Olympic National Park Elopement - Crescent Lake, Marymere Falls, and the Washington Coast

One of my ultimate goals with every couple is to reach that moment where we just organically CLICK. It always happens at one point or another, whether it’s by the end of our first phone call or a few minutes into the elopement day, but this couple was an exception. We clicked in our first email!! The Office references immediately started pouring in from all of us. My kind of people 😎

N+V came to me with an idea to get married in Washington as they had never visited before, and boyyyyyyyy did the get the full Washington experience. I asked them why they chose to elope versus having a big wedding, and this was their response: “We want to enjoy our wedding day, do things we enjoy, spend the whole day together, and not worry if anyone else is having a good time. The further we got into planning, the more we realized that this was not what we wanted - at least for our ceremony.” Makes sense, right? Right.

After finding out what’s important to them and what they want to see (and keeping in mind their April date!), we landed on Olympic National Park as a general location, and wound up hitting two iconic areas for photos on their day - Lake Crescent AND a super secret beach location not far from there! N said “The waterfall and the crystal clear water of Lake Crescent immediately sucked us in. It's exactly what we picture when we think PNW.”

Our day started EARLY. I’m talking the wee hours of the morning to take some getting ready photos and do a first look between N+V before heading off towards Lake Crescent. I wouldn’t have it any other way because I’m Team Sunrise (though, Sunset is a veeeeeeery close second)!!

Once we got to Lake Crescent, the joy between N+V could not be contained, and continued for the rest of the day. Seeing the crystal clear water, the mountains surrounding the lake, the snowline on the mountains above us, and the frost on every surface around us were just some of the reasons they were stoked. And so was I!

The one guest in attendance was their very good friend and officiant, who wrote a perfect ceremony script that we all had tear-streaked faces and runny noses by the end of the ceremony. Another highlight of the ceremony was a cute pair of ducks swimming around the dock and eventually hopping up on the dock to say hello. True story: N+V got ducks tattooed on them after their Washington elopement trip as a cute way to commemorate such an amazing day. Inside joke tattoos are MY FAVE.

After the sweetest and kindest vows from both N and V, their guest had one hell of a surprise to share. She had contacted all kinds of friends and family and asked them to handwrite letters to N+V that they could read on their elopement day so they felt love all around them. And boyyyyyyyy were those letters filled to the brim with love. When you have so many people around you speaking so highly of you AND writing down their love and support, it’s hard not to cry. Again, all of us, tears on our faces, trying to hold it together.

N+V wanted to wait to read the letters until later in the day (a tough task!!) so we could get to some photos with the stunning sunrise light, and boy did Olympic National Park SERVE. The sun peeked out over a field lined with trees and drenched everyone and everything in warm light. It felt like magic was unfolding right in front of us. The couple had so much fun loving on each other and leaned into having their photo taken, which made for some seriously memorable photographs.

We also took a hike to Marymere Falls which was just another way that these two were completely awe-struck. You could feel their joy radiating off of them as the sun peeked through the dense forest, as we found fallen trees and recreated a Twilight scene (duh), and as we reached the falls. None of us had been to the falls before and no more than a few people were there with us, which made for a perfect window to get some wide angle shots with the entire falls! Keep scrolling to see those - I look back at those photos periodically and still can’t believe how beautiful the falls were!!

Their timeline had a break in the day so everyone could rest, refresh, and eat before meeting back up in the evening for sunset at our second location. They hired a caterer to make a fancy-as-hell meal (highly recommend!!) and then headed to the ocean to start the second half of their time with me.

Remember those letters their loved ones wrote? This was the perfect time to dive into a few and feel surrounded by love even though they chose to elope by themselves. The tears were flowing, I got tears on my camera screen, and at one point they had to stop reading more letters to go take photos along the beach!! Such a special treasure to have on an elopement day to feel connected and missed.

We spent all evening playing on the beach, including dancing, running, and tracking a bald eagle that was circling the area. Seeing a couple experience the true beauty of Washington for the first time always makes my heart nearly explode. They were trying to soak up every last second of their elopement day, and the photos really reflect that feeling. Ending the day with a running chest bump is one I will never be able to forget!!

Vendors

Photographer: Van Gachnang Photography

Venue: Olympic National Park

Videographer (the absolute best): Sabrina at Lilli Productions

Dress: Puyan Saheb Djavaher

Suit: Indochino

Shoes (both!): Merrell

N’s rings: Emily Gill Bespoke Jewelry

V’s rings: Rings by Lux

Catering: Chef Janay at Supreme Eatery

Interested in planning an elopement at Olympic National Park? Ain’t no thang - read through my Complete Guide to Eloping at Olympic National Park for aaaaaall kinds of tips, tricks, and insider info.

OR reach out and I’ll help you every step of the way!!

The SWEETEST, most thoughtful review from N+V after receiving their full elopement gallery:

“Where can we even begin with Van? My husband Vincent and I knew NOTHING about eloping when we started this journey, and even less about Washington (crazy, yes we know). From our first email exchange with Van our minds were put at ease about our decision to elope and we knew we found someone who would help us through the process. As soon as we spoke to Van over Zoom we knew she was the one for us! She was so easy to talk to, like a lifelong friend we’d never met! She was always completely transparent with pricing and expectations, and kept us moving along with a perfect timeline for our special day. Her location guide was so helpful for us - especially because we had never been to Washington - and her understanding of our vision was clear from her choice of spots. She was 100% supportive of our ideas and helped us adjust plans to make sure our timeline and locations were both realistic and EXACTLY what we wanted. AND THAT WAS ALL BEFORE WE MET IN PERSON! Our wedding day with Van is something we will treasure forever. It was like adventuring around with a friend who just so happens to be a magician with a camera, and she worked with our videographer, Sabrina, like two peas in a pod. Our pictures are more beautiful than we could have ever asked for - and the best part? We had proofs of some before we were on a plane back home! We never felt posed or forced to smile, which is something we spoke with Van about very early on in our planning. She captured the magic of our day and the love we felt in the most authentic, natural and effortlessly comfortable way, which is exactly what we wanted. Working with Van was a dream - our only complaint is that we couldn’t make our day with her last forever!”