their elopement, but didn’t want to necessarily pick the exact place. So they let their tour driver surprise them with anywhere that had some great Fall colors!

Kimberly + Juan decided their first experience driving Jeeps might as well be on their wedding day! We did one of our favorite off-road trails and then met back up with their families for the ceremony, where Juan may or may not have accidentally torn Kimberly’s vows a little. There’s definitely no evidence of this though…

We’ve seen some windy days in the mountains, but the gusts the morning of Logan + Keaton’s elopement were some of the craziest we’ve ever seen. The weather report later that day said that there were guests of at least 70 MPH, and we’re pretty sure they were worse on the mountaintop we hiked to!

We ran into a rattlesnake while driving a Jeep up to Selina + Zach’s ceremony, and Alex is so afraid of snakes that he contemplated yelling at Lisa for having her window down. But the sunset at the top was seriously one of the best we’ve ever seen. Zach also may have gotten slightly jealous that Selina’s beer after the ceremony was better than his.

We changed the plan for Talitha + Kelvin’s wedding day FOUR DIFFERENT TIMES. But we found a way to make their Halloween wedding dreams happen, complete with skull cuff links, a casket ring box, and ample laughter/smiles.

When Sarah + Heather’s friend couldn’t make it because she had to start her dream job in Hawaii, they decided they’d make a cardboard cutout of her to bring along instead. They even managed to get enough cell phone reception in the middle of the nowhere to FaceTime her in for the ceremony!

Michael bought a genuine, previously used space suit and from the outset of their plans, they knew they had to incorporate it. So we took inspiration from a movie they loved the look of, Prospect, and did an entire sequence for their film in the space suit. That film is coming soon!

Christina + David had their plans changed on them just days before the wedding, but were able to swing a Zoom call for everyone to join instead. Afterwards, someone on the call mentioned it was the first wedding they ever got to attend, and we tried to reassure them they aren’t all like this haha!

At some point on the morning of Devon + Trey’s wedding, the wedding band to Devon’s ring got lost. It was one of the coldest mornings we’ve experienced in a long time (there was even a cloud inversion over Lake Dillon), so we looked as long as we could but never found it. Afterwards Devon posted about it in a couple places on Facebook and was actually able to connect with the person who found it and get it back!

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Hi There!

We're Lisa + Alex, the goofballs behind Vow of the Wild. We live in Colorado, but we’re passionate about exploring new places. Being elopement photographers + videographers is a dream for us and we can’t imagine doing anything else (other than being professional dog petters).