October will forever be the best time to get married (or, dare I say, do anything?) in New England, and Acadia National Park elopements in autumn are truly hard to top. Elura & Christopher drove up from MA with some of their closest family & friends to get married last October, and they could not have had a more beautifully sunny & pleasant fall day. I’m happy to share the beauty with other humans until it gets in the way of my precious couples’ experience! The one glitch on Elura & Chris’ day was that too many people seemed to have the same idea that weekend - heading up to Acadia to enjoy the foliage and gorgeous weather, resulting in us getting stuck in a traffic jam at Jordan Pond for a while. We never were able to park there and get the photos they’d wanted - yikes! I admit I was a bit panicked at that point, although not totally surprised, and thankfully the rest of the park did not disappoint.
By the end of every wedding season, I seem to develop a love/hate relationship with Acadia. In 2020 people were so anxious to get outside that it’s no wonder the park was the busiest I’d ever seen it even in October. I get it and totally support people enjoying Acadia, but this wedding was a good reminder to stick to the lesser-known spots on weekends!
Elura & Chris were so fun and low-key and truly excited to be getting married that day that they rolled with the stress of crowds and parking disasters, and we still had a wonderful time together. I was still recovering from that stress (lol) when I sent their sneak peek photos the next day, and they responded with praise about how much fun they’d had and how easy the whole photography process was.
These two decided to brave the crowds and have a tiny wedding in Acadia because of the park’s unbeatable natural beauty. And I do admit that despite the setbacks, it was totally worth it overall. I mean, look at the joy exuding from these photos. Look at that perfectly sunny sky and the views we enjoyed on Cadillac! It was a magical day. They had an amazing time and were just beaming with joy throughout our 4 hours together. Their goal had been to document as much of the Acadia scenery in their wedding photos as possible, and I think we did a good job, despite not being able to visit one of their requested spots.
We met around noon at Sieur de Monts (there were tons of people there too!), then went to my secret spot at the Blue Hill Overlook on Cadillac Mountain (nobody in our way over there!), and ended at a spot I like on the Ocean Path near Otter Cliff. There we met up with their guests and ended our time together with their sweet, simple ceremony, officiated by Chris’ brother and surrounded by their closest family and friends.
These sunshiney, perfectly pleasant days in Acadia are a bit rare in my photo work, but this one was perfectly suited to Elura & Chris’ sunny personalities and ability to soak up the beauty of their wedding day. I am forever grateful for couples like this who compel me to keep on keeping on when, by October every year, I am inevitably ready to never shoot in Acadia again. But each couple, like each October, is always so fresh and unique and full of potential. And well, here I am again, drawn back into the always intriguing, incomparably beautiful, and sometimes infuriating wonder that is my life as a Maine (which usually means Acadia) wedding and elopement photographer. I really cannot complain.
Enjoy these highlights from Elura & Chris’ day!
Wild, wonderful bouquet by Floret.
