Rebekah & Ryan’s Glowing Sunrise Adventure Session at Maroon Bells in Colorado
Rebekah and Ryan have a pretty crazy love story. They met in college at the University of Iowa, but when they graduated, Ryan moved to Texas and Rebekah moved to Arkansas. They were determined to make their relationship work, even in different states, so Ryan made the long drives and traveled back and forth every couple weeks to visit Rebekah. Rebekah was working as a newscaster in Arkansas and LOVED where she was living, but both she and Ryan decided they just didn’t like the long-distance anymore, so they packed up and moved to Colorado together!
They’ve called Colorado home now for about 3 years, but they’ve actually been engaged for longer! They were just never able to decide on what they wanted to do for their wedding, so when Rebekah and I planned to meet up early last year, I was so excited to go over all of her wedding plans and to fill her in on what I’d been up to in my life. We actually go wayyyy back - we went to high school AND middle school together!
When we met up in Denver, I told her all about what I had been up to at Grace T Photography, and she told me that she had been feeling overwhelmed with planning her own wedding and felt like she had to have a big wedding where she and Ryan invited every person they know. She told me they had considered eloping, but ultimately decided it was important to them to have their families there for their wedding day. After telling her about my experiences and some of my other couples, I reassured her that she has permission to do what SHE wants with her wedding day. After our chat, they decided to have a small intimate wedding in Iowa with just their close family and friends.
Their ceremony is going to take place in a big boho tent in the middle of summer on a piece of Ryan’s family’s land outside of Des Moines. It’s going to be SO perfect with the rolling hills, beautiful tall grasses, and all that warm golden summer light. Since they decided against eloping, though, they knew they wanted to have a more adventurous engagement session! So last August, they made the trip from Denver to meet up with me at Maroon Bells, two peaks in the Elk Mountains near Aspen in Colorado.
We met just before sunrise at Maroon Bells, because we knew we wanted to catch that stunning alpine glow on the mountains, and it only happens when the sun comes up! Together, we hiked up to our photo spot and Rebekah changed in to a GORGEOUS yellow dress that perfectly mimicked the warm alpine glow on the mountains. I loved her color choice so much because it absolutely popped in the landscape and made her stand out from the scenery in the most breathtaking way.
Rebekah and Ryan brought their adorable rescue dog, Sammy along for their session. The three of them romped around on the trails at Maroon Bells, and it was really cool to see them hang out and interact together, and so good to see my longtime friend so happy with this guy who I’d only seen on social media before. You could just tell they were in love and full of joy and pumped to finally get married, and it warmed my heart SO MUCH.