Our Love Story: An Appalachian Mountains Elopement
Our Love Story: An Appalachian Mountains Elopement
January 21, 2021 these lovebirds took off to the Appalachian Mountains, eloped and came back the Lovdahl's. This is our elopement story..
The engagement
Ethan proposed on a beautiful beach in Hawaii in January 2019. Our first few months being engaged probably looked like most. Filled with celebration, congratulations & lots of questions about wedding plans. A big traditional wedding never felt right to us but with all the newly engaged excitement around us, it was very easy to get caught up in it and wonder if maybe we should host a big event for everyone to attend?
But the more we thought about it, the more we realized: A huge celebration just wasn’t “us.” Sure, there was excitement in the idea, but nothing about a big, traditional wedding reflected our story. We weren’t just two people tying the knot; we were adventurers, explorers, dreamers. Our love story had been built on traveling the world, discovering new places, hiking through mountains, and sharing unforgettable moments in nature.
So we explored what that might look like and it just never felt right for many reasons, which could be a whole separate story so I won’t elaborate here. I’ve learned to trust my intuition and wasn’t going to start ignoring it now. Ethan was totally fine with just going to a court house but that didn’t feel right either. Neither of those options reflected our love story or values, we knew there had to be something in-between.
Then it just hit us and everything made sense. Our whole relationship has been filled with nature, adventure, hiking, worldwide travel and firsts.. Why would the start of our marriage be any different? We decided nothing else could be more “us” than traveling somewhere new and getting married surrounded by nature and adventure.
THE PLANNING
Our original plan was to elope in Oregon May 2020, everything was booked and we were so excited, but we all know why that was cancelled. We put all plans on hold and decided to just wait it out. Then November 2020 rolls around and like many who had to cancel their weddings, we were done holding back on life and waiting for the unprecedented and seemingly endless events of 2020 to be “over”. We always travel in January so 2021 wasn’t going to be any different. We weren’t going to wait for the world to return to "normal." We decided: This January, we’re getting married. You’re probably imagining a winter wonderland elopement or a tropical getaway right? Nope, we landed on the Appalachian mountains. Why? Let’s rewind for a hot second..
Why January? January is special to us because we had our first date 01/08, got engaged 01/15 and Ethans birthday is 01/19. So there’s a lot for us to celebrate in January but its our least favorite month because where we live its the darkest, coldest time of the year filled with short days and record breaking negative temps. We wanted to keep transforming January into something worth celebrating, especially since we normally travel in January, we could see how this would grow into a special time of year. January quickly embodied a whole new meaning.
Why the Appalachian Mountains? I’m allergic to the cold (yes its a real autoimmune condition) so a winter wonderland wedding, as beautiful as they are, was a hard no. All of our dream locations were still closed to travelers and there was still random ongoing shut downs in most places. We weren’t going to cancel again so we wanted to find somewhere we knew we’d be able to safety travel and wouldn’t get canceled. That lead us to the southwest and southeast and we chose the south east because our bunnies (Reme and Mira) would be traveling with us and they couldn’t safely go to the SW because of the highly contagious, deadly RHDV2 going around. From there it was easy, find a beautiful, secluded airbnb where it could be just us surrounded by nature and that’s how we landed on a cute place at the peak of a mountain with no one else for miles.
We updated our photographer and videographer and found the best, coolest officiant in Georgia. We didn’t tell anyone, we just packed up and went on our typical January adventure, only this time we’d come back married!
Our wedding experience was very US. Traveling, exploring a place we’ve never been, just us, our fur babies and Mother Nature. Fully present, embracing whatever happened and the light we found when our worlds collided. We had the space to be fully present and the freedom to do whatever our hearts desired without having to cater to anyone, besides the bunnies haha.
Our elopement
Most don’t know that our elopement experience was actually 2 days due to the weather, but that’s the beauty of elopements, we had the flexibility to switch it up. It was supposed to heavily rain all day on our wedding day, so we decided to do all the photos the day before to beat the rain and still do the ceremony on the rainy day and embrace whatever happened because at least we got some photos without being wet. On the first day of our elopement, we had a slow morning filled with yoga, looking over the mountains, mimosas, snacks, snuggling with the buns and talking until it was time to get ready. Once it was time to get ready I stayed in the bedroom with the Reme and Mira while Ethan got ready the living room, we didn’t see each other from this point until the first look. We both made a playlist for that morning that we jammed to together while getting ready separately. Our photographer and videographer showed up to take getting ready shots before leading us out separately to the first look location. Naturally the first look started with a little booty grab. After a moment of soaking it all in we read our personally written vows before continuing to get our photos together and with the buns. The rest of the day was just for us, we danced, listened to music, snacked, hung out in the Japanese soaking tub under the stars and just soaked it all in.
The second day of our elopement we got ready together, Ethan helped me with my dress and we just loved having these moments to get ready for the ceremony together. Getting ready together and separately with a first look are both so magical in their own ways that I can’t put into words right now, I’m just happy we got to experience them both. Our aisle started at a set of double doors and extended out onto a treehouse deck. The next moment pulled at my animal loving, bunny mom, heart strings.. Bunnies need a little time to adjust, Reme and Mira spent most of their time until this point in the comfort of the bedroom, but they both hopped out into the living room for the first time just as I was about to walk down the aisle. Maybe only another bunny mom will understand how special it was for them to hop over in that moment, I don’t know, but it elevated everything, it was like they felt the shift in energy. I walked down the aisle with the bunnies watching through the glass doors. We had a beautifully simple ceremony and spent the next couple weeks traveling the east coast, exploring and soaking in the first couple weeks as husband and wife before sharing it with the world.
Your elopement can be everything you want it to be, and nothing you don’t want. You can keep any tradition you love while ditching the ones that don’t resonate with you.
If you’re considering eloping you might be wondering, do we regret it years later? The answer is no, definitely not. It’s hard to regret listening to your heart.
