Olympic National Park Elopement

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I have some of the most spectacular wedding portraits ever to share with you today. Chase and Taytum are joining us with their Olympic National Park elopement in Washington held on the 1st June 2020. COVID-19 disrupted their plans somewhat, however their elopement looked oh so magical despite the changes they made.

Firstly they tied the knot on the beach, before celebrating with cake and champagne. They then hiked up Mount Storm King for their epic portraits by The Foxes Photography. It looked oh so romantic, especially as the sun set. I really love the simplicity of their wedding. They chose stunning outfits, beautiful rings, fresh blooms and a pretty cake. Just gorgeous.

The Proposal

November 6, 2019

Chase took me to a little cabin in the woods for a week-long vacation, on beaver lake in Eureka Spring, Arkansas. Chase’s plan was to take me on a hike through the beautiful autumn coloured woods and propose to me on top of a mountain. That sounded like a perfect idea, it’s too bad that’s not how the story goes. You see, Chase had gone to the dentist earlier that week for a root canal. While we were sitting on the back porch of our cabin enjoying the beautiful autumn crisp morning, his dentist decides to call and check in on him. Of course, Chase is talking to his dentist on speaker phone, when his dentist asks, “so have you popped the question?” Chase quickly turned around to see if I heard the question. By the look of my jaw dropping he knew that I knew. When Chase got off the phone he just walked out to his truck and came back with a tiny box. On that crisp autumn morning with a beautiful lake view, he got down on one knee. In our matching black bear pajama pants and crazy bed hair, he asked me to marry him.

The Vision

The vision was to have a perfectly simple wedding, stress free, with a few family members. I envisioned us simply driving up to hurricane ridge, getting married, eating cake and going on a sunset hike for some amazing pictures.

The Planning Process

To know our planning process of our wedding, you need a little background information. Chase and I both lived in small towns on the border of Arkansas and Texas. Chase was a police officer for 5 years and I was working as a registered nurse, when we both decided we needed a little adventure in our lives. Chase sold his house and quit his job, what we didn’t sell we packed into storage. I decided I was going to start travel nursing, so we could get out of our tiny little town and see other parts of this beautiful country. My first travel nursing assignment was in Washington State. Originally, I was planning our wedding to be in Texas so that all of our family could be at the wedding. I soon found out that planning a wedding in Texas when I was 1,730 miles away in another state was too stressful. That is when we came up with the brilliant idea to elope. Since we were in one of the most beautiful states in the country we decided to elope in Washington. We wanted to incorporate all the beautiful wedding traditions while keeping it small. The first thing we did was find a photographer to capture our special moments. We came across these photographer’s called The Foxes Photography” who specialized in capturing elopements on these amazing hikes. As we were looking at their elopement pictures, we thought “oh my gosh, these look like they belong in a magazine.” We fell in love with the pictures and booked our elopement with them.

We booked our elopement for June 1, 2020. The Foxes Photography helped us to decide on the best location and pretty much helped to plan all the details that went into the elopement, taking most of the stress out of wedding planning. We had to jump through many obstacles to have the wedding but it ended up better than I could have imagined. We had originally decided to get married on top of Hurricane ridge with 5 of our family members. But like the proposal it didn’t exactly go as planned.

Our biggest obstacle was Covid-19. Being in the middle of a pandemic doesn’t exactly make wedding planning easy. Right up into the day before our wedding we didn’t know if we would actually be getting married, talk about stress. Everything shut down during the pandemic, including all the hiking areas to get married at. We ended up not even knowing where we would be getting married just a couple weeks before the wedding. Hurricane ridge was closed until further notice, so that was out of the question. Then there was the stress of our wedding attire. My dress was 2 months late arriving and I still needed alteration when it came in. My dress ended up not coming in until May 27th, just 4 days before my wedding. Then there was Chase, he didn’t get to look for his tux before the pandemic shut everything down. We ended up having to order his tux online and prayed it would fit and come in on time. A week before the wedding we realized Chase’s wedding tux was delivered to the wrong address and they were sending it back to Indonesia! We tried everything to stop it from going back overseas. Luckily, since Texas shopping was opening back up, my sister ended up going to the store to pick out something for Chase to wear. The suit my sister bought for chase was slightly too small but we made it work. Chase’s suit that we ordered online somehow ended up coming in the day before the wedding, it ended up being way too big. Nothing was really working out the way we planned. We couldn’t just simply rebook everything, because our family had nonrefundable trips to Seattle for our wedding, we were bound and determined to have this wedding. With the help of the Foxes, working with us in every way, we started planning for a different location for the wedding. After sorting through our options, we decided on a location.

Budget

We didn’t really have a set budget. Just as simple as possible, since we went the elopement route.

The Ceremony

My sister (sister of the bride) got ordained and married Chase and I. She did an excellent job marrying two people for the first time.

The Flowers

Ordered the wedding bouquet and flowers for the cake from Fullness of Joy.

The Cake

We ordered a strawberry flavoured cake with buttercream frosting and it was so delicious.

Your Photographer

The Foxes Photography.

The Venue

We had the Beautiful National forest as our wedding venue. Due to covid-19 complications we had to make do with what hiking areas where open. We had the small wedding ceremony on the rocky beach at Salt Creek Beach, in Port Angela’s. After the ceremony we had our wedding cake and champagne while overlooking the Ocean. Then Chase, the photographers and I set off to hike to the top of Mount Storm King. Before hiking to the top of Storm King we stopped at the Mary Falls waterfall for some pictures. We changed out of our wedding clothes for the hike and started up the mountain for some epic sunset pictures. 5 miles total with a 2,100 foot elevation gain.

Your Outfits & Accessories

Bride – The vision I had for a wedding dress was an A-line type dress with sleeves. I wanted something comfortable and flowy since we would be hiking up a mountain in it. Of course, that’s not what I fell in love with. The dress I found reminded me of a classic, timeless dress that would always be in style. It was formed fitting with a stretchy material and lace down the sides of the dress. It had long sleeves which is just what I envisioned. I wish there would have been more time for alterations but due to the time crunch that wasn’t possible. Regardless I thought the dress was beautiful and the perfect dress for me. A simple timeless dress for a simple girl.

I searched and searched for the perfect shoes. I needed something that would work for hiking and also compliment the dress. I couldn’t really find anything I liked. I ended up looking right in my own closet and finding the perfect shoes. I had a pair of tan ankle boots with white lace on the side. I actually bought these boots my freshman year of high school. I never thought when I bought these boots at age 14, I would be wearing them on my wedding day. They were Steve Madden Brand boots.

I ordered my hair piece and earrings off of Etsy for a very reasonable price.

Groom – Chase’s original suit we ordered online came from a website.

The suit he actually wore on the wedding day came from Kohls.

The Honeymoon

Our plan was to take a 10-day long trip to the British Virgin Islands on July 11, 2020. But if you have been reading our story at all, you know that’s not what happened and that plan went down the toilet. Unfortunately, the borders to the Virgin Islands were closed because of Covid-19. Since we hadn’t been home in 7 months to see our family, instead we flew back home to Texas to surprise our family. Honeymoon will have to wait till summer of 2021.

Memorable Moments

Forgetting the wedding rings. Yes, you read that right. On top of all the struggles we faced with the proposal and the wedding planning, it was only fitting that we forgot the wedding rings. My sister was the one marrying us. When she asked, and who has the rings? We knew instantly that we had forgotten the rings. We all just busted out laughing hysterically, because of course we forgot the rings! Luckily the photographers got a picture of the exact moment we realized we forgot the rings.

Advice For Other Couples

Although wedding planning can be stressful at times, even what’s supposed to be a simple elopement, don’t sweat it. It’s the unforgettable moments that make it special, like the proposal gone wrong, covid-19 and forgetting the rings. The wedding planning isn’t what matters the most, marrying the love of your life is the main goal.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

How utterly beautiful.

Chase and Taytum thanks ever so much for sharing with us your truly beautiful Olympic National Park elopement story.

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Olympic National Park Elopement - The Most Spectacular Wedding