Eloping had always been the plan.
But like so many couples, Effie and Kenny's plans changed. Of course, there were opinions from family, people who wanted them to stay close. Then there was the question of inviting friends. The convenience of staying close to home. Deciding what traditions to keep and what to toss. After a while, their plans to elope had evolved into a wedding in Des Moines. An event that would be beautiful and celebratory, just...different. And they were okay with that....for a while.
But when I moved into my new house, Effie came over for margaritas and to unwind. We had both experienced big life changes within the last year we wanted to vent about and unpack--the biggest, and most recent, being the passing of her father. She shared how wedding planning felt different, how things just didn't feel as important as they had before. The joy wasn't quite there any more, and it boiled down to how much of it felt performative or insignificant.
"Do you mind if I say something as a friend, not as a wedding photographer?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Why don't you just say fuck it and elope?"
She paused, considering what I had said. The "but"s and "what if"s followed, and as we walked through logistics and realities, Effie and I sat quietly as we let the reality of what we discussed sink in. "I'll have to talk to Kenny...and we'll have to see if we can make it work...but...it's definitely an option."
The next morning she texted and asked if I'd be interested joining them next year for a location to be determined.
Eventually they settled on South Fork, Colorado, surrounded by the Rio Grande National Forest. Effie found a slip for a campground at the heart of South Fork in her dad's wallet, the last sign she needed to know they had made the right choice. Suddenly, our conversations about wedding planning shifted. Effie seemed lighter, happier. And that carried into their wedding day, a hybrid of the elopement they had dreamed of combined with the traditions they aligned with.
Their day was slow-paced, filled with lots of moments of quality time, time with friends, and pickle beers. As the sun set behind the mountains, I thought about how, almost another year later, so much more had changed. How a vulnerable conversation on a couch over a margarita brought us to this moment. And how life has a way of working things out the way they were always supposed to, even if the road to getting there is different or bumpier than we expected.
