Hiking Elopement with a Picnic

Sunrise Hiking Elopement with a Luxury Breakfast Picnic

Betty + Austin

After being assigned as presentation partners at the US Naval Academy, Betty and Austin built a friendship which turned into a relationship. Once they graduated, they were assigned to separate locations, and spent their five years of service living apart and visiting each other whenever possible. In March of 2020, they got married in the courthouse just a few days before the entire country went into lockdown. The original plan was to have a big wedding the following fall in Estes Park, Colorado. But with the unknowns surrounding the possibility of large events even into 2021, they decided to cancel their big wedding and elope instead.

Betty and Austin hadn’t chosen a specific location within Colorado when they first contacted us, but they did have a few requirements. They wanted to spend the day celebrating their marriage hiking in the outdoors. They didn’t have the opportunity to read personal vows to each other during their courthouse ceremony, so they wanted their elopement day to be centered around that. And after the busyness of their lives and after spending much of their relationship apart, they wanted to slow down and really soak the day in together. So while we often spend elopement days hopping from gorgeous view to gorgeous view, we knew that Betty and Austin’s vision called for something different. So they chose a single, breathtaking hike to spend their entire elopement morning at.

After a very early wakeup call, we met Betty and Austin at the trailhead before sunrise. As we all unloaded our backpacks from our cars, we joked that we hoped we were the right people, because it was too dark to really see each other. As we took off up the trail, the forest lit only by our headlamps, Betty mentioned that this was her first nighttime hike. We talked about how we love early starts because not only are we usually the only people on the trail, but there’s something incredible about looking up and seeing the stars while you hike.

Once we reached the end of the trail, Betty and Austin sat down on a rock together and watched the mountains take shape with an outline of pink alpenglow. Being the only people around for miles, we could all really take in the sounds and smells of the mountains. A nearby creek rushed down the mountain and the early rising birds started to sing. Betty and Austin parted ways to change into their wedding clothes, each of them tucking themselves behind separate cabin ruins. As Lisa helped Betty zip up the back of her dress, Betty was teeming with excitement about her first look with Austin. And that was how Betty was all day, so sweet, bubbly, and excited. She and Austin even reminisced about their time at the US Naval Academy and how Betty’s instructors would embarrass her for not being able to keep a straight face.

After their first look, they finally got to read their vows to each other. They originally fell in love with the hike because of the perfectly symmetrical mountain views, so we knew that their ceremony needed to reflect that. Betty and Austin read their vows to each other as the alpenglow turned into beautiful morning light. After their “first” kiss, we all cheered and celebrated. They had their first dance, which was slow and sweet, complete with a dip kiss at the end.

By now, they had both worked up an appetite. Luckily, they hired an amazing, hiking chef to meet them at the end of the trail. There, he brought a portable stove and cooked eggs benedict for Austin and blueberry pancakes for Betty. They sat down and admired the amazing views while they ate their delicious meals. This was our first experience with a luxury picnic and we can't recommend it enough. The chef made his way all the way up the trail with a backpack full of all the utensils and ingredients necessary to make Betty + Austin a hot meal at the top of the trail. Not many people can say they had warm eggs benedict and fresh blueberry pancakes way out in the wilderness. Except maybe the miners back in the 1890s, but we're going out on a limb to say that Betty and Austin’s meal was probably better!

After their bellies were full of delicious food, we packed up and made our way back down the trail. On the hike back, Betty tromped through the water and mud from the snowmelt without a care in the world. White dress and all. We think she may hold the current record for dirtiest wedding dress, and we are all about it!

Betty and Austin’s elopement proves that sometimes taking things slow and giving plenty of time to soak in the views is the best kind of elopement.

This elopement took place on Ute Land.

Photographs

Colorado Elopements

Destination Elopements

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).