Southwest Wedding Under the Stars | Haley & Kevin at Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab

Haley and Kevin’s gorgeous southwest wedding under the stars was a top favorite for 2019. Summers in Southern Utah can be brutal, like 110 degrees for weeks on end. It was SO refreshing to photograph their beautiful outdoor wedding in the middle of August at Angels Landing at Best Friends Animal Society! This place is perfectly sheltered under a beautiful red cliff canopy, there is tons of shade, a natural spring, and a beautiful grassy field. We’re talking 85 degrees during the day people! Perfection. Beyond the beautiful setting though, it was such a joy to work with Haley and Kevin. These are two of the sweetest and most genuine humans. I love their belly laughs and silly moments together, and the way they adore their family and friends. There were so many beautiful and sweet moments on this day. I loved being part of it. I thought I would include a little snippet from their questionnaire because it perfectly describes them and their wedding day!

“We love animals, open space, and nature. We love this location because it takes us out of our usual grind and into our favorite place to explore, have deep conversations about our relationship, life, and enjoy the natural beauty. Best Friends is particularly special to us because they inspired us to overcome a huge obstacle and make us a stronger, more compassionate team. We adopted our dog Cassie, who quite frankly was a terrifying, aggressive, and unpredictable dog. We were told multiple times to euthanize her. We felt like failures and very alone because no one in the area would work with her due to her unusual triggers. Best Friends inspired us to persevere and work beyond our perceived limitations, which led us to fall in love and help this poor little dog heal and safely fit into society. It truly was a mutual rescue. We are so grateful to Best Friends and the animal rescue community for teaching us that we really can make the impossible possible and showing us the priceless reward of saving a life. We are over the moon to celebrate unconditional love and commitment at this overwhelmingly compassionate and selfless place. We hope to bare our emotions, dance the night away, laugh and celebrate with loved ones, eat Chef Shon's incredible vegetarian food, and soak in the sights during our big day.”

Vendor List:

Wedding Planning: Forevermore Events
Floral: Bloomers
Beauty: Tracy Sotirakis
Bridal Shop: Anomalie
Catering: Sego Restaurant
Entertainment: Festival Sounds
Paper Details: Black Julep Studio
Rentals: St. George Party Rentals
Cake: Sego Restaurant
Venue: Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

Moab Elopement Wild with Love & Crazy for Adventure | As Featured in Style Me Pretty

“Say the most important day of your life is quickly approaching. And you’ve got two paths ahead of you. You can do what’s expected, or do something that truly represents who you are: Wild with love and crazy for adventure. To Ariel and Andrew, their path was clear: Take off and elope! To the canyon lands of Utah.”

Ariel and Andrew had the most epic adventure elopement in Moab back in 2015 before it was even a thing. When Ariel first contacted me about photographing their wedding in Moab she mentioned that her father is a backcountry pilot and that they fly together a lot, and that she was thinking about flying one of these planes to her wedding ceremony. As you can imagine I was pretty excited (and also terrified that I would have to ride in the plane, which thankfully, I did not). Joey and I photographed this wedding together and we truly loved it! Andrew and his production team/best friends were awesome to work with and the whole two days was like a big party. We started our day bright and early and followed the Jeeps into this beautiful landing strip at the base of a canyon, right near the river. The road getting there was a bit sketchy but Joey had a blast navigating it! We were on standby while the guys scouted the location to make sure it was still safe to land after the rain that week, but all looked good and clear, so we started our pilgrimage to this epic spot.

Ariel and Andrew built their wedding around their own ideas and relationship and said adieu to any traditions that didn’t felt authentic to them. I loved this. They made a pretty amazing film about it too. Andrew owns a film production company so the whole thing was incredible. Their film made its rounds on the internet when it was first featured on Style Me Pretty. I highly recommend watching it! The reason I say that they are the ones who made adventure elopements a things, is because, well they are! I can’t say I’ve a single bride after this who has flown a plane to her own wedding, or any groom who built his own chuppa the day before the wedding by foraging sticks from the desert where they would exchange vows.

The night before the wedding, we joined Ariel and Andrew and their families to photograph their lovely rehearsal dinner at Sorrell River Ranch. We met up with the couple before the dinner for a fun portrait shoot near Fisher Tower. The Moab desert is incredible. The day after the wedding we hiked Arches National Park and I got to see Delicate Arch for the first time. It was an incredible experience.

Thanks again to this wonderful couple, their production crew, and families! You can see the feature over at Style Me Pretty here.

And watch their wedding film below!

Colorful Desert Bridal Inspiration Southern Utah Wedding Photographer

The desert in Southern Utah is beautiful in the spring. The cacti is in bloom, the moss on the rocks is bright and colorful, and everything is so green! I had been wanting to shoot at this location for awhile so I asked my talented friends if they would like to do a small creative shoot and this is the result! I wanted a bold, almost retro look for the bride’s hair and makeup, so we went with a messy, textured updo that felt like a twist on a French twist! The bold eye makeup paired perfectly with the bright red earrings and I just love that pop of color it gives. The bouquet is just dreamy, with the bright yellow flowers and velvet ribbon. It’s so bright and cheerful. I shot mostly film during this session, all Portra 400, developed and scanned by The Find Lab. Thanks to all of the vendors who contributed!

This bridal inspiration shoot was featured on Utah Valley Bride. You can check out that feature here: http://utahvalleybride.com/bright-spot/

Floral: Bloomers
Hair: Evan Stowers, The Desert Lounge Salon
Makeup: Chantel Petersen
Dress: Rent the Runway
Ribbon: Emmalinh
Film Lab: The Find Lab