A Texan Couple Elope to Lake Crescent

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Alyssa & Matt- Two Texans Elope at Lake Crescent in WA

Everyone loves to elope at Lake Crescent!

I have shot many gorgeous elopements at Lake Crescent in my ten plus years of shooting couples. I would say that one in three couples that decide to elope here are not from the state of Washington! In fact for the last few years, I have been getting more and more couples from the Midwest coming here. Probably because it’s pretty flat in the middle of the country and they want something different, but who knows really.

Alyssa told me that her mom has worked as a flight attendant for an airline for more than 20 years. So whenever Alyssa wants to go somewhere, it’s incredibly inexpensive! Not to give anything away, but their honeymoon to Asia (pre-covid) cost them $50! So since they knew that they weren’t going to be spending a boat load on travel expenses they wanted to make sure they got the best and most amazing photos they possibly could in the most stunning location they wanted. Which is where I come in!

I love it when couples put photos as a high priority.  I realize I’m a little biased, but what else will you have left 20 years from now?

Alyssa and Matt are from the great state of Texas, from the city of Houston right on the Gulf of Mexico. And of all the places for these two to elope to, they chose to elope at Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park! I showed them a list of places that I love to shoot at in the area and they landed on a few places at Lake Crescent.

They said it was the most beautiful pristine lake they had ever seen.  Which in case you didn’t know, one of the main reasons the lake is so clean is because jet skis are outlawed and very few people are even allowed to bring a motorboat out on the water as well. Most just the local people who have lived or had property on the lake for the last 50+ years.

When you drive around the lake, 85% of the boats you see out on it are kayaks, canoes, or paddle boards. It’s so nice when we’re out there because it really is just so quiet and it’s such a clear lake that on a calm morning, you can see at least 20-50ft down! It really is one of my all time favorite lakes and I am always so excited to show it off to couples who have never been there before.

So Alyssa and Matt’s elopement at Lake Crescent started off very well. Their ceremony was in the bright sun on the edge of the lake. Alyssa looks incredible in her dress.  The details are amazing. It was just them, the officiant, and myself present. The ceremony was very sweet. Alyssa cried and of course that then got me choked up.

I’m a sympathetic cryer. I can’t help it! Especially seeing fathers of the bride crying gets me every time! Alyssa and Matt decided to elope just the two of them and have a big part with all their family and friends at a later date. But right here in this moment, it was just for them.

After the ceremony the clouds rolled in as did some light rain. We got as many photos as we could before it was a little too rainy and headed northwest to the Elwah river to try and outrun the rain.

For those of you who are not familiar with it, it’s pronounced “L-Wah” and it is named after the local native tribe. A brief history of the Elwah River. It use to have a dam at the top of it and that created lake Mills and Aldwell. Once the Dam was removed in 2002 both lakes disappeared and the river became a force to be reckoned with. A few days after Alyssa and Matt’s elopement, there was a terrible storm and some of the areas you see in the photos below were totally underwater and part of the road is now flooded and impassable.

But for the sake of their wedding photos we got super lucky and got the river at a great level to climb down and enjoy its beauty before they headed out.

Lastly, one of the best parts about the Elwah is the big mossy trees. Alyssa and Matt don’t have moss or trees like that down in Texas so they wanted to make sure they got some photos amongst them because they didn’t think their family would believe them when they told them how incredible they were. That is one of the best parts about the Olympic National Park and Lake Crescent, it’s an ecosystem like you wouldn’t believe and it’s an incredible place to elope to!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy watching Alyssa and Matt elope at Lake Crescent.  If you enjoyed this session, check out my other adventures here.

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