Alright, I hope you're settled in with a nice, cozy beverage and ready for a long post, because I really REALLY really loved this couple & this snowy North Cascades elopement and I'm probably gonna be extremely longwinded. You've been warned!
Emily & Jesse's original plan was to hold their elopement in the gorgeous Banff area of Canada. Obviously, once it became clear that these plans were going to be another victim of the covid upheaval and border closures, they decided to pivot their celebration plans. Lucky for us, they decided that if they couldn't elope in the gorgeous blue lakes of the Canadian Rockies, that heading just a few miles south of the border to the North Cascades mountains of Washington would be just as good! And I am so glad they did, because otherwise we would have never met these wonderful folks! They reached out to us in June and within a few weeks of flurried planning, we came to be hopping over late-season snow banks out to a gorgeous glacial valley with these two and a few of their closest friends to get them married, all the way from Florida.
They got ready in a nearby airbnb cabin before hiking out (in matching t-shirts that Emily got them all) to a ceremony spot nestled in the bottom of a river valley between two forks of the snow-melt streams with the peaks towering all around and plenty of waterfalls to boot. With the snow pack melting out very late this particular year, I was a bit worried about how much snow there would be for this elopement, but lucky for us, I think Emily & Jesse were possibly the MOST stoked couple about snow I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. They were just generally excited about the biology of the whole area (Jesse is a science teacher after all) and it was so lovely to be able to share all sorts of cool, fun facts about the local plant and animal life to such a rapt audience.
After getting dressed out on the snowy plains and a sweet first look, they had one of the most lovely, emotional, and heartfelt ceremonies w've ever witnessed (I definitely got mascara all over my face from a lot of crying), not to mention the gorgeous setting for an elopement. Devon got some incredible wide shots of the ceremony while it was happening, which I think might be in the running for favorite ceremony photos ever.
In a nice bonus, we hardly saw another soul the entire day, which is pretty rare for this particular spot in the North Cascades. One of my very favorite parts of the day though, was simply who Emily & Jesse were, how excited they were to be together, getting married, and their wonderful friends as well. The group was *so* ecstatic the whole day about green and snowy and mountainous the whole area was. It's really one of the most fun parts of this job to introduce people to the PNW, and this group of friends was one we could easily hang out with every day. They were so warm, hilarious, welcoming, and so excited to see their friends get married.
After the ceremony, they put together a delicious charcuterie picnic and enjoyed a few moments of sun breaking through the clouds. We took portraits along the icy shore of the lake and hiked back as the sun went down. We even caught a few moments of sunset color on the always-gorgeous craggy face of Mt. Shuskan before heading back to their airbnb for dinner and a chance to warm up. They made their favorite meal for everyone to share & cut into some of their favorite desert (tiramisu, the same as ours, and another reason we'll love them forever). It's easily one of the best, most welcoming elopement days we've ever been a part of, and hopefully the photos can give you just a glimpse of how fun this snowy North Cascades elopement was.
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