The morning of the wedding came, Remy got ready in one part of the lodge while Leanne was putting some finishing touches on the dresses. Watching her work her craft in real time was so cool. She wasn’t just buttoning things up, she literally brought fabric and scissors to finish her and her best friends’ dresses the morning of the wedding! And the dresses were AMAZING. Really, dressmaking is an art and Leanne is a master. Her wedding dress even had parts of her vow printed in French on the fabric (so creative). The words were subtle and blended in with the print (look for it in the pictures). She also printed out her vows in French for Remy which was such a cool little detail to their day. Remy looked good too in a tailored navy suit, floral shirt, and blue tie – a seriously good looking couple.
Their idea for eloping was just to be with each other. Other than that, there were zero plans which meant everything was up in the air. We just went and scoped out a spot for their ceremony and pictures. Turns out we found a perfect little point right on the side of the road. Leanne walked up behind Remy for their first look, and it was like her dress came alive. Her design was amazing, the wave of fabric down her arms, the dreamy veil catching in the wind… it was stunning. Remy could not stop smiling at her and after looking at her, spent a while looking over every little detail of the dress. He was so proud.
They each brought their best friends along with them for the elopement. Remy’s officiated the wedding, Leanne’s was the bridesmaid (check out her dress too, it was beautiful) and Remy’s brother served as the second witness. They read their vows through happy tears and plenty of laughs. It was such an intimate ceremony, so simple, a wedding in the middle of the badlands with friends who were so much fun – so excited to be there celebrating. The light was beautiful, so we spent quite a bit of time there shooting. I couldn’t get enough of Leanne’s dress, the light flowing through it, the streaks of fabric from her bouquet flowing around in the wind – it was perfect.
From there we headed to the town dump. Seriously, a dump! Haha, this is what you can look forward to… really, it was just a road on the way to a big gross dump but still, leave it to Wyoming to have what’s known as “the most beautiful dump road in the world.” There we just hiked around and had a ton of fun. Remy was always smiling and laughing, kissing Leanne whenever the opportunity came up. They were so adorable together. I was so glad they chose to come all the way out here to get married.
Then, as if her first dress weren’t beautiful enough, Leanne left to change into another piece of hers. I took some portraits of Remy while we waited which was a lot of fun just to get him standing there in the badlands. When she came back, she was covered in this beautiful opaque earth tone deep taupe beauty of magical fabric. Seriously, she’s a wizard. It was indescribable (still struggling to wrap my mind around it), just stunning and perfect and reminded me why I chose her for my dress.
The sun was lowering a bit and made for some beautiful photos to end the perfect day. We headed back into “town” where we tried to get an impromptu wedding cake, but the only option was a pre-made bakery cake. We tried to get them to write congratulations on top but ended up with one that said “Happy Birthday” which was hilarious. We went back to the cabin and made dinner again, had a few drinks and plenty of laughs.
I love how they were just so in love that they made the wedding day completely theirs, thousands of miles from home, with no expectations other than to be with each other and a couple friends. They were just happy. Happy on the dump road (okay, still beautiful) and happy with a birthday cake. This is the epitome of what I love about my adventurous-down-for-anything brides and grooms, they show up for love. They bring who they are and the parts of their lives into their day so perfectly, with so much personality, and create amazing memories. This middle of nowhere place in Wyoming turned into a dot on a map they’ll remember forever. It was such a happy day.
