Shane + Michaela | Dayville, Connecticut Wedding and Boulder, Utah Honeymoon

This blog post is unique for many reasons. 

For starters, I had never been to Connecticut before so I was thrilled to make my way out there and document Shane and Michaela’s big day. It was late April and while the forecast was calling for rain, we were lucky to have sunshine the whole day. Their wedding was held at a charming venue in the woods called Evergreen Farms, a refurbished chicken coop! It was such a fun and unique way to experience my first East Coast wedding.

Not only that, but Shane and Michaela are a wonderfully unique couple. Michaela is an avid animal lover, and they’re both bee keepers! Unfortunately, being a bee keeper means you can suffer a few stings. Including the day before your wedding. Like Michaela did…. right near her eye.

She was such a great sport the entire wedding day, making sure to take her allergy meds and ice her swelling, but even that couldn’t hide the little bump above her cheek. So Shane and Michaela thought of a secondary plan for after their wedding - honeymoon photos (keep scrolling for part 2).

For their honeymoon, Shane + Michaela wanted to hike..

..and climb and kayak and explore. That is exactly what they did. The newlyweds flew out west and proceeded to rent a car for an epic roadtrip. They were planning to hit lots of gorgeous spots between Arizona and Utah, getting their desert hiking and climbing fix, and if there’s one thing I really love it’s the desert. So along the way, we choose to meet in Boulder Utah, a teeny tiny town between Capitol Reef National Park and Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, to make some more photo magic happen.

I drove my van out the day before, and we embarked on a sunrise hike through a canyon out to a gorgeous waterfall oasis. To try and beat the crowds and the heat, we started at a ripe 4 am, and I can not stress enough how absolutely worth it that was.

Arriving at the waterfall as the sun started to rise, we had the whole place to ourselves for over an hour. The love birds got dressed into their wedding clothes and we had a blast romping around in the sand and the spring before slowly making our way back to the trailhead. On the route back, we glimpsed golden hour in the canyon and watched the sun light up the colorful stone walls. We were back at the cars by breakfast time.

So if you’ve ever considered bringing your photographer along for part of your honeymoon, this is your sign to do it. Personally, I think you should find as many reasons as you want to don your wedding clothes again and frolic around somewhere breathtaking. Shane + Michaela - thank you for being such wonderful, enthusiastic, adventurous humans and bringing me along to so many gorgeous places. Cheers to many more epic adventures together!