During the winter and early spring each year I have a chance to work on some personal projects and creative ideas that I’ve been sitting on during the previous summer and fall wedding season. I think personal projects are important because it gives creatives (in all fields) a chance to do something outside the box, try new methods and approaches, collaborate with fellow business owners, and it also allows me to produce content that represents the type of work I would love to photograph all day every day if given the chance.

I’d had an idea for a while of creating a bridal look inspired by John Muir’s writings - a bridal look that feels perfectly placed within the forests, national parks and beautiful public spaces that he wrote about. I set about putting together a mood board for this and immediately brought on two of my dear friends, Keita from Smashing Petals and Katherine from South Fork Cake Company, to collaborate. The flowers and cake are INCREDIBLE.

The locations in this shoot are places that my grandfather took me to, believe it or not. Following his service in WWII, he joined the National Park Service, at one point overseeing a huge part of Mt. Rainier, and later on his in career overseeing part of Olympic National Park. I told him that I was in need of some beautiful spaces on the Olympic Peninsula to shoot at and he was more than ready to go on a mini road trip to scout locations with me. He told me about his favorite waterfall in the park and drove us there - off the beaten track, not prominently signed at all, yet just a couple hundred feet from the road. It was PERFECT. He then took us to Lake Crescent Lodge and we looked out over a gorgeous lake with sloping hills falling straight into the water on all sides. Beautiful no matter which way you looked.

We incorporated a couple John Muir quotes into our shoot that we felt were a good combination of quintessential John Muir, as well as commentary that fits our world today. At the end of the day, a creative collaboration came together that I am so proud of and I have my fellow wedding industry colleagues to thank endlessly for their hard work. This shoot was featured on Mountainside Bride, which I am still so tickled by. Please be sure to read through to the end for a full list of collaborating vendors and link to the Mountainside Bride feature.