Leigh and Kory get married at Heather Meadows

The Preliminaries

Way back in mid-March I received an inquiry through The Knot, a wedding website where I advertise.  Leigh and Cory were planning on getting married in Washington sometime in late July ot early August, and wanted to know if I might be available to photograph their wedding.  But this was not going to be the typical wedding and reception held in a wedding venue.  Instead, they wanted to have their wedding in the mountains, in the North Cascades.  But they did not yet have a location chosen.

As we talked more I began to understand their issues in planning their wedding.  Leight and Kory were located in Texas, but are extremely hard-core hiking enthusiasts who wnated to go to a place that they had never been for their wedding.  And because they aer hiking nuts, doing the wedding in the mountains was a no-brainer.  But since they had never been to the North Cascades and were more than 2200 miles away in Austin, finding the right location for their ceremony was not exactly an easy proposition.  To further complicate things, we were still deep in the grips of Covid and Leigh was not sure that her employer would allow her to travel in August.

I am also a hiker, but my experience in the North Cascades is limited so I could not give them many suggestions.  But Leigh is both very resourceful and determined, and after doing some research she and Kory decided on havng the wedding at Artist Point, located on Mt. Baker in the NW corner of the state.  I had never been to Artist Point, though I had been to the ski area a number of times as well as some very picturesque ponds nearby.  After doing my own research I was very excited about their choice.  Artist Point is located literally at the end of the road up Mt. Baker, several miles past the ski area at ~4600 ft of altitude.  And once you reach the end of the road it is still a hike of another ~1 mile to reach the actual location.  Once there the views are amazing, with the peaks of Mt. Baker, Mt. Shukson and a lot of the North Cascades visible from different viewpoints.

So the decision was made.  The wedding would be at Artist Point on August 2 in the mid-late morning; having the wedding on a Monday would hopefully cut down on the number of other people who might be there, since this can be a very busy spot on weekends.  Kory and Leigh had a pretty good sized guest list considering that everyone would be travelling a good distance to get there.  Relatives and friends from as far away as New York (where Leigh and Kory met) and their current hometown of Austin TX.  And to make things a bit more complicated there are no nearby locations to stay, with the first decent sized city being about 90 minutes away.  Most everyone ended up staying in various rental homes in a very small town about 45 minutes away from Artist Point.

About a week before the wedding date I got an email from Leigh.  The road from the ski area to Artist Point was closed due to some kind of washout, and it was not at all clear whether it would be possible to reach Artist Point.  Which obviously meant that a change of plans was necessary!  But Kory and Leigh were not deterred, and quickly came up with a Plan B if the road was still closed on the wedding day.  The wedding would be held in Heather Meadows, which is located just before the point of the road closure.  The decision would be made a couple of days before the wedding date, after Kory and Leigh arrived and had a chance to scout everything out.

The Wedding Day

The day of the wedding I met up with Leigh and Kory at their Air BnB, where we did a few first-look photos before heading off for the drive up the mountain.  Leigh had perhaps the most unique “bouquet” that I have seen in more than 40 years as a wedding photographer.  She had made it herself, and you’ll see it in the following photos.  It is decorated with pins and brooches that belonged to Leigh’s mother.  Very cool idea!  Only downside was it was really heavy for Leigh to drag all over the mountain!

Everyone met up at the Heather Meadows parking lot, which as planned had not yet gotten too crazy with others who wanted to do some hiking.  Once we got orgaized we started off on the trail, looking for a good location for the ceremony. It didn’t take long to find a great spot.

As you’ll see from the photos we had a pretty impressive crowd, numbering 21 including the bride and groom.  Included in the group were Grant, a good friend who also officiated the ceremony; Kory’s mom (Leann), sister (Trisha), aunts (Patti and Laurie), his dad (Roger) and step mom (Karen); Leigh’s brothers Scott (who is in the navy and wore his uniform for the wedding), Brian and sister in law Judi.  Also a few friends from both NY and Austin.  Even Rachel, Leigh’s best friend from kindergarten, made the trip!  Not your typical teeny elopement! 🙂

The day was unusually hazy due to smoke from some forest fires, which obscured some of the nearby mountains.  But the views were still spectacular!  I did take some liberties with a few of the photos and added a sky that looked more like what we would have seen on a non-smoky day, as you’ll see below.

Once the ceremony was over some bottles of champagne were brought out and everyone shared a toast to the newlyweds.  And be sure to check out the very cool cups that Kory and Leigh had made just for the occasion.

After the ceremony everyone climbed back to the parking lot, where most of the group changed into clothes that were better for hiking so we could do some further exploring of the area.  Leigh and Kory stayed in their wedding clothes, which was very impressive as we then walked downhill to a beautiful lake, and those heavy clothes can’t have made that easy.  But as I said earlier, these two are hard core hikers and this was likely just an easy stroll for them.

Regrettably we did not have the time to really expore the area or I have little doubt that we would have ended up at the top of the distant ridge that you’ll see in the photos.  Which would have been a lot of fun, if also a lot of work.  But we did manage to get some fun photos down at the lake, as well as at a smaller pond further up the trail.

This was the most fun I have had at a wedding in a long time, and I am going to start looking for more couples like Kory and Leigh who want to have this kind of adventure wedding.  I really enjoyed working with the entire group, and told Leigh that if they decide to come back to Seattle I want to take them to some of my favorite hiking spots that I think they’d enjoy as well.  Though they might have to slow their pace to allow me to keep up with them….. 😉

OK, here are some photos, I hope you enjoy them!