Pandemic. Long distance dating. A planned wedding. A tragic accident. A cabin ceremony. A mountain elopement.
This is our wedding story.
Or rather, this is the story of our impromptu elopement.
I was never the girl who dreamt of her wedding day. Big dresses, flowers, lots of people, save the dates, details, details, details. This all just wasn’t me.
On the flip side, I always dreamt of being married.
I come from a divorced household. A strong mom, a disengaged father. A broken example of the commitment of marriage yet somehow, I had a deep, unshakeable desire to create a life that mirrored a strong, God filled, lifelong covenant. With only glimpses into the lives of couples that were living out what I believe marriage should be, I was determined to wait and find someone that matched my desire for commitment. This was no easy feat!
But boy oh boy am I glad I waited and matched with Trevor <3
Mushy details aside, once we were engaged, we wasted no time in planning our I dos. Although a traditional wedding wasn’t my speed, there were aspects we both desired.
A memorable location with the people we loved.
Trevors parents have built a really special life on their property. Through blood, sweat and tears, they’ve transformed what was once a run down farm house as teenagers with a newborn to a renovated home with a business, pond and now cabin that their family can enjoy for years to come.
To say Trevors roots on this property run deep is an understatement! I love his parents love story and the uniqueness of their property — so we decided what better place to say I do than on this meaningful foundation.
After a few weeks of interviewing photographers and brainstorming on how we could transform his dads workshop into our wedding venue, a tragic accident happened.
In the middle of the night, the shed caught fire and burnt down.
With years of memories, business, and assets now to sift through and process as loss, it was too painful to go forward with planning a wedding there.
We could’ve waited for the rebuild but we were ready to start life together and that meant tying the knot ASAP. As the specific date/month/time of year wasn’t a priority to either of us, we thought about what would be meaningful next. At the time, our one year dating anniversary was coming up in a few weeks — could we pull it off? 365 days after the “you’re pretty alright, I’ll date you” date to being married?
Challenge accepted.
But where? My grandparents got eloped at the courthouse back in the day. The idea was appealing to me, however Trevor wasn’t keen. I love Colorado and a mountain backdrop sounded perfect, but that could be quite pricey. We could go to the beach? Its a bit cold and a bit too far of a drive.
Then I remembered saving a post from years ago of a location in the smoky mountains that had a cross on a hillside. I didn’t know where it was or what it was called, but I remembered thinking how neat it would be to have gotten married there.
Scrolling through years of saved posts and googling “cross on a mountain wedding location US” over and over, I finally found it.
The pretty place chapel, SC!
With it being a month out from our one year, chances of it being available for our date was slim. However, one call answered with surprising availably and we were planning our elopement!
We had to switch gears on literally everything we thought we’d plan for a wedding and made the calls to a few important people we’d love to go with us. Even if it was just to be Trevor and I, we we’re going to make it happen, rain or shine!
Our photographer was excited and thankfully available to join along! She jumped right in to helping us pick locations for pictures and timing the ceremony, being that we’d be getting married the morning of day light savings time.
This was really happening.
One month to elopement.
-Photo credit to Emily Hary Photography-
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