david + gia
mt. bierstadt elopement, georgetown, colorado
these two know how to adventure. i’ve photographed weddings in some pretty wild places, but never on the summit of a 14,065 foot peak. thanks to these two, now i can say i have! let’s start way back at the beginning. david first contacted me when he wanted to propose to gia while they were on vacation in moab. he wanted to ask her at dead horse point, at sunset, with their two pups with them, so you know i was one hundred percent in.
within a few minutes of meeting them we were talking about our shared obsession with yeti and love of pups. from there it was a breeze to photograph these two. gia has one of those smiles that lights up an entire canyon, and it was clear that david was absolutely, head-over-heels in love with her. it’s an inspiration, as cheesy as it sounds, to get to be around this kind of love. i feel like some people get jaded, they think it doesn’t exist anymore, but i get to see it firsthand all the time and let me tell you. love is real. david and gia have it.
i’ve included their proposal photos in the second half of this post. finally! i have only recently started to get on top of blogging, so i’ve missed dozens and dozens of couples. slowly but surely i’ll get them all up here.
jump ahead to their mountaintop elopement earlier this summer. one of their first dates together was hiking to the top of mt. bierstadt in the winter, so naturally it was a very special place for them. they created a facebook group and invited all of their best friends and family to join them on this sunrise expedition. for any who couldn’t make it, there was a get together/reception at their beautiful home the following day.
after grabbing a drink with them in georgetown the night before, i went up into the mountains so i could catch as many zzz’s as possible before the 2:00am alarm went off. we all gathered at the trailhead at 2:30am, david handing out bottles of champagne and jugs of orange juice to anyone with a backpack. they had some badass yeti tumblers engraved as gifts for all (way better than a coozie!). i stashed mine in my pack so i could be sure to toast them at the top of the hike.
we set off in the dark, cool morning, trucking along, chatting with each other, and watching as the dark sky slowly started to show signs of dawn. the hike is no joke. it’s short in terms of mileage, but is pretty relentless near the top. long story short, we made it to the summit just after the sun came up, and i’ll never forget that view. these two lovebirds exchanged some sweet words in front of dozens of hikers and smooched to seal the deal! i really cannot thank these two and all their friends and family enough for wrapping me up in their day and asking me to do the honor of capturing it all. xo cheers david and gia!
