This one here is a special one. A really special one.

Last year our wonderful friend Dean asked Evan and I if we would join him for a weekend hiking trip where he was planning to propose to his girlfriend, Danielle. It was one of the sweetest things I’ve ever had the honor of capturing. This August, they absolutely outdid themselves and planned the most beautiful elopement at a little bed and breakfast in Orange, Virginia.

Evan and I packed our bags, bought way too many gas station snacks, and road tripped with Dean and Dani to this lovely, tiny town. We explored for a day, then met up with their parents to get ready for the wedding day. Dean and Dani had left almost everything entirely up to their vendors, just hiring people they found on Google and trusting their expertise. Holladay House, the bed and breakfast they were staying at, prepared the entire ceremony: bringing in a Justice of the Peace, making a special breakfast while they got ready, and bought a bottle of locally-made wine for everyone to toast. Dani found a wonderful hair stylist and did her own makeup. She called a florist and asked them design whatever they wanted (she was floored by how beautiful it turned out). Dean found a restaurant in a nearby town who reserved the entire loft area for them and made cake and boozy parfaits for everyone. It was hot and muggy and a Tuesday afternoon; it was laid-back and joyful and full of happy tears and laughter and sticky-sweaty hugs, and it was positively perfect.