Top 5 Tips For A Stress Free Wedding Day | Salt Lake City, Utah Destination Wedding Photographer | Fine Art Photography

There are countless articles out there with tips on having a stress free wedding day. And if you’ve read any of them, you probably feel like you’re reading the same thing over and over again. I wanted to write this guide with 5 tips that will help you feel relaxed and calm on your wedding day that will ALSO create rich, meaningful experiences and memories to look back on. This guide will include 5 simple things that you haven’t already come across in all your reading. You can do all 5, or you can just choose 1 or 2. Either way, it is guaranteed to help you stay calm on your wedding day or in the week leading up to it. The other really cool thing about these tips is that they make for really beautiful photographic moments, etching your memories even deeper and allowing you to relive them each time you look back through your photos. These ideas will help to become grounded and to re-center so that you can really approach your wedding day with intention and presence.

Candid, natural, thoughtfully composed imagery of engaged couples and couples on their wedding day, photographed on 35 mm format camera using black and white film, portra 400, and using light leak techniques to give photos a beautiful wash of color, with a painterly effect.

Romantic, elopement in the Provo Utah mountains with beautiful rich florals, and soft greenery. This styled shoot had the most beautiful colors and a wedding dress with such pretty movement to it.

Kelsey and Travis’s intimate, destination wedding at the Bonneville Salt Flats remains one of the highlights of 2021. There was such a beautiful focus on enjoying the entire process, going with the flow, and really being present in the whole experience and it was a joy to photograph. We connected over our love for movement and candid, documentary style photos, as well as a love for black and white images, which was definitely a focus throughout the entire photographic experience.

The day started out at the Hyatt Central Park City on a typical October day in Utah with a light sprinkling of rain. Surrounded by mountains and storm clouds, Kelsey and Travis each got ready in their own rooms, surrounded by beautiful details of raw edged wooden mirrors, aspen wallpaper, and soft touches of gold as they prepared for a first look before everyone headed out to the Salt Flats.

So I had an idea a while back that it would be nice to get wedding advice, planning tips, and suggestions from the people that had been there before. There are a TON of articles on wedding blogs and links to articles on Pinterest and some of them are really helpful, but a lot of them are also just trendy topics. They don’t look at tradition and evaluate it. So I took a few questions to my facebook and instagram audience to get their wisdom and advice on the whole wedding experience from what they regret, to what they were glad they did. These tips for making your wedding planning easier are little nuggets of gold and it’s worth reading every single one. Take a screen shot if you need!

I loved collaborating in Sundace, Utah at the Timpanogas Trailhead with fellow creative Katie Bushnell from Havenwood. She did such a beautiful job at taking the little bit of inspiration I sent her and really bringing it to life with her fine art wedding styling. This is exactly what a wedding stylist does. It’s easy to pin all the pretty pictures to Pinterest but it’s an entirely different thing to know how to bring it all together and have it look pretty and balanced. It’s overwhelming to look at all the different wedding table decorations and centerpieces, and even if you do find the right ones, arranging them takes a trained, creative eye.

So if you’re considering eloping or having an outdoor wedding, I’m guessing one of the first thoughts that came to your mind was, what if it rains? And if it wasn’t on your mind, it was on your mom’s—rightfully so. What do you do when you’ve planned to have a beautiful elopement or small, outdoor ceremony and it’s supposed to be windy and rainy. I’ve got a couple of suggestions to help the situation to go as smooth as possible.

Common Misconceptions About Eloping

1 | You can't invite anyone⁠
2 | It involves a trip to Vegas and an Elvis officiant⁠
3 | It's all about the practicality of getting married, not any of the traditional wedding details⁠
4 | It's only for those who can't afford a regular wedding⁠
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Want to know what I say to all of those? NOT TRUE NOT TRUE NOT TRUE. So many of the "rules" of a wedding day are just in our head. There is no wedding government to hold you accountable for not following ALL of the traditions (even though you might have an aunt that thinks that is her job). ⁠
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Samm and Caz celebrated an elopement in the red rock desert landscape of Moab last Fall. Moab is one of the most gorgeous Utah locations with epic scenery, plenty of opportunities for adventure, and also lots of spaces and nature settings that are intimate and romantic.

So you want to elope in Utah…you have chosen well! Choosing an elopement location in Utah is the hardest part because there are SO many epic scenic options, which also means epic elopement photography. Utah has a variety of landscapes which makes it a great place for a destination wedding. Whether you’re planning a smaller, intimate wedding (or micro wedding), or an elopement, there is a type of scenery that will work for everyone.

There’s one thing about Utah—there is no shortage of GORGEOUS places to get married. Tressa and Brody chose to get married at Log Haven, a beautiful lodge venue nestled in the mountains of Millcreek, Utah.

This gorgeous, intimate wedding with Chad and Ashley’s close friends and family was perfect inspiration for anyone looking to plan an adventure wedding or elopement in Utah. The natural landscape was the perfect setting with a beautiful overlook of Zion’s National Park.

Romantic, moody bridal session at Jolley’s Ranch in Springville, Utah. The VW Van and fresh daisies along with the cookies with pressed flowers added the perfect bohemian twist to this laid back session in the mountains.

A free spirited elopement style bridal session, lakeside, in the rain.