Planning and Preparing for Your Hiking Elopement
Planning and Preparing for Your Hiking Elopement
You’ve decided that you want to have a hiking elopement. But where do you start? What type of planning goes into it? As your wedding photographers and guides, we have created this resource just for you, and includes everything you will want to know when planning and preparing for your hiking elopement!
How to Plan for your Hiking Elopement
Hiking elopements are like a good episode of “Friends”; they just never seem to get old, and they always find a way to make us smile, laugh and cry all at the same time. But this isn’t about what we think, this is about you! YOU are here because you are on an adventure. An adventure to learn more about elopements and how you can plan a hiking elopement or best prepare yourself for the adventure you already have planned.
As Leave No Trace aware photographers, we know that Planning Ahead and Preparing is the first of the 7 LNT Principles! Planning and preparing for your elopement is essential to having a successful adventure. As your photographers and guides, we will nerd out about everything LNT and you’ll never forget the principles you can practice every day to lower the impact we leave when adventuring outdoors.
Continue reading on for our tips and tricks when preparing for your wedding and elopement!
Safety First: Location, Accessibility, and Gear
You have dreamed up the perfect location for your elopement. Now it’s time to get to work and start planning! The first thing you will need to research and consider is the time of year, and if the location of your dreams will be accessible in a safe manner. If your location of choice happens to be in the mountains at elevation, you will want to be sure that you are going in months when roads will be managed and open! There are a handful of beautiful locations in Colorado that become inaccessible in the winter due to mountain passes being closed. Fun fact about Colorado, “winter” can start as early as late September and last until late May! Road openings and more information can be seen at the Colorado Department of Transportation’s website.
Equally important to your safety and your comfort during your hiking elopement is considering the difficulty of accessing this dream location. What is your experience with hiking? Will guests or pets join you? What might their experience level be like? Assessing the difficulty of the trail to access your dream location is an important step in creating a successful and stress-free day. Be honest with yourself here, and if you haven’t experienced much hiking in the past to fully understand the grind, we recommend trying a few hikes locally to get an idea! Pro Tip: Hiking at a higher elevation is much more difficult than hiking closer to sea level. The air is much thinner, making breathing harder. We highly recommend our couples build in at least a day, even two, to get acclimated to the difference in elevation.
Last but not least, let’s talk about gear. Most importantly, footwear. Hiking can introduce uneven and rocky surfaces that dress shoes, heels, and even some tennis shoes shouldn’t approach. To keep yourself safe and secure, we highly recommend investing in some hiking boots or shoes. We tend to like boots better when carrying extra weight, as you will get extra ankle support for those longer hikes. For extra hot days, opt for breathable hiking shoes! Another great piece of gear to have along for a hike is a set of hiking poles. These help you endure longer hikes, lessen the impact on your knees when declining, and help with posture and balance through uneven surfaces!
Weather, Backup Plan
Planning for weather is not a perfect science. This is especially true in some of the most beautiful, remote wilderness areas that typically are at a higher elevation. As your photographers and your guides, we can’t help but recommend locations that fit this description for your hiking elopement, as they often provide seclusion and epic views! When planning for your hiking elopement, be sure to understand the typical weather patterns for the time of year in that specific area. When planning to hike at elevation, you will want to watch weather extra close leading up to your day as the weather can change on a dime!
Unpredictable weather is something we have worked through many times over, and we always prepare a backup plan with you in case weather decides to throw us a curveball. A small amount of precipitation isn't a reason to reschedule, if anything it’s the opposite! Rain and snow are a ton of fun to photograph. It’s dangerous winds or sudden temperature drops that can cause scenarios in which a backup plan can provide us some flexibility. LL Tip: If you book with us for a full-day session, we include a flex day around your date in case the weather truly decides to interfere! Check out our packages & pricing for more info!
Food and Drink
Everyone needs fuel! Planning ahead for food and drink is important when planning for a hiking elopement. We prioritize water, but we are advocates for bringing your favorite bottle of champagne or your favorite beers/wine along for the ride. In Lauren’s opinion, there is nothing better than a celebratory summit beer. For food, we often recommend our couple’s to pack sandwiches and lots of snacks! Sandwiches are typically filling, and you can split them in half to make them last throughout the day. For snacks, you can bring anything your heart desires. It’s your day! Here are some things we recommend when packing food and drinks for your hiking elopement:
Water. And more water. Don’t forget extra water for the dog!
Sandwiches of your choosing. Get the big, big, big ones so you can make it last!
Snack Bars! RX Bars are Travis’s favorite, and Lauren prefers Kate’s!
Something Savory… Nuts are a great source of protein and salt. If you like sweets as well, trail mix is a great option. Pro Tip: Make your own trail mix! Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, and other natural food stores will have trail mix ingredients sold by weight. This allows you to create a perfectly customized mix of dried fruits, nuts, and chocolate!
Something Sweet! A donut? Maybe a small cake, or a cupcake! Whatever speaks to you here, we recommend celebrating with something sweet after your ceremony.
Something to drink other than water. A champagne toast, cheers with your favorite beers, or your favorite bottle of wine. We will help you practice Leave No Trace and keep the space as we found it! If you don’t prefer alcoholic beverages, you are still included in this section! Bring along your favorite non-alcoholic drinks, like soda and seltzer. These are just as important and help tell the whole story of your love.
One of our favorite ways that couples choose to celebrate with food and drink during an epic hiking elopement is with a picnic! There really isn’t anything like a post hike picnic. It’s not only a great reward when you arrive, but it gives you some time to appreciate what you just accomplished and enjoy the scenery!
Pets and/or Guests
Planning to have your pet along for the ride? That’s great! Inviting some friends and family? Wonderful. The more the merrier in our eyes. This is your day, and those closest and important to you should be present for the parts of your wedding that you would like them present for. We treat our dog, Denali, like family and he has become a pretty regular part of our business. Don’t be surprised if he witnesses your wedding, too!
Let’s start with planning for your pet to join you on your hiking elopement. The key here is going to be water. Carrying extra water for your dog is very important! They need to hydrate just like we do. Is your dog capable of carrying some of their own water and gear? If so, Ruffwear makes an awesome harness with small pouches allowing your pup to carry their own food, water, poop bags, and even extra treats or a favorite toy (for downtime) on their backs! We only recommend this for pups that are highly active or have experience using these harness packs. For the most durable and lightest dog gear accessories on the market, check out Atlas Pet Company. Their water bowl and poop bag pouch are like nothing else available on the market, and their leash and collar combination is the best thing we own for Denali. All of their gear is handmade in the USA, is incredibly durable, and comes with a lifetime warranty!Now let’s talk a little bit about your guests. First, you need to evaluate where you are asking them to go; how accessible is it? Can your grandparents/parents make it easily? What are the restrictions of this particular spot? What could the weather bring? There are lots of logistics to consider when asking others to join you on a hiking Elopement.
Most of the time, when working with us on planning for your elopement, we are going to encourage remote places that are less visited. This gives you an overall better experience and avoids crowds of tourists. We can help you to decide on places that may be more accessible for your potential guests, and iron out some of those logistics when necessary. If you need an officiant, Travis can fill that role! We can also sign as your witnesses on your marriage license.
Wedding Attire (Dress and Suit)
If you are planning to go hiking on your wedding day or for your elopement, make sure to consider this when picking out your dress and suit!
Materials:
You want to choose materials that are forgiving to the elements, and that also allows you to move comfortably throughout the day. If you are choosing to hike for your elopement, we know you want those epic hiking photos in your wedding attire!
Shoes:
We have already touched on this in the safety section of this blog but wanted to remind you that we always recommend our couples to have hiking shoes/boots along for the adventure. If they choose to change into something else for the ceremony, that’s fine! However, we absolutely love the hiking boot/shoe look with an epic suit and/or wedding dress.
One of our favorite tips for the bride and groom is on cooler or colder days, wear long johns or leggings under your dress/suit! It is a perfect way to add an extra layer that you will never have to see in your photographs. The most important thing is that you are extra comfortable so that we can take time to get those epic portraits on your wedding day. For cooler months, plan to bring a jacket that you don’t mind being photographed in!
Florals and Accessories
Just because you have decided to hike for your elopement doesn’t mean that you can’t have flowers and your favorite accessories along for the adventure. We love when brides explore unique bouquets and flower crowns (if that’s your style) for hiking elopements. Your day is just as important as a traditional wedding, so there is no need to skimp on the smaller details that are important to you. Pro Tip: A ziploc bag and a few paper towels can have a bouquet looking super fresh even after a long, sunny day of hiking in the wilderness!
As for smaller accessories like jewelry and other sentimental pieces, we recommend storing them with your rings somewhere super safe in your pack. Jewelry boxes are designed to protect what’s inside, so use these when they are available and fit in your pack! The next best setup, in our opinion, is to use a small bag organizer like this one. For extra protection, invest in a small dry bag to place inside the top of your pack, that way when you’re putting your pack down, it is nested safely up top and easily accessible!
Planning for your hiking elopement can be a pretty overwhelming thing to tackle solo. Our best advice is to start with your own creature comforts. What do you typically like to have with you while hiking? Definitely make sure to have that stuff along for the ride! Then add in wedding essentials (don’t forget the rings!) and refer to our planning tips and tricks above. And don’t forget to touch up on the Leave No Trace Seven Principles ahead of your trip for a successful and low-impact adventure!
Don’t hike frequently or don’t feel you are ever fully prepared for a hike? We are here to help! Having hiked all over the country, exploring primarily remote locations, we are experts in preparation for anything nature decides to throw our way. Want to learn more about how hiking elopements impact our environment? Read up on Leave No Trace and the Seven Principles at the LNT website.
Meet Your Leave No Trace Aware Elopement Photographers
We follow the 7 Leave No Trace Principles when we are outdoors for personal recreation and when we are photographing adventure elopements. We stand by these 7 principles so much that we became certified Leave No Trace Aware Photographers! It is important that we do our part when we are using our public lands and to leave it better than we found it.
When you hire us for your elopement, we provide you with a Leave No Trace Guide that has tons of information on how you can do your part on your elopement day and any other day you are using our beautiful public lands! Ready to book your elopement? Inquire with us today.