Want wild wedding photos? Call an elopement adventure photographer

Standing near the ledge of a magnificent canyon in Utah’s Dead Horse Point State Park in the hours before sunset, my fiancée Gia and I looked each other in the eyes as we read our vows. But our officiant was nowhere in sight.

That’s because she was darting around the rocks, seeking the perfect angle to capture the moment with her camera. We hired Aimée Flynn as our photographer, but she became our officiant as well. She was also our location scout, wedding planner and even our tour guide. On the short hike to our ceremony spot, she told us about the park’s flora and fauna and how “Thelma and Louise” was filmed at a spot below where we stood.

For Flynn, it’s all part of her job as an elopement adventure photographer. Those who pursue this style of specialized wedding photography forgo old-school events for unique adventures, guiding couples through the most intimate ceremonies in nature’s most spectacular settings. Flynn, who’s based in Flagstaff, Ariz., photographed one couple embraced in a Spider-Man-style kiss while climbing on sheer rock face in Moab and another under the moonlight at Yosemite’s Glacier Point after a middle-of-the-night hike in total isolation.

Elopement adventure photography was born in earnest 10 years ago, pioneered by Maddie Mae, a wedding photographer who’d grown disillusioned with traditional weddings. “There was a lot of discontentment from people feeling pressure to do things they didn’t want, like the garter toss, or who had family members trying to make the event about them,” recalls Maddie Mae, who goes by one name. “Eighty percent seemed like they just wanted it to be over with.”

There were already photographers taking couples out in gorgeous outdoor settings, but “I didn’t see anyone offering a full-day experience treated with the same importance as a big wedding,” Maddie Mae says.

Maddie Mae changed the game — her elopement adventures took people wherever they wanted to go, giving them permission to have whatever kind of ceremony they desired. When she shot her first elopement in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, she was transformed. All the traditional wedding details were stripped away: There was no venue, no decor, no distracting crowd, no strict timeline. Just two people committing their lives to each other in nature, which she calls “the most sacred of sanctuaries.”

“It was the first time I’d seen a couple where they were fully present in their eyes the entire day,” Maddie Mae says. “It was the purest form of a wedding.”

Other photographers followed in Maddie Mae’s footsteps, especially after she began leading workshops on elopement adventures; the three other photographers I interviewed for this piece, Flynn, Traci Edwards and Karen Agurto, all took her courses.

Elopement adventures remained a “very niche” field until the COVID-19 pandemic, Flynn says. “People couldn’t have their big weddings but still wanted to get married.” (Maddie Mae received 284 inquiries in May 2020 alone.)

The photographers emphasize that their job involves much more than taking beautiful pictures. “These couples are rejecting the default template, which opens this world of possibilities,” Maddie Mae says. “But then they wonder, ‘Where do we go, what do we do, how can we make this ours?’ Elopement photographers are experience creators.”

For starters, the photographers double as trip planners. Sometimes, Agurto, who’s based in Orange County and shoots entirely in California, says she has some blanket recommendations — no Death Valley in the summer or Big Sur during mudslide season, for instance — but each couple is different. Some have clear visions for their adventure while others are more open. Edwards, similarly, has seen all sorts of requests, from a couple who would go anywhere in the desert under a night sky (she chose Joshua Tree) to one who wanted to be photographed on a specific 11-mile hike in Washington. She encourages couples to choose a place that “matches their relationship.” During the elopements, her husband Bill takes photos via drone and shoots video.

(Maddie Mae, who is in a different echelon in terms of pricing and clientele, has photographed elopements in more than 20 countries, including at the Dolomites in Italy, the deserts in Namibia and glaciers in Iceland. She says at this point in her career, clients often give her free rein.)

My fiancée and I knew we wanted to get married somewhere beautiful in a location new to both of us, and we found Flynn after searching online. We had originally planned for Canyonlands rather than Dead Horse Point — not because of the unromantic name but because we’d never heard of it. But Flynn explained that the national park had more restrictions and less privacy while Dead Horse offered equally monumental vistas.

She educated us about the pros and cons of sunrise versus sunset shoots (we chose sunset), recommended hair stylists and makeup artists for Gia, made restaurant suggestions and encouraged my idea of a kayaking trip on the Colorado River the day after our wedding as a nice contrast with our hikes in Canyonlands and Arches the two days before the ceremony. (Quick aside: We found lodging on our own. If you’re heading to Moab, definitely go to Red Moon Lodge, which features cozy rooms that open onto majestic views, a garden, a pond and an outdoor space where one of the co-owners, Danny, teaches yoga classes.)

Flynn says communication is crucial, which keeps couples calm if things go awry. The photographers build flex time into their schedule so if bad weather looms, they can shift ceremony timing by a few hours or even a day.

Another must is a bag of emergency provisions, in case they have to save the day. Agurto’s bag includes hairspray, Band-Aids and Tylenol; Flynn’s has safety pins, blankets, clear umbrellas and eyelash glue (“when people are hiking, their eyelashes can come undone”); and Edwards says snacks are a critical item (she witnessed one person almost pass out in a remote area), as is a sewing kit (“I’ve sewn several brides back into their dresses after a zipper broke or sleeve ripped on the trail,” she says).

Above all, the photographers prioritize creating emotional connections as much as capturing epic pictures. “With AI, you could fake these photos, but the people who hire elopement adventure photographers want the full experience,” says Flynn.

At ceremony time, Agurto, who used to teach yoga, starts her couples off by asking them to close their eyes and do a breathing exercise. “I want to calm them and get them in the moment,” she says. (We adopted that idea and it helped us savor the experience.) The photographers also make sure to give couples as much privacy as needed — that’s what zoom lenses are for, Flynn notes, while Agurto adds that she offers to wear headphones during the vows.

After exchanging vows and rings, Gia and I sipped prosecco, ate brownies and danced to Langhorne Slim’s “House of My Soul,” while Flynn continued shooting (taking a break only to share some bubbly), sometimes asking for specific poses but mostly letting us be.

And while the ceremony is obviously the emotional centerpiece, the day doesn’t end there. For us, the rest of the evening was almost as memorable, a mix of jaw-dropping beauty and carefree fun. Flynn took us to different spots for more photos as the sun was setting. Then she took out lanterns for us to pose with in the moonlight. Flynn’s infectious enthusiasm made us feel like models or movie stars on a photo shoot. (Enhancing that feeling was the way people reacted when they saw us hiking in formal wedding attire and boots.)

Later still, we drove to Arches National Park, with Flynn enjoying her work so much she went well beyond the four-hour window we had hired her for.

The evening ended with Gia and I standing beneath North Window Arch, illuminated by the nearly full moon, with a sky full of stars behind us. It was as romantic and as visually stunning as it sounds. Because Flynn does her job so well, we were able to fully relax into the moment, trusting that we would have both our memories and exquisite photos to preserve this day forever.