Northern Michigan Elopement | Amber + Vince's Intimate Ceremony in Nature

Amber and Vince’s Northern Michigan Elopement

Sometimes you just have to dress up, and go out into nature to say lovey things to each other, then end the night with pizza. Who needs a marriage certificate to say you’re in love with each other? My sister and her significant other let me dress them up so they could share some vows, and have a little ceremony in the valley just down the road from my mom’s house. It’s where we all used to play in as kids, even Vince before he met my sister. We used to go down there to have picnics, walk our dogs, fill buckets of blackberries, and sled in the winter.

The ceremony was officiated by my other sister, with my nieces as their bridesmaids, and with my mom behind me not wanting to be in pictures.

“I now pronounce you boyfriend and girlfriend,” said Kaitlin. We all laughed at this sentence and the non-traditional setting before us. Vince and Amber will live happily ever after, they just don’t have a legal document signed to say that they’re going to stick it out with each other for life. It was momentous for me to do something fun like this with my family, and all in the name of creativity. Amber and Vince remarked how it felt as real of a wedding they’d ever need. My niece looked up to me at the end of the night and said, “This was so fun, can we could do this again?” She’s lucky to have a photographer as an aunt because the answer is “Yes, we will play dress up again soon.” Next time it’ll be just as fun, but again, very unique.

With their lives intertwined, what better way to end the night than with a candlelit pizza dinner in my moms front yard.

This is for you if you don’t want to do a big, stressful, expensive wedding. I think this is a great example of a non-traditional ceremony, where it truly was just about the couple. You also don’t have to break the bank to stage what we did. For less than $500 we bought the dresses on Amazon, the Tux on eBay, the fake flower bouquet from an artist on Etsy, and my sister made Kiera and Addison their own bouquets to match mom’s. Don’t forget to book an incredible photographer to capture your elopement in Northern Michigan. I’d love to be there to photograph your unique day in it’s full glory.

Northern Michigan Elopement Photographer