Eloping in a National Park
All images in this post are by The Hearnes
When Cameron, proposed to me in Yosemite National Park in April of 2019, I think I legitimately had an out-of-body experience. In the video he sneakily recorded, I repeatedly asked “Are you serious?!” because it was hard to comprehend how perfect it all was. There we were - standing alone on a cliff, at sunset, as the golden light filled the Yosemite Valley floor before us. It was our first trip to Yosemite and this moment quickly solidified it as one of my favorite places on earth. Engagement aside though, Yosemite still ranks as one of my favorite places I’ve ever traveled to.
Given how amazing our engagement was, it was a fairly easy decision for us to return to Yosemite in 2020 to get married with our closest family and friends by our side. I remember us talking about it the night we got engaged, sitting by the campfire and envisioning our future wedding. Because the outdoors are so important to us, it was my dream to get married surrounded by remote nature, in an adventure elopement style wedding.
We just celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary, so this felt timely to sit down and share a bit more about our wedding day. I’ve posted quite a few wedding photos on my Instagram, but am excited to share more here, and also use this platform as a way to share helpful tips for anyone else who is planning or dreaming about an adventure elopement-style wedding one day. Spoiler alert: it’s not as complicated as you might think! If anything, it will likely be a simpler and less stressful way to tie the knot - I know it was like that for us, even considering the curveballs that 2020 threw at us. When you’re planning a wedding, everyone has an opinion. So my intention is to provide my future adventure brides (and grooms) the best advice I can so that your day is perfect and true to you!
Note: The content in this post is pretty specific to planning a wedding in Yosemite, but much of this advice could easily be applied to a different national park or well-known outdoor destination.
Vow notebooks - Etsy
Invitations - Design template purchased from Etsy, customized by me
Ringbox - Etsy
Rings - Greenlake Jewelry Works
starting from scratch
If you know you want to have an adventure wedding, but aren’t sure where or how to start, my suggestion would be to make a list of the top 5-10 places you would want to get married at, as well as write down any outdoor activity that is important to incorporate into your day. For us, that activity was hiking, and specifically for me, I wanted to hike at sunrise and sunset, when the world puts on a display of its best colors. We chose Yosemite National Park as our location very early on because it just felt right for us and our story, but we didn’t have a strong preference for a specific time of the year. As the planning process unfolded, we ended up ruling out a winter or mid-summer wedding. It felt extremely doable to plan a small wedding within one year, so we landed on late spring/early summer wedding.
securing your wedding permit / choosing ceremony location
It will be important to research wedding regulations for the National Park or area you’re getting married in, as they all vary. The more popular parks, like Yosemite, have more regulations than you might find at a smaller park. I had to fill out and mail in an application requesting our wedding date, time and our top three ceremony locations. The permit cost $150 (a steal compared to the price of a wedding venue). The permit is a guarantee that there will not be another wedding ceremony occurring at the same place and time as yours, but it does not guarantee that you will have the ceremony location completely to yourselves. If you’re hoping to get married at a popular spot like Glacier Point or Tunnel View, I recommend choosing a weekday and/or holding the ceremony before 10am to avoid crowds. I know this may seem unconventional, but hey, that’s exactly what adventure elopements are!
We ended up getting married on a Sunday around 11am at Cathedral Beach. We chose Cathedral Beach because of the accessibility - it’s close to a parking lot, centrally located in Yosemite Valley and usually doesn’t get too crowded. This location worked out very well for us - there was hardly anybody else there, so it felt like our own private little cove on the river, with El Capitan standing over us.
vendors
photography/videography
To help us hone in on the wedding date further, I started to research vendors including a photographer, hair and make-up artist and a caterer (in that order). As a photographer myself, hiring an amazing wedding photographer(s) was very high on my priority list. I’ll be honest - I dreamed of The Hearnes photographing my wedding long before we were ever engaged. At first, it felt like a pipe dream, but then all of a sudden it felt like the stars were aligning when I went to check their 2020 travel schedule and saw they were planning to be in Yosemite in June 2020!! I contacted them to see if they had availability and once we put down a deposit, we selected our date of June 2, 2020.
Now, quick shoutout to Abbi and Callen Hearne, who if you aren’t following them on Instagram already then what are you doing??! They are the most genuine, raddest and talented couple I’ve ever met. They are the real deal - adventure lovers at heart who are stoked on capturing people who want to celebrate their love in nature. The Hearnes are also notoriously the best adventure wedding photographers in the industry. Their work has been featured in countless magazines, on wedding blogs and websites, they’ve been interviewed and had articles written about them, and honestly, just look at the pictures in this post - their work speaks for themselves. (All of the photos in this post were taken by The Hearnes) We couldn’t have asked for better people to capture our day and I just love them so much!
If you feel this strongly about a vendor like I did The Hearnes- then book it! You will be so happy that you did. Maybe that priority vendor is your caterer or videographer or make-up artist - whoever it may be, my advice is to splurge on that one vendor and be more modest in your selection of other vendors, as your financial situation allows you to. Because we prioritized spending more on photographers, we decided a videographer wasn’t in our budget. This decision still sits right with me, however, I do wish I had more behind the scenes videos taken throughout the day by our family and friends (so tell your guests to take tons of videos and upload them to a shared folder!). While we didn’t hire a cinematic videographer, we did record the ceremony for us to have as a memory, and also to share with family and friends who weren’t at the wedding. It was essentially free because I already had the camera and I borrowed by friends microphone and tripod. Even without a DSLR camera, you could set up your phone on a tripod and still get good video footage. This is a low-cost way to capture those memories forever!
hair and make-up
Personally, I cared less about my glam because I don’t wear a lot of makeup day-to-day nor do much with my hair. I began researching hair and makeup artists who serve the Yosemite Valley or specialize in Yosemite weddings and reached out to several vendors for a quote. I also looked at their websites and social media channels (including tagged photos) to see examples of their work. My main priority was to have a trial run included in the price, since I was booking out of state. Trial runs are a must in my opinion, regardless if your artist is local or out of state. A trial will give you and your artist peace of mind on your big day because you will have already agreed upon and tested out your look. I booked with Amanda Graham, who is based out of Fresno, CA. Amanda was the nicest person ever and amazing in so many ways - she was a strong communicator months leading up to the wedding, she was willing to wake up at pretty much any hour to start my hair and make-up, and she prioritized safety with proper sanitization and COVID-19 protocols. Amanda did my hair and make-up trial the day before the wedding and she did a perfect job! She made my make up look super natural and not heavy, which was exactly what I wanted. I didn’t have to request a single change from her and she also did glam for several family and friends at our wedding. Everyone was so happy with her and her team’s work!
Gown is the Valera Gown by Wtoo by Watters, sold by BHLDN
catering
The Hearnes have done so many weddings in Yosemite Valley, so I reached out to them for a caterer recommendation. They suggested The Painted Table, a local caterer based out of Fresno, CA. Again, knowing we wouldn’t be able to fly down to California before the wedding, I relied on recommendations from other vendors, also backed by online research and reviews. We were so happy with The Painted Table! Their food was delicious and their customer service was top notch, everything from initial planning to day-of coordination.
lodging/accommodations
We booked an Airbnb in Yosemite West, a small community inside the park, located about 20 mins from Yosemite Valley and right at the entrance of Glacier Point Road. Yosemite West is primarily vacation rentals. You can expect to pay a little more because of the proximity to the park, but they are likely going to be cheaper than a hotel. The hotels in Yosemite Valley are very expensive, so if you’re looking for a more affordable option, I suggest looking at hotels or vacation rentals near Wawona, the southern entrance to Yosemite.
I’m really happy we decided to book a larger Airbnb for our wedding. It was a gorgeous home, super spacious to accommodate all of our guests and so fun to have everyone in one place to keep the celebrations going all weekend!
Saying “I do” right under the watchful eye of El Capitan. Couldn’t ask for more or a better fall day!
day of schedule
One of my favorite things about choosing to do an adventure elopement is we got to choose exactly how we wanted to spend every minute of our day. Most traditional weddings last a few hours, which I often feel like is too short. After putting all this work into planning your special day, wouldn’t you want to keep it going for as long as possible?! We knew we wanted to hike at sunrise and/or sunset for the best lighting, but weren’t sure at first if we should hold our ceremony during the morning or the evening. Our photography package included photos for up to 8 hours, and we were able to break up the 8 hours into multiple chunks (just another perk of booking with The Hearnes!) Our wedding day looked a little bit like this:
2:30 AM: Wake up and start hair & makeup (yes, this was as difficult as it sounds haha)
5:30 AM: Leave the Airbnb and meet up with photographers at the trailhead
6:00 AM: Start hiking (in the dark)
7:00 AM: Arrive at the top and change into gown / suit for our first look
8:15 AM: Take photos, watch the sunrise, take in the peace and quiet!
9:00 AM: Arrive back at car, drive to Yosemite meadows
9:15 AM: Take photos in the meadows and admire climbers on El Cap
11:00 AM: Arrive at ceremony location; family and friends arrive; get married!!
11:30 AM: Take family portraits, sign marriage license
12:30 PM: Arrive back at Airbnb, have lunch and hangout with guests
4:00 PM: Touch-up makeup and change back into gown
5:30 PM: Arrive at sunset hike trailhead and meet back up with photographers
6:30 PM: Arrive at the top and take photos until the sun goes down
9:00 PM: Arrive back at the Airbnb for dinner, dessert and dancing
12:00 AM: Time for bed!
I stayed up for about 22 hours on my wedding day, and while I was exhausted later on, the excitement and energy of the entire day had me buzzing! I’m so happy we decided to maximize our day as much as possible, but it still felt very relaxed by taking long breaks between big events.
Walking in the Yosemite Meadows right before our ceremony. Please stay on trails in the meadows, as they are extremely fragile.
ADVENTURING IN FORMAL WEAR
As you can see from the itinerary above, we planned a couple different hikes to do on our wedding day. Nothing made me happier than being able to wear my gown on the trail and be outside for the majority of our day. For the sunrise hike, we hiked up in our normal workout/hiking clothes, then changed into formal wear at the top because that’s the location of where we wanted to do our private, first look. I hiked down in my gown, and also wore my gown hiking up and down to Taft Point for sunset. If you’re comfortable and it works logistically, I highly recommend staying in your formal wear while hiking for photos and also, you just feel magical walking around in the forest in a beautiful dress, like a fairy princess! When else are you really going to be able to have an experience like that? Definitely take advantage of your moment! For maximum comfort, I wore my hiking boots all day and wore my down jacket throughout to stay warm at sunrise and sunset. Remember to give yourself more time than you normally would to hike/climb/etc., wear comfortable shoes (or bring a change of shoes) and bring water/snacks and other essentials you’ll need in a backpack.
covid-19 considerations
We decided to move forward with our wedding in 2020 because it was so small and the country had started to open up a little bit more. I think our COVID-19 hiccups were very specific to us, but wanted to share anyways, as the pandemic is still very much ongoing.
Our original wedding date of June 2, 2020 was postponed to October 18, 2020 because Yosemite was shut down in the spring and travel was still really unsafe. This postponement meant coordinating with all our vendors and the park service on the date shift, rescheduling our flights and rental car and cancelling and booking a new Airbnb. We almost had to postpone again because the wildfires were so bad into the fall last year near Yosemite, but luckily the fires were gradually contained and the smoke subsided just in time for our big day! I’m grateful all of us traveled safely and as smart as we could to minimize our risk of exposure, and no one got sick.
I think outdoor adventure weddings and elopement are a great solution for COVID-conscious couples. It became very popular last year when so many couples realized they wouldn’t be able to have their big wedding anytime soon. Plus, you can always celebrate with a small group and plan a larger party later on when it’s safer to do so so!
conclusion
I am so happy with how everything came together for our special day! Planning a wedding in a different state during a global pandemic was certainly challenging at times, but I was so grateful we decided to do a small intimate wedding from the start. It made all the logistics much easier to manage. We had the best weekend ever, celebrating with our closest family and friends, sharing special memories after such an intense and difficult year. Thank you to everyone who made our dream wedding come true! The weekend was full of memories we will never forget.
Let me know in the comments if you are planning an outdoor adventure elopement or it’s something you’ve always dreamed about! If you have any questions, drop them below and I’d be happy to help!