Long Lake Elopement with a Ceremony Video
Elopement Details:

Everything about the wedding day was perfect.  It is fairly self evident when scrolling through the elopement photography below.  Dylan and Alex only had one guest Axl.  He was the best dog.  We all met up over at Long Lake where they got dressed.  Off of the trail there was a first look where Dylan got Axl dressed.  Yes – he was running around naked up to that point.  We think it would be helpful to clarify that this was Axl their best dog.  It is fairly remote back in there but gaining in popularity due to blogs like this one.  All that to say it was a sweet moment.

They held their self officiated ceremony off of the lake.  In Colorado an officiant is not required.  This is called self solemnizing.  At the bottom of this blog we have the ceremony video for your reference.  For video we are about 200 in at this point.  They started with proposals where guys wanted to get the moment discreetly.  We have expanded that into ceremony recordings similar to this one.  Essentially we have such redundancy of awesome gear that we can do stationary video while doing photography.  For weddings we can mic you up so that the audio is really clear.  We should clarify that we are not pretending to be videographers and make some motion cinematic film.  Sure we can do up to 8K 60FPS video and it would not be hard.  We are however trying to find this low cost niche value add for our couples. Eloping you may want a nice recording to show family and have for memory but you are not wanting to have to pay for someone else to come out. Another way to say it is we are delivering a higher quality than what videographers say they deliver for a lower cost than what one could do making a trip out.

The behind the scenes moment would have been special. While they were squeezing out some tears in the ceremony there was the sound of feet squishing in the mud.  Thankfully it was not heard in the video nor any camera clicks as the equipment can go fully silent. After we were done there a little rinse in the lake was needed before shooting in some various spots around Long Lake.  It is likely a personality thing but it was not long till the camera was back in the water.  In fact it happened 3 times in the course of the wedding photography.  You want to get something different be a little extreme and jump in the water.

Over at Brainard Lake we did a champagne toast, cake cutting, and license signing.  Axl got to do a paw print signing on it and snuck in a little cake.  He wanted to wash it down with champagne but his parents did not allow it as he was under age. The sunset over at Brainard Lake was gorgeous.  We actually extended a little later than planned as it was turning out that amazing with a full sun day.  Dusk is one of those times some prioritize cause well – its easier on them so you sell a strength.  It is fairly rare to have the blue sky day fully into the sunset as often there are fronts passing by that lead with or trail clouds.  All that to say our recommendation is always to plan for the functional sunset which varies by topography.  If things are working out and you want to extend than having that conversation is good.

If you like what you see here and are considering using this location here are some of the other shoots we have done at Long Lake.  This is in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area. If you are considering eloping here are some other Colorado Elopements.