Abby and Rich met at an apartment complex party. They sat across a table from each other and Rich asked Abby if she lived at the apartment and she replied that no, she was the balloon delivery girl and that she decided to stay for the food. This sarcastic remark set the tone for their silly relationship that soon blossomed. This year, they decided to elope. They just wanted to hike Mt Rainier and watch a beautiful sunset with each other. I was obviously obsessed with them and OF COURSE agreed to capture their beautiful adventure!

When I arrived at the cabin, Abby was still writing her vows. Rich had finished his long ago, and she was making sure that hers were PERFECT. In fact, she spent so long on them that we were about 40 minute late for their first look! (which didn’t really matter because the best thing about elopements is that there doesn’t have to be any timeline at all! And no one will be waiting on you if you need to spend an extra half hour perfecting your vows. Except your soon-to-be husband of course!)

After their first look at their cabin, we headed up to the top of Mt Rainier and hiked to the place that they wanted to exchange their vows. Abby was a true badass bride and hiked in her wedding dress and carried her bouquet the whole way!

When we made it to the view point, Abby and Rich and their officiant made their way into the sunshine and began their ceremony. These guys poured their hearts out to each other, and when they were done, popped. bottle of champagne to celebrate! Such a special moment to witness up in the mountains. Not to mention that we were the ONLY people around, which is pretty rare if you’ve ever been to Mt Rainier in the summer!

Fun fact, Mt Rainier used to be called Mt Tacoma or Mt Tahoma, but it was renamed by George Vancouver in 1972 after his friend Peter Rainier. Imagine having named too many things after yourself that you just begin casually naming things after your friends????!! Lol I actually do prefer the name Rainier, but sort of rude of him to rename it from a word that means “the source of nourishment from the many streams coming from the slopes” to just a word that is your friend’s last name!

As we hiked back, the most beautiful alpineglow covered the mountain and we stopped for a minute to gaze at the gorgeous colors. Rainier is truly one of the most stunning peaks in Washington, and watching a sunset here is one of the most beautiful things that your little eyes can look at.