I am forever thankful for this wonderful community of creatives I’ve met through this journey as a photographer. I’ve done quite a few styled shoots, by myself or with one other person. But as soon as it becomes a joint effort with other creatives in different fields (florals, cakes, jewelry, etc.) it’s just an entirely different ball park.

This shoot was inspired by how much I missed Scotland and how much I wanted to photograph a wedding in the Scottish Highlands. After that, it all sort of fell into place. I found this BHLDN dress months ago, and shortly after that I found Salubria. Ace and I connected on Instagram around the same time, and I had been working with Jen (with Flourish and Root) and Bijou’s Sweet Treats for quite some time now. Jen and I met up a couple times to discuss this shoot - she and I had worked on a project together last year, and I knew I wanted to make this one even better and put months of planning into it. She and Kat helped me SO much with pulling it together in the days leading up, and the day of.

I had been traveling for 3 weeks before this shoot - between photographing a wedding in Maine and an elopement on the West Coast, I came home and immediately helped with a local community of women pull together an event on Saturday, and then pulled this shoot together on Sunday.

It went SO well for just happening so suddenly all there at the end. I’ll admit I was terrified, considering all of my own time I was putting into it as well as everyone else’s that I was asking to come along with me somewhat blindly.

I’m emotional now thinking about it all, and I am so very thankful for everyone who believed in this idea enough to help me with it and to actually pull it together with me.

If you are planning a wedding and are looking for some vendors to create something STUNNING for you, I have a list :

Photography : White Sails Creative
Videography : Sage & Silhouettes
Floral Design : Flourish Root
Hair & Makeup : Hairpins N Lipstick
Cake : Bijou’s Sweet Treats
Venue : Salubria
Styling & Set Up : Flourish Root
Dress : BHLDN | Anthropologie
Groom’s Suit : Harris Tweed
Bridal Jewelry : RU.ST
Paper Suite, Calligraphy, & Design : White Sails Creative
Models : Molly & Michael

and Johnny :) for helping me with all my crazy ideas and loading up the car with stuff and unloading it and loading it all back up and moving all the furniture around wherever it was needed.

AHH.

Salubria Historic Manor House Virginia - Moody Scottish Highland Wedding Styled Shoot - White Sails Creative - Sage and Silhouettes - BHLDN - Bijous Sweet Treats_13_1.JPG

Megan and Andrew Lake Valhalla Washington PNW Adventure Elopement White Sails Creative Sunrise Hike_76.JPG

One of the best experiences of my life, this was. I flew straight from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. My first time on the West Coast. Megan reached out to me months ago, asking me to photograph their wedding in Virginia. It was going to be at one of my favorite wedding venues, and I was incredibly excited after meeting her over video. She had just moved out to Washington with Andrew, and was planning a wedding from across the country. She told me over and over how she wanted her wedding to be different than normal “I actually would love if it rained on our wedding day”. Everything she had planned sounded marvelous. But, a couple months later, I got an email from her telling me they spent nearly every single weekend in Washington hiking, and they couldn’t imagine exchanging vows with each other anywhere else. They were cancelling the whole wedding in Virginia, but asked that I come out to Washington to photograph their elopement. This was obviously very much okay with me.

They rented a cabin for their friends and family that flew out to spend the weekend with them. I joined them for dinner on Friday, and everyone managed to wake up at 3am on Saturday for their sunrise hike to Lake Valhalla. It was completely dark for the first hour of hiking and started to lighten up just as we were reaching the lake. Megan had her ladies to help her change into her wedding dress, and to build her bouquet made from flowers they all picked as they hiked. After the most beautiful first look, everyone gathered around as they exchanged their vows. After a few more photos, they were ready to hike back up to the next spot. As we climbed higher, the smoke from the nearby wild fires got thicker. They hiked all the way back down the mountain, about 4 miles back, in their wedding clothes. Driving back to the cabin, they were absolutely ecstatic. “This is the best day ever!” over and over. Megan played “My Way” by Frank Sinatra, and now every time I hear it, I think of this day, and how they did exactly what they wanted, exactly what made sense for them. It was the perfect adventure.

After getting back to the cabin, having some delicious quiche and a little sit down, they went down to the river with whiskey and speakers, and had their first dance to “Harvest Moon”.