Colorado Elopement Pricing & Experience
I'll find you the spot. Mountains, water, and a walk your grandma can make.
Before the numbers
Everyone apologizes for something in the first email
It's usually the dog. Sometimes it's the guest count. Sometimes it's wanting family there and wanting the morning alone, and assuming you have to pick one or the other. Then a sentence saying sorry for it, like fifteen people is going to get you kicked out of the elopement club.
The worry underneath it is always the same one. That the version you actually want is a lesser version of the one you've been looking at. That guests make it less of an elopement, a short walk makes it less of an adventure, and wanting your mom there makes it less yours. My partner and I did all three, and none of it made the day less ours.
Bring your dog, bring your fifteen favorite people, and yep, you can still have the morning to yourselves.
Nobody has ever successfully "acted natural"
Those are the three words in almost every email I get. Nobody's out here asking for stiff, posed, "say cheese" photos. They ask for candid, which is hard, because the second you tell someone to act natural, guess what. They're not gonna.
So the day doesn't get built as a photoshoot with breaks in it. I ask what adventure actually looks like to you two, and then we just go do that. Coffee. Swimming. Reading letters out loud. A card game that gets a little too competitive. Whatever it actually is for you two. Because two people doing something they genuinely enjoy together makes for a much better memory of a wedding day than being told to pretend I'm not there.
What adventure means to them
And when you do end up standing there with no idea what to do with your hands, I'll say something. Usually something stupid, and it usually works. That's a small part of the day, not the shape of it.
You're not booking a photoshoot. You're booking a day, and someone who knows when to say something and when to leave you alone.
Already know what you'd want to do with those hours? Tell me.
The hardest part of planning this
You're picking a place you've never stood in
The same lake outside Telluride, four months apart
Mountains. Water if it's possible. Somewhere you can actually walk to. That's what almost everyone asks for, usually followed by an apology for not knowing where.
Not knowing where is the normal place to start. It isn't a hole in your planning. It's the first thing that gets solved.
Every location photo you've found was taken on that place's best morning. Right month, right light, nobody else in the frame. What it can't tell you is whether the road is open in November, whether the lake is still frozen, whether forty people will be standing behind you at 7am, or whether it needs a permit that takes six weeks to come through.
Every spot on the list has been walked in more than one season. So the question stops being which photo looks best, and becomes which place actually fits your date, your people, and how far you want to walk in what you're wearing.
Once you're booked, you get a short list built around your date. Not a Pinterest board.
towns with a full guide
minute walk to most overlooks
backup weather day, held free
couples bring their dog
Permits and what they cost, road conditions, timing, and where to eat. One for each town.
The people in your photos will be the ones you invited
Sunrise at a good spot still means a guy in a neon windbreaker doing stretches forty feet behind you. He comes out. So do the backpacks piled at the trailhead, the trash can, the exit sign, and the bright orange tent across the valley.
You'd never think to ask about it. It's also most of the difference between a place that was busy and a photo that looks like nobody else was there.
Tell me what you're picturingFull pricing guide back within a day. No call required.
Included with every package
Everything you'd otherwise be googling at 11pm
The same list whether you book four hours or two days. There's no tier where you get less help.
There's no tier where you get less help.
The planning
Before the day
- A location shortlist built around your date
- A timeline built around the light, not the clock
- Which permits you need, what they cost, when to apply
- Vendors worth the money. Florals, hair and makeup, officiants
- The marriage license, start to finish
- A planning guide, sent the day you book
- A guest guide, if you're bringing people
- Dog-friendly spots, and the actual rules at each one
- Unlimited calls and emails. No question is too small
The day itself
On the day
- Coverage for every hour in your package
- A second photographer, in all three packages
- Travel anywhere in Colorado, included
- An emergency kit in my bag. Bobby pins, hand warmers, snacks, safety pins, the works
- Direction when you want it, space when you don't
- Someone watching the clock so neither of you has to
- A backup weather day, held free
The photos
After the day
- A sneak peek within a week
- Your full gallery in eight weeks
- 50 to 100 images for every hour of coverage
- Strangers, trash cans and exit signs edited out
- Every image edited by me, never outsourced
- Backed up in three places, including the cloud
- Your gallery is live for a year. I never delete the files
- Unlimited downloads and a print release
- A print shop built into your gallery
Three shapes for the day
The only thing you're really choosing is how long
Which mostly comes down to three things. Whether anyone else is coming, whether you want the good light twice, and whether one day is enough.
4 hours
Short & Sweet
Best forJust the two of you, one location, no reception.
One beautiful location, sunrise or sunset. Plenty of time for vows, portraits, champagne, and standing there going "wait, we just got married."
- One location, unhurried
- Sunrise or sunset, your pick
- Room for a few people if you want them there
- A second photographer, same as the other two
Most booked
8 hours
The Full Day
Best forTwo locations, or anywhere from a handful of guests up to about fifteen.
Chase sunrise, grab tacos, watch sunset, and fit everything in between. Nobody has ever told me they wished the day were shorter.
- Split sunrise and sunset, so you get the best light twice
- Private vows in the morning, everyone else in the evening, if that's your thing
- Multiple location options
8 hours, plus 4 the next day
The Two Day
Best forCouples who want the day to stop being a schedule.
Your full wedding day, plus a few hours the next morning for everything that didn't fit. Different spots, different outfits, nobody watching the clock.
- Everything in the Full Day
- Four more hours the following day
- Polaroids from your first morning, printed overnight and in your hands on day two
Which one fits
You don't have to pick before you ask
Send me your date, roughly who's coming, and how far you want to walk. I'll tell you which package fits and what it costs. If two of them work, I'll say that, and which one I'd book.
Ask which one fits →Every package, every price, in your inbox within a day. No call required.
If you want more
A few extras, if you want them
Every package already includes what's on the list above. These four are the ones people ask about most, added on top.
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From $1,200
Albums
A printed album of the finished gallery, designed once your photos are ready.
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$300 to $900, by package
35mm film
A few rolls of real film alongside your digital gallery, priced with your package.
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$750 to add an hour
Extra hours
Added onto any package, for a day that runs a little longer.
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From about $4,000
Video
I don't shoot video. I'll connect you with Liz at EMBR Films, priced separately.
My own wedding timeline & the 3am part is not a typo
The one wedding I can tell you everything about. July 2023 around a bunch of 4x4 roads in Silverton. Here is what we actually did together.
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3:00am
Awake, in sweatpants
The road up takes as long as it takes. Leaving in the dark is the only way to already be somewhere good when the light turns up, which is the entire reason anyone starts at this hour.
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5:55am
Getting dressed, one door each
Either side of the truck. No suite, no bridal party, no photographer waiting in a hallway. It took about ten minutes.
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6:20am
First look, and then vows
We were both far more emotional than either of us had planned on. Then vows that were perfect, weird, and full of inside jokes I would not read out loud in front of anybody else. Which is the whole argument for doing the private part privately.
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7:30am
Pancakes in the back of the truck
Most of which Flapjack was confident were for him. Nothing scheduled, nowhere to be, still married.
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8:00am
Into a 45-degree lake
Because it was there. This is the sort of thing that only happens in hours nobody has given a job to.
6:00pm
Everyone else arrives
My family drove up and we did the whole thing again, properly, with champagne and cake. I had wanted them there and I had wanted the morning alone, and it turned out those were never actually competing.
The camera came first. The outdoors caught up.
I moved from Ohio to Colorado in my 20s and became an obsessive nature person almost overnight. Thirteen years in now, four of them on the West Slope in Grand Junction.
Camping trips. Dirt roads. Adventures that would've happened with or without a camera. Eventually, photography and the outdoors stopped being two separate things.
What I love most about Colorado isn't just that it's beautiful. Although, obviously, it is.
It's who you're standing next to. What you do with the day. The moments you didn't plan for. And what happens when Colorado throws a curveball.
Roads close.
It snows in July.
Someone else beat you to the spot.
Cool. We'll go somewhere else. There's always somewhere else.
And sometimes the backup plan is the better story.
- 13 Years in Colorado
- 4 On the Western Slope
- 5.0 Average rating
- 10 Years doing only this
How to book
Four steps, and only one of them is yours
There is no application, no questionnaire, and nothing you have to have decided before you start.
1
Tell me about your day
Location ideas, roughly who's coming, whether your dog is coming, how much of this you've actually figured out. "Not a clue yet" is a completely normal answer.
2
I send the full pricing guide
Usually within a day. Every package, every price, and a personal note. I read every inquiry myself. No call required to get it, and no chasing me for it.
3
We talk, if you want to
Some couples book straight from the guide. Others want to talk through seasons, locations, dogs, all of it. Both are normal. You're working out whether I'm right for you, and I'm doing the same.
4
The date is yours
A signed contract and a retainer lock it in. After that the planning starts, and this stops being a thing you have to think about.
About the money
The last payment is due after you're married
A $2,000 retainer books the date, and it counts toward your total. Then 50% a month out, and the final 50% seven days after the wedding.
Yes, after. You will have seen your sneak peek before you pay the last of it. Payment plans are available on any package, and asking for one has never once counted against anybody.
Step one takes about four minutes.
Questions
The ones people actually ask
How do we find out exact pricing?
Fill out the form and it's in your inbox within a day. Every package, every price, and a note about which one I'd actually book for your date. I promise you don't have to talk to me to see it.
Why does this cost more than some other photographers?
A second photographer is in every package, including the smallest. Most of the market puts that at $6,000 and up. Travel anywhere in Colorado is included, and a backup weather day is held free.
The bigger answer is that the planning isn't a bonus sitting on top of the photos. It's the reason the photos work. A 3pm ceremony at Sapphire Point on the Fourth of July with no permit is a genuinely hard day to photograph, and no amount of skill fixes bad light or a crowded overlook. Most of what you're paying for happens before I pick up a camera.
Is travel an extra fee?
No. Anywhere in Colorado is included, whether that's forty minutes from me or the far side of the San Juans.
I'm in Denver now and spent four years living on the Western Slope, so Telluride, Ouray, Crested Butte and Silverton aren't places I'd be seeing for the first time with you.
How many hours do we actually need?
Four if it's the two of you at one location with no reception. Eight if anyone else is coming, or if you want the good light twice.
Tell me your date and roughly who's coming and I'll tell you which one fits, including when that's the cheaper one.
Do we have to hike?
No. God, no.
Most of the locations on my list are a ten minute walk from where you park, and several are shorter than that. Grandma coming, a dress you can't walk far in, a knee that doesn't do switchbacks. None of that limits you to a worse view.
Selfishly, I also don't want to hike eight miles carrying fifteen pounds of camera gear. If that is the day you want, I have a friend who lives for exactly that and I'll introduce you.
How many photos do we get?
Between 50 and 100 for every hour of coverage, depending on what's happening. Four hours is roughly 200 to 400 images, eight hours is roughly 400 to 800.
They arrive in an online gallery you can download from, share, and order prints through.
When do we get our photos?
A sneak peek within a week, usually sooner. The full gallery in eight weeks. Your gallery stays live for a year, and I never delete the files.
How far in advance should we book?
Most couples book 12 to 18 months out. Summer and fall weekends go first, and holiday weekends go first of all.
If your date is sooner than that, ask anyway. The worst outcome is that I'm already booked, and finding out costs you about ten seconds.
Can we bring guests?
Yes, and more than half the couples who reach out are bringing someone.
Fifteen is the cap, and it's a real one. It's less about the photos than about the ground. Most of these spots are alpine and they don't recover quickly from thirty people standing on them.
It doesn't stop being an elopement, and it doesn't change the price. The packages are built on hours, not headcount.
Do we need an officiant?
No. Colorado is one of the few states where you can marry yourselves, with no officiant and no witnesses required. Most of my couples do exactly that.
Everyone assumes it will feel unofficial or awkward with nobody standing up front running it. It doesn't. Usually the opposite, because there is nobody there you are performing for.
You bring the two of you
The spot, the permit, the timeline, the backup day, what to do with your hands. None of that was ever going to be your job. Yours is about ten minutes long, and it's the only part that was ever the point.
Pricing back within a day. You can be as vague as you like.