What do you do when half the country is locked down and you’re not 100% sure where you can go or what you can do when you get there? How about an epic 10 day road trip with two of your best friends? Just a van, the open road, and a lot of amazing places….and miles! To elaborate, Jenny and I were planning on renewing their vows in 2020 and we were going to go out west for some big mountain action. When we ran everything by our friends Jesse and Megan, they decided they wanted to come along and renew theirs too. Jesse and Megan like as are also wedding photographers so this would be perfect, they could shoot ours, and we could shoot there. What was even more helpful was that Jesse used to live out west so he literally knew all of the amazing spots to hit along the way.
With this being our first trip out west, we were overwhelmed with the beauty around seemingly every corner. We ventured to Denver, Rocky Mountain National Park, Aspen, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming! One of my favorite stops along the way for a multitude of reasons was Utah, specifically the canyon lands and dead horse point. We camped there along the way and what was crazy was the difference in temperature from the night before. We went from 29 degrees at 9,000 ft above sea level in aspen to a humid 80 degrees by the time we settled in for the night. Utah was unlike anything we had ever seen and while we were out there we also brought an extra outfit to have some fun in the canyons! Jesse and Megan totally rocked their anniversary session and it was the perfect warm up for their vow renewal in just a few days.
By the time we had arrived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for Jesse and Megan’s vow renewal, we had already been to so many amazing places in Colorado, not to mention Utah, and Yellowstone National Park. Jenny and I the whole time were like should we do it here? What about here? Jesse was like “Just trust me guys, wait until we get to the Grand Tetons, you’re going to be blown away.” I’m glad we listened to him because he could not have been any more right. As we drove by The Grand Teton National Park and made our way into Jackson, it was sensory overload with all of the beautiful surroundings. Thankfully we had a couple days to explore and take it all in. When the day of their vow renewal ceremony finally arrived we were pumped! Jesse may or may not have been writing his vows the night before, but I digress (lol). Technically I had to as well because I typed them on the computer and as she always does Jenny hit me with logic and said “Are you going to read them off of the laptop during the ceremony!?” Thanks babe. We were all up at the crack of dawn getting ready, making sure we didn’t miss anything, you name it. Jesse even turned part time stylist right beneath our noses as he did Megan’s hair, let’s just say Youtube is awesome! Beyond being two of our best friends, this was also special for Jesse and Megan because they had their elopement in the Grand Tetons. Getting to relive some of these moments, and revisit some of the special places is truly a priceless trip down memory lane. Instead of being traditional, we all decided we wanted to do our vow renewal elopement style and the location we finally decided on was Mt. Moran Pull Out. It honestly wasn’t even really on our radar at first but when we drove by I think caught all of our eyes. It was such a beautiful setting, and so ideal for this beautiful moment. Do to our distance we weren’t able to listen word for word, but zoomed in through our lenses we were able to feel Jesse and Megan joy as well as their deep love for one another. It’s these kind of moments that truly impact who we are not only as photographers, but as people, and as a couple. They are a pleasant reminder of why we do what we do. Love!
