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Elopements

Glacier Point Adventure Wedding at Yosemite National Park, California

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With an ever-growing guest list and mounting concerns about logistics and planning, Taylor and Daniel chose to trade in their traditional nuptials for an intimate adventure wedding!
They asked their close friend and talented photographer Donna Irene Muccio to capture their special day and spent the next few months bringing their Yosemite wedding dreams to life.
“They said ‘I do’ at Glacier Point with Half Dome as their backdrop and then had a picnic lunch with their family,” Donna recalls. “The best part about their day was it perfectly fit who they are, and it was more than they could have dreamed of… My aim [was] to capture the natural flow of the day instead of forcing unnatural poses, so the images [would] tell a story… I wanted to capture their joy.”

For both the newlyweds and their photographer, the most memorable part of the experience was watching the sunset at the end of the day. “We hiked out to Taft Point, [and] when the sky began to change colors, we found ourselves just wanting to stay and take in the magic,” Donna shares. “We hiked back after dark with our headlamps, and it was quiet, peaceful, and even better than they could have imagined… It was really special getting to capture a wedding in nature versus my usual weddings… where you don’t get that same luxury of peace and quiet. It was cool to see how being in nature allowed them to take in this commitment they were making even more and really have time for it to sink in. I think that [weddings] in a national park often become more about the place and setting up ‘cool shots’ of the couple when it should always be about giving the couple space to soak in the feelings and emotions of the day and capturing that story above all.”

Photography by Donna Irene Weddings

CHOOSING AN ADVENTURE WEDDING:

“We had actually originally planned to do a formal wedding at home… As we were writing out our guest list, the number just got bigger and bigger… We have had so many people invest in us individually and as a couple that we found it so hard to narrow down the list… After talking things through, we decided to each write down a list of give things that we wanted to have at our wedding! We knew we wanted it to be outdoors, and we wanted it to be in the mountains. We wanted to not have to be on a ‘strict’ timeline so that we could interact with everyone that came to witness our marriage… we wanted to be surrounded by people we love… and we wanted BBQ… we ultimately opted to have a small wedding with immediate family and then do a reception with family and friends when we got back!”

[Taylor, The Bride]

CHOOSING A WEDDING LOCATION:

“I’ve had Yosemite, Glacier Point, and Taft Point on my Pinterest board for about eight years – well before I met Daniel and way before marriage was even on the radar. My friend and super awesome photographer, Donna, and I would talk about how epic and humbling a wedding there would be… Once we decided on immediate family, we began looking at small venues in the Carolinas, because that was near to us in the mountains… I continued to Google places and search ‘small mountain weddings’ [and] ‘nature weddings,’ and sure enough, up popped those pictures I had seen of Glacier Point and Taft Point. One day, while Daniel and I were on the phone, I sent him a picture… and his response was, ‘If you’re serious, I am 1000% in.’ I was completely in shock, but we were so excited! That is the type of feeling you should get while planning your wedding, and I knew we had made the right choice.”

[Taylor]

PLANNING AN ADVENTURE WEDDING:

“We chose to get married in the fall [which was only ] five months away… I did some research and found AddyRose Design… the gurus of Yosemite weddings. They have a bunch of different packages for small weddings and… the package we got included bouquets, boutonnieres, music, food, hair and makeup, and help with getting our wedding permit – basically everything we could ever need to make the day possible. It was such a relief… As far as location, the National Park Service has a great [resource] online [outlining] how many people can be at different ceremony sites. We had about 25 people total [and] chose Glacier Point because (1) it’s a cliff and (2) there was seating in the amphitheater, and we wanted to make sure everyone was taken care of.”

[Taylor]

THE ADVENTURE WEDDING EXPERIENCE:

“After our ceremony at Glacier Point, we went on about a 30-minute hike to Taft Point. Exploring the rocks and sitting on the side of the cliff… overlooking Yosemite Valley was breathtaking. The whole day was everything we could’ve hoped for and more… We loved watching the sunset and being present in the moment, surrounded by this beautiful place… At the end of the day, your wedding is about you and the person you love. Let your wedding be a reflection of you and your spouse, of your love for one another and of your passions! We wouldn’t change a single thing about our day.”

[Taylor]