Moab, Utah

the hearnes » adventure elopement photographers

Adventurous Elopement Inspiration in Moab, Utah | With our friends Andy Lewis and Aleta French | Rue De Seine Nahla Gown

Sometimes it’s so fun to just go out with a few friends and have some FUN. As a full-time professional photographer, I end up taking way more photos for paying clients than anything else, so it’s really refreshing for me to sometimes just drop all exceptions and play around with zero pressure. As our spring season in Moab was coming to an end, Callen and I set out to do a few adventures that had been on our list for a while before we left for the summer. Most of them involved heinous dirt roads, or long bush-wacking treks, and a lot of them were with our friends Andy and Aleta (who are both WELL VERSED in desert epics). You might remember Andy (or as some know him, “Sketchy” Andy Lewis) from this blog post of his 30th birthday party in Moab a few years ago, or as the best man and inventor of the Spacenet in the viral Spacenet Wedding we shot. He’s one of our most creative, and yes, sketchy friends, and getting to know him in Moab has been such a blast. When Andy invites you to an adventure, you should assume it will be exhausting, epic, scary, and probably really really cool. Andy’s girlfriend, Aleta, has become one of my good friends and my go-to when I have a weird Moab adventure quest in mind. She’s lived in Moab for 10 years and is a Moab desert rat trough-and-through. She’s a canyoneering guide and has explored so many corners of this vast landscape, so when I have a new idea she often has some sort of beta for how to make it happen!

Anyway, all that to say…when I asked them to hop in my Jeep and take some portraits in a desert rainstorm in pretty clothes, they didn’t even blink. They were down! It was pretty cold and honestly would have been a sufferfest for anyone that wasn’t used to silly desert shenanigans, but compared to what these two get into pretty much daily, it was a super low-key adventure. We picked up some beers and candy at the lodge nearby, drove the Jeep out to a little spot I’d found a couple weeks prior, and danced around in the rain together for a few hours! It was super fun taking photos of Andy and Aleta in this area because it is where they’ve done a ton of adventures together throughout their relationship. The rain came in and out, and the moody weather was super fun to photograph since most photos of this place are sunny with blue skies! After a few hours we were all pretty tired and hungry, so we called in Thai pick-up, drove back to town, and relaxed at our house while we ate Thai and looked through some of our favorite photos of the day. We ended the evening in the hot tub (as all good evenings should end) and I was, once again, taken aback by how wonderful life is. To be living in Moab with such a fun community of friends, doing my dream job, and sitting in my own hot tub in my own backyard…what a dream come true!

Also, mega shout out to Rue De Seine for lending us this dress! They sent three samples for our Vow Renewal shoots with Keith and Brianna Madia, and I loved the Nahla Gown so much I really wanted to photograph it in Moab, which is why I did these photos with Andy and Aleta. The Nahla Gown is just as stunning in person as it looks in photos (if not more) and is seriously the PERFECT dress for boho desert elopements. The layers of fabric are stunning and so much fun to play with for photos. And it’s one of the most flattering dresses I’ve seen! If you’re looking for pretty boho-style dresses, the Rue De Seine Wild Hearts Collection is perfect!

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The Hearnes Adventure Photography is run by Abbi and Callen Hearne, a husband & wife wedding photography team with an emphasis on adventure. They live on the road as full-time nomads, allowing them to serve a large portion of the western US. You can typically find them in Moab, Utah or Yosemite National Park, California, with side-quests to Patagonia and Alaska. They believe love is the greatest adventure and strive to create photos that are epic, romantic, true, and timeless.

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