If you ask us, every elopement should include at least one dog. We think Katherine and Alex would agree. When they first contacted us about being their elopement photographers + videographers, they told us that they were most excited to spend the day with the people they love most in the world: each other (duh), but more importantly their dogs, Dink and Waffles.

Katherine and Alex met while in college in Nebraska and spent their first evening together at the park with Katherine’s dog, Dink. And on their first official date at a hole-in-the-wall Ethiopian restaurant, Katherine realized that maybe Alex was the one she wanted to adventure with. Since then, they spent time long distance while Katherine moved around for her research, and were finally able to settle in Upstate New York together, where they adopted a second dog, Waffles.

For their elopement, they knew that they wanted to come to Colorado. The imagined their ceremony being in the mountains and surrounded by trees (and of course their dogs). After we sent over their location recommendations, they fell in love with Rocky Mountain National Park, particularly Hidden Valley for their ceremony as well as the hike to Dream Lake. Unfortunately, though, RMNP doesn’t allow dogs outside of their picnic areas, campgrounds, or parking areas. So while Hidden Valley perfectly fit their forest vision, it just wasn’t going to work. So we searched high and low for a forested ceremony spot outside of the park that would allow them to have their ceremony with their dogs. Then we would drop the dogs off at their accommodation before heading into RMNP for their sunset hiking adventure!

Things were all going as planned until the pandemic broke out. Like so many other couples, they found their wedding teetering on the edge of possibility. We agreed to hold out and reconvene at the end of April to make the final decision. But by then, RMNP had closed for visitors and travel was not seeming likely. But Katherine and Alex kept their cool, we set up an alternate date later in the summer, and held out hope that things would re-open by the time their wedding day came. And we’re so glad we did! Estes Park opened up for visitors and RMNP started their phased re-opening just in time! Getting married during a pandemic is a little strange, but Katherine quickly became even more appreciative that her wedding dress had pockets because they conveniently held her face mask.

On the afternoon of their wedding, we met them at the trailhead and hiked out to their forest ceremony site. Throughout quarantine, Katherine and Alex taught Waffles how to be Alex’s best man, and taught Dink to walk Katherine down the aisle and sit patiently on the train of her wedding dress. And we are here to confirm that Waffles and Dink did SO well! Waffles even gave Alex a little look of support as Katherine walked in.

After the ceremony, Katherine and Alex danced to “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. Originally, they planned to take dance lessons, but those plans were squashed by the pandemic. But even on the uneven ground, they pulled off an adorable first dance!

We ended the evening by hiking up to Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was later in the day, so most people were hiking down and we had the place almost to ourselves. They climbed up onto the top of the rock and watched as the last little bit of sun tucked beneath the rocky cliffs. Once we had soaked up enough of the mountain air, and views, we hiked back down to the trailhead, talking about our future travels along the way. We ended the evening as the sun officially set and the sky was filled with the most beautiful oranges, purples, and pinks.

This elopement took place on Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Land.

Photographs

Colorado Elopements

Destination Elopements