Amanda & Chad | Sedona Elopement
Amanda and Chad are an awesome couple I got the chance to work with when they reached out to me about booking their elopement last spring. Though they currently reside in Prescott, the couple is fairly new to Arizona and was looking for some help planning a Sedona elopement! The couple, not knowing much about the area they were looking to get married in, were super great at maintaining flexible, go-with-the-flow attitudes throughout the whole process. After gathering all the basic information about what Amanda wanted for the day and learning that she wanted their families included, we discussed a few different locations I had in mind and what they offered the couple in terms of landscape and scenery. Finally, we decided on Secret Slip Rock, a location that really showcases the Sedona red rocks and the beautiful views and outlooks that the town has to offer.
When I arrived at the Airbnb the morning of, Amanda was getting ready with her mom and her brother and they were very much having a chill, relaxed start to their day. Once I got there, I took some detail shots as well as some of Amanda as she got into her dress. After that, Amanda’s father arrived to drive her to the ceremony location, which was luckily only about 2 minutes away from the Airbnb! The rest of us drove up to the location separately, and when we arrived at the parking area I met the groom Chad and the rest of the guests there on site. I lead all of the guests and the wedding party, excluding Amanda and her mom and dad, down to the ceremony site and got everyone into position.
The couple had a dear friend that Chad had met through his biker club officiate the ceremony, so I positioned him in the middle and Chad next to him and then split the guests into two groups to form an aisle for Amanda to walk down. Her mother and father walked her down the aisle, and her father gave her away to Chad when she got to the front of the congregation. Having an officiant that was a close friend of the couple made for a ceremony full of laughter, intimate, heartwarming stories about the couple, and plenty of lighthearted jokes about each of them. Though it was very windy that day the sun shone down on us and Amanda and Chad had the red rock plateau all to themselves, making for an intimate and memorable celebration with their family and close friends!
Immediately after came group photos, where there was a great mix of family and friends among the various shots I got that day since the couple had such an intimate wedding party. Though you can’t tell from the elation radiating off of everyone in the photos, it was unbelievably windy on the day of Amanda and Chad’s elopement. The (albeit gorgeous) spring weather definitely provided some challenges, but nothing could steal the smiles from the faces of anyone there that day.
After that, Amanda and Chad decided to celebrate with a first dance. This is a detail that I absolutely love when couples include on their elopement day because it's usually something reserved for more traditional weddings, but it can absolutely be included in your elopement timeline if it’s something you’d like to do! The couple danced to a song that was super special to them and their story, and then towards the end of the first dance both sets of their parents joined in with them and it was a really gorgeous moment. After that we sprayed champagne and the guests were able to have one more moment to celebrate the couple before sending them off to soak up their new husband and wife status just the two of them!
I wanted to include a little side-note about how truly windy it was on the day of this elopement! After the first dances, I captured this photo of some of the wedding party with their arms out as they leaned back and were held up solely by the force of the wind gusts!
After sending the family off, I continued on with Amanda and Chad to do their sweetheart session as they adventured on the red rocks. Any pressures or stress that had come with the ceremony and being in front of people had melted away, and the couple was so present and joyful together in that moment. Both Amanda and Chad are truly just goofy, carefree people and it was great to see Chad letting his guard down and being ready to go along with any pose or shot suggestion I had for them, which is sometimes an obstacle I run into with grooms during sweetheart session specifically. Because it was so windy we decided to drop down into a lower section to avoid both the wind and the accompanying chill, as the couple really wanted to play with some more creative photo ideas so we could show off their amazing, fun-loving personalities. And, of course, I gave them some time and space to just be together and soak up that gorgeous newlywed feeling.
Capturing all of the special, significant details of Amanda and Chad's elopement was extremely important to me. Not only because it wasn’t a traditional wedding and therefore didn’t have a lot of the decorations or accouterment that come with that, but because all the ways that the couple incorporated personal elements into their day struck me as something really special. Amanda had put charms on her shoes, and Chad had photos of the people that the couple had lost tucked into his boutonniere and wore a belt buckle that was special to him. The couple also had customized wedding rings that represented each of them in different ways, and Amanda gifted Chad a watch that had lyrics from their first dance song engraved on the inside. I was so happy to be able to highlight all the aspects of their day that they put so much thought and effort into and as an elopement bride myself I understood the importance of these personalized items.
After heading back up to the outlook, we adventured around some more and took some final goofy shots. Before I said goodbye to the couple, I also took some photos of them with their new truck, as it was an important symbol of their union to them since they had bought it and then driven it to their new home in Arizona, effectively driving into their new life together. Amanda and Chad’s goofy, loving, carefree personalities really made them dream clients and it was a gorgeous, heartwarming day all around.
