Home Weddings Elopements Texas Dates Pet Portraits Pricing Stories About Contact
A couple on a windy Shenandoah summit, her skirt sweeping out behind her as he holds her hand on the rock
A couple holding each other's faces on a ridge with the Blue Ridge mountains layered behind them
A couple kissing on a wooden boardwalk running through tall coastal pines
A couple holding hands at a mountain trail junction framed by tall firs with a snow-covered peak behind
A couple walking hand in hand along the wet sand where the waves are running up the beach

Elopement Photography · Shenandoah, the Blue Ridge & the Coast Elope somewhere
worth the drive.

Tell Me Your Spot See how a day like this goes
Two people and a witnessTrailheads to courthousesI'll carry my own pack
How this works

Small does not mean underplanned.
It means the plan gets to be yours.

No seating chart, no receiving line, no schedule built around anyone else's afternoon. What you get instead is room: to hike in slowly, to say the whole vow without an audience, to sit on a rock afterward and not talk to anybody. I can help think through timing, light, parking, permits, and whether those shoes are lying to you. If you don't have the spot yet, send me the rough shape of it, woods or water or courthouse or family land, and we'll narrow it down together.

Getting there

The walk in is part of the wedding.

Elopements have a shape most weddings don't: you change at the car, you carry your dress up a trail, it rains anyway, and you swap boots for the good shoes about thirty feet from where you'll say your vows. I photograph all of it, not just the ceremony at the end. Years later the hike is usually the part couples tell people about.

A couple walking hand in hand up a leaf-covered trail through golden autumn woods
A couple walking away up a mountain path toward the peak, seen from behind
A bride in an autumn flower crown laughing on the trail as the groom waits behind her
A groom leading his bride by the hand across a bare rocky ridge under a pale sky
A couple standing together beside a Frazier Discovery Trail signpost in late autumn woods
A groom leading his bride along a dark stone overlook, her skirt trailing behind her
A bride lifting her gown to show patterned hiking boots as she climbs a rock face
A couple standing together in bright yellow autumn woods, the bride laughing in a white fur coat
A couple walking away up a narrow trail through bare autumn woods, her veil catching the light
A groom leading his bride across a windy summit boulder, her skirt streaming out behind her
A couple wrapped together in a blanket, forehead to forehead as the sun rises behind the ridge
A couple walking a dark ridge line framed by a bare tree, valley lights glittering below
Why the photos look like that

I'll put you in the shade.

Not a meadow at noon with both of you squinting into it. The edge of a tree's shadow, with open ground in front of you. The light comes off that ground and goes up into your face and fills in everything under your eyes and your chin. You'll look at that photo later and not know why you look good in it. That's why.

I used to wait for good light. Golden hour, the twenty good minutes, all of it. Then I did enough of these to figure out that you never get what you want when you want it. Your Shenandoah permit is for eleven in the morning, there's a cloud sitting on the whole valley, and it is not going anywhere. So I quit waiting and got very good at using what's already there.

Most of this is happening while you're doing something else anyway. Getting a boot back on. Standing at the overlook not talking. That's where most of your gallery comes from and it's the part nobody thinks to make beautiful.

Overcast is a giant softbox. It's free. I'll take it.

A bride in an autumn flower crown glancing back over her shoulder, hair lifting in the wind, the groom looking at her
A couple standing side by side against a blank white overcast sky, turned to look at each other
A couple holding each other's faces on a ridge with soft blue mountain layers behind them
Mostly from people who hate having their photo taken
“We said we wanted to be out in nature, and Aaron delivered. He even suggested the location.”Lillian
“He has such a calm demeanor that makes you feel totally comfortable even if you hate being in front of a camera.”Sarah
“He was very professional, but also very calming and helpful when I was a nervous wreck.”Kathy
Read all the reviews on Google
The small things

There is nowhere to put a ring on a mountain.

So they go on moss. On a log, on a rock, on somebody's folded jacket. A flower crown ends up next to a pair of muddy boots because that is where there was room. The bouquet rides up in a backpack, comes out looking rough, and photographs like it was styled. You are going to be far too busy getting married to notice any of this. These end up being the frames that bring the whole day back at once.

A close frame of a couple holding hands during their vows, the officiant's book just in view
A close frame of a couple's clasped hands at their sides, her tattooed forearm against his suit
Three rings arranged on a bright green mossy log in the woods
A couple reaching their hands toward each other, both rings visible, mountains blurred behind
Two wedding bands nestled inside a blush rose at the centre of a white and blue bridal bouquet
Two hands reaching toward each other over mossy ground, fingertips almost touching
Two hands reaching toward each other above moss and ferns, his wedding band showing
A couple picking their way hand in hand across a boulder field on a bare winter ridge
A couple kissing on a rocky Shenandoah overlook with the valley spread out far below them
If it's water instead of mountains

Boardwalks, marsh, and a beach with nobody on it.

Not every elopement wants elevation. Assateague and the Maryland shore give you the same privacy in a completely different key: a boardwalk through the loblolly pines, a marsh overlook with the whole sound behind you, and sand you can walk barefoot on afterward. Dogs are welcome and are frequently the best-behaved guest.

A couple walking a long wooden boardwalk beneath tall thin coastal pines
A couple holding each other in the dunes, framed by tall sea oats under a pale sky
A couple kissing at a railing above a wide green salt marsh under an open sky
A couple holding each other tightly on a summit, the valley soft and out of focus behind them
A couple laughing on a dock while holding their long-haired dachshund between them
A groom carrying his bride along the surf line on a wide sand beach
A couple standing ankle deep in still marsh water at golden hour, holding each other
A couple resting on a stone wall at blue hour with town lights scattered far below
A couple standing forehead to forehead in the dunes, framed by sea oats against a pale sky
And sometimes it's a plane ticket

Farther than a tank of gas.

Most of my elopements happen within a few hours of Shepherdstown, but not all of them. This one was Mount Rainier: a cabin morning, a gondola ride, a handful of people at an overlook, and a very long way from West Virginia. If your spot is somewhere else entirely, tell me where and I'll tell you honestly what it takes to do it well.

A couple saying their vows at a stone overlook framed by firs, a glacier-covered peak between them
A groom dipping his bride into a kiss on a rocky outcrop high above the Shenandoah valley
A single wildflower stem of zinnia, amaranth and grasses in a pink pressed-glass bud vase
Sunbeams breaking through heavy storm cloud over the Shenandoah valley
A groom lifting and kissing his bride on an overlook with a hazy mountain range falling away behind them
A couple facing each other on a summit at night with the lights of the valley behind them
A couple holding each other in a subalpine meadow ringed with dark evergreens
A groom lifting his bride into a kiss on a rocky ridge with distant mountains behind
A couple resting forehead to forehead in soft mountain light, her hand on his chest
Elopement places

Harpers Ferry, Shenandoah, Berkeley Springs, Dolly Sods, and the quiet roads between.

Harpers Ferry

Old town texture, river views, and a day that can stay small without feeling thin. Easy to reach, and there is somewhere good to eat afterward.

Shenandoah

Best when the timeline respects permits, parking, light, and the fact that the good overlooks get busy. Worth every bit of the planning.

Cabins

Privacy, woods, somewhere warm to get ready, and a porch to come back to. The most forgiving option when the forecast turns.

Dolly Sods

Wind-bent spruce, open heath, and weather that does what it likes. For couples who want the landscape to feel genuinely wild.

The coast

Assateague and the Maryland shore, for boardwalks through the pines, marsh overlooks, and an empty beach at the end of it.

Courthouses

Short, useful, and worth photographing well, especially when dinner with your people comes right after.

The third person up there

I'm going to be breathing pretty hard when we get up there.

I tripped over my own shoe on a hike up to an elopement once. Not a dramatic fall. I just went down, in front of the two people who hired me, on the way to their wedding.

I train for it now. I'm in much better shape than I was. I still get to the top red-faced and wheezing.

So if we summit and my face is the color of a stop sign, nobody needs to check on me. I'm not having a heart attack. I'm a guy who gets to do this for a living, and I'm excited, and I am really really excited to breathe.

Next step

Tell me your spot.

Send me the date and the place, even if the place is still a guess. I'll write back with everything, usually within the hour. If you want numbers first, the pricing page has them. If you'd rather see a whole day start to finish, the stories are full of them.

Tell Me Your Spot See Pricing