North Cascades Mount Baker Hiking Elopement
Where to even begin with this one? The couple? The location? The sunset???
When Lindsay and Ben reached out to me about eloping in the North Cascades, specifically Artist Point, I was MORE than thrilled (like, squealing and jumping up and down in my living room). At the time, I had visited this area a few times, but never in peak fall season and never for a hiking elopement that was sure to be private and mind-blowing. When I asked the couple why they chose to elope, this was their response: “Lindsay had the initial idea, because we wanted to get married without dealing with the issues of planning a wedding with families on two coasts. And covid making traveling more difficult. We also want to get married in a short timeframe, which would make a traditional wedding even harder. Also, it just sounds fun! And like a way to celebrate our partnership that is fitting to who we are together.”
We wanted to have the ceremony close to sunset, so we started our hike up to a secret spot near Heather Meadows around 3pm. The sun was on us the entire time, but was illuminating all the fall colors throughout the valley below us and the trail above us. We stopped a few times to pick the super ripe wild blueberries - if you’ve never tried a wild blueberry, add it to your bucket list! SO sweet, tart, and there are thousands of them along the trail.
After hiking for about an hour and a half, we reached the spot that Lindsay and Ben chose as their ceremony spot. We looked one way and could see Mount Baker in all her glory, and the other way was showing off Mount Shuksan super clearly. They chose Shuksan as their backdrop, and started to get into their wedding clothes separately.
After a sweet first look, we prepared for the ceremony and their 4 guests surrounded them and kicked things off. After a beautiful reading, ring-warming, and kind words from the officiant, the two sealed their marriage with a kiss and immediately threw their arms up in the air!!
We spent some time taking portraits around the area as the sun started to go down, and the couple enjoyed a picnic that their guests put together, some homemade cake, and danced in front of both mountains.
Once the sun was about to dip below the ridge off in the distance, the 6 of them sat up on a ledge and took a moment to just watch the sun go down and take in everything around them. I stopped, too, and got teary-eyed at how amazing that area is. Never have I experienced something so beautiful.
As the sun went down, the alpenglow showed up on Shuksan and was such bright orange and pink colors that we were all screaming. We took some photos until the light was gone, and then packed everything up to start the trek down. We had about an hour’s hike ahead of us, so we donned our headlamps and headed down. After about 45 minutes of hiking, we realized that the sunlight was completely gone and the stars were SUPER bright. Ben asked us all to turn our headlamps off for a few minutes so we could just stare up at the sky in complete awe together. We shared everything we knew about constellations and satellites and really took in that moment together.
I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to share an afternoon with. Artist Point and Heather Meadows are NEVER a bad option for eloping. And here are some photos to prove it!
Vendors
Photographer: Van Gachnang Photography
Venue: Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
Suit: Indochino
Tie: Kind Design
Dress: Lulu’s
Interested in planning your own one-of-a-kind North Cascades elopement? Look no further: my Complete Guide to Eloping in the North Cascades is just for you!!
ORRRRRR reach out and I’ll plan it for you 😎
The sweetest review from L+B after receiving their full elopement gallery:
“Van was more than just a photographer – she was our guide in planning our elopement too! She helped us have the most magical day we could have ever imagined. We changed our plans on her a few times, and Van worked with us the whole way. She was incredibly knowledgeable and gave us all the info we needed to make sure it went smoothly. Not only that, but she made our wedding day so much fun! My partner and I have always been uncomfortable taking photos, but Van managed to capture the true joy, beauty, and fun of the day. She was wonderful to have as part of the day and quickly getting our sneak peek photos also helped so much in breaking the news to our families as we could share the memory with them. Her excitement about the photos was infectious! Van did a fantastic job helping us plan and capture our elopement in a way that truly captured our love, while making it fun and way less stressful than it could have been. We are so grateful for the love you put into your photography!”
