Alright, my friends. I hope you are settled in with a nice cozy beverage and have some minutes to spare, because this Shi Shi Beach elopement shoot calls for a real long blog post!

The Inspiration: It’s been almost 8 years since I first visited this magical slice of coastline on the Olympic Penninsula. It utterly stole my heart as a fresh-out-of-high-school kid who had no idea how to hike, much less shoot an elopement, so it makes me nostalgic and super grateful to have returned all these years later! The Olympic Peninsula is truly one of my favorite elopement spots. The Olympic Mountains are the magnificent show-stoppers, but the coastal section of the National Park has so many amazing hidden beaches like this one, empty of crowds and harboring unbelievable views. If you love to backpack, Shi Shi is an awesome spot to elope because you can camp overnight on the beach as well!

The Couple: Not only are Holly & Austin adorably married & super talented models, but they’re incredibly sweet and kind people who love the outdoors. They spent the evening pointing out geological features of the coastline and different species plants and their uses to us. They got married a few years ago, but they confessed that they weren’t in love with the photos from their wedding photographer, so this was an awesome way for us to give them some killer wedding portraits.

The MVPS (aka the vendors!): Shyn of Pacific Brides did all the hair & makeup wizardry on location for this shoot. She drove all the way out to a sketchy, remote cabin for a whole weekend on 3 hours acquaintance with me, and I’m so grateful for her. She stole our dog Simon’s heart by snuggling with him all weekend, hiked through ankle deep mud with us to get to the beach, and brought snacks & a lot of laughs. In short, she’s amazing.

My wonderful friend & talented florist Jessica of JVC Flowers did the florals for this shoot, dreaming up this unique cascading bouquet, and Stem & Stone Crowns was kind enough to lend us one of their amazing headpieces as well!

About The Shoot: After getting ready at a nearby cabin, we piled into our car and headed to the trailhead. We hiked through some gorgeous coastal forest (and a *significant* amount of mud. Seriously. So. Much. Mud.) to reach this secluded, rocky beach.  The weather that evening was as perfect as you could hope for in the typically soggy spring, and we all got to witness a sunset so gorgeous no photo could do it justice. We shot until the sun had finally dipped into the waves before hiking back to our cabin as night fell.