Back in March I went out to California for the first time, to a kickass workshop that I’m totally gonna blog about later ;-) I’d always wanted to go to Cali and was pumped it was finally happening!

In the months before the workshop, one of the other attendees and I started messaging via Instagram. We got to know each other some and, turns out, Becca is cool as hell!!! So when she asked if there was any chance I’d want to fly out to Joshua Tree a couple days early to do some exploring and shooting before the workshop, I was so down!

We began brainstorming for a few planned shoots we wanted to do, and we started looking for couples around Joshua Tree who’d be down to jump in front of our cameras. We got our necessary permits with the National Park and found a location, and ordered a dress and viel online. We even coordinated our flights to meet up at the airport in Denver so we could sit next to each other during the flight to California! Meeting Becca was like reuniting with a long lost friend, and I couldn’t be more grateful to the universe for putting us in the same place at the same time.

Our couple, Maggi & Emma, met up with us at the crack of dawn and spent the day shooting and hanging out. They’ve been dating for a few years now, but aren’t engaged yet. We had endless jokes about how they’d put these photos on social media to prank their friends & family, haha, and some of them fell for it! Too funny.

We started our elopement by getting ready at the house we were staying at. We listened to music, had a glass of wine, and started photographing. Once Maggi and Emma had their ‘fits on, we made our way to a forest of Joshua Trees, where they said some super sweet words to each other and pretended to get married ;-) Afterwards we took some photos with Emma’s kickass Porsche, made a killer fruit & charcuterie board, and smoked a couple joints. They were the perfect couple to create with, having so much fun in front of the camera and willing to go for any of our ideas! Check it out...