We reached the start of the dirt road right on time, 3:30am. We paused a moment, looking as far as we could into the dark woods, anticipating the drive in front of us and the adventure once we reached our destination. With a full day ahead of us we had to keep a close eye on the time, the plan was to leave the trailhead at 4:15 but we still had quite a drive before we would reach Brooke and Sanne at the top. If you’ve ever driven the road up to Winchester Mountain you know that most of the road is dominated by large pot holes, uneven and unpredictable gravel, with no turnouts for oncoming traffic. The type of drive that jolts your spine and tests your suspension. One bright side to driving up in the pitch dark was that my future husband (who had never driven this road before) had no idea what sort of steep drop offs lay just outside of view from the headlights. We reached the trailhead, alone at the foot of the mountain, with a blanket of stars reflecting off the twin lakes in complete, beautiful silence. We could have been the only 6 people in the world. THIS was the beginning of our wedding day.
The 6 of us being: Michael and I, our pal who drove us up the mountain in the dark (what a great friend!), our videographer (also a great friend!) and two elopement photographers, Brooke and Sanne. If you plan to elope in a National Park or National Forest, hire GREAT elopement photographers! There was so much that goes into that process that I hadn’t realized. Brooke and Sanne not only took beautiful photos for us but they also knew when and how to go about getting the permits, watched the weather and smoke forecast, tracked golden hour and sunrise timing down to the minute, had back up location suggestions, and enjoy their work so much it gave an undercurrent of calm to the jam-packed schedule.
Turns out the permit process works like this:
- You’ll need a National Park Service’s Special Use Permit
- Apply and pay for your permit as early as possible to make sure you get the day that you want
- You’ll need to know the desired date, time and location as well as the number of guests. Every location is different, but they may limit the number of guests or the number of events taking place in a single day.
- Each National Park has its own entrance fees and regulations so your elopement photographers can help you learn about what your specific day will require
The hike up Winchester Mountain is an enjoyable 3.5 miles of well maintained switch backs with constant views of Twin Lakes below. We wouldn’t see any of the Lake views until we made our way back down, however. In the complete dark of 4am (yikes!) we had only our headlamps and the moon to light our path up the mountain. Rising 1325 feet, the reward at the top is an incredible 360 degree view of the North Picket and Skagit ranges, Mt. Baker showing off in the middle of a fairytale cordillera. The backdrop to our wedding photos would turn out to be the sun rising, casting colors and shadows over layers and layers of the North Cascades.
We got really lucky with the crowds, I’m relieved to say! But be prepared, getting married in a National Forest is not a private event per se. The first potential hiccup was the shelter once we reached the top of Winchester. If backpackers happened to be sleeping inside we would have had no right to disturb them and I would have been stripping down in the trees to change into my wedding dress. The second potential issue would be the platform at the Fire and Ice trail where we would have our actual wedding ceremony. We were lucky enough that the space was vacant when we arrived and any lookie-lous that came along gave us a smile and kept walking (with the exception of one couple of older gals who wanted to take our picture…? For whatever future purpose?)
Besides those logistics that were, like I said, handled primarily by our Running Wild crew, the next hurdle was the kids schedule in all of this. Although a sunrise mountain top elopement was my dream, Michael and I were very aware that this would not be an enjoyable experience to drag the kids through. We talked a lot about what’s the best way to balance OUR wedding day, Michael’s and mine, with OUR wedding day, our family coming together as one. How much do Michael and I need to sacrifice from our dream wedding because not everyone in our party can manage what we have in mind? And honestly this has been not just a wedding day conversation but a conversation that we check in about frequently in our marriage. Balancing what’s best for “us” or for “US” when the two answers aren’t the same. Compromise, creative thinking, patience, and planning ahead. Those are the best tools that we’ve come up with to manage that question.
At 5 and 8 years old, Caed and Shae had done a pretty small amount of hiking, certainly not experienced or avid hikers. On one hand, we could have gotten them up early, done our best to gently (or not so gently) encourage them up the mountain. We may have gotten one or two good pics where we aren’t all grimacing at the drama of potential blisters and tired attitudes (just thinking practically here). We could have forced them into the mold that we wanted for our wedding day. Or we could meet them where they’re at and get creative. With some help from our friends who stayed behind, Michael and I left the kids in bed to enjoy a sunrise hike as a couple, have our first-look on a mountain top, share a couple intimate and quiet moments as we began our new life together. And later in the afternoon, we got the kids ready and walked the Fire and Ice trail together as a family for the ceremony.
The Fire & Ice Trail has virtually no elevation gain or loss, a very gradual 0.5 mile walk that branches off from Heather Medows and Artist Point. As if to prove our point, there were very quickly tears and blisters and complaints about the walk, which is just all part of the experience! Right!? Compromise! Patience! But this was a much more manageable experience for the kids to be a part of with us. With Bagley Lake and the North Cascades as the backdrop to our ceremony we had a beautiful view (albeit less epic than our sunrise mountain hike) for the “I Do’s”. Finding ways to include the kids at their experience level has been hard to adjust to but saves us frustration in the end and gives us all incredible memories to take with us as we continue to grow as a family.
All said and done, our wedding day elopement looked something like this:
- 4:30am Hike Winchester Mountain, reach the top about 6am
- 2.5 Hours at the top for photos and First Look pictures
- Pictures at AirBnB Cabin with kids (we did a combination of cozy “fireplace” attire and wedding attire)
- 2:00 Start Ceremony at Fire & Ice Trail
- Final Group and Family photos at Bagley Lakes
- 3:30 Back to AirBnB for lunch, cake, champagne toast!
When planning your own elopement, remember the wedding day is just the beginning. This was just the first adventure of the rest of our lifetime of adventures. We made our day work for us, all four of us, and all in all had the wedding of our dreams. Now that the boys are older, we are hiking more often. Next time we have an opportunity for a sunrise hike, they’ll be ready! Until then, that’s an experience that will just be for me and Michael to share.
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