Jackie and Chad were wed on a spring evening at the beautifully unique and private getaway destination of Savage River Lodge, which sits just near the border of Garrett and Allegany Counties in Maryland. It was my fourth visit to SRL for a wedding and just like with every visit, I was very excited for what lied ahead. SRL is not only a place for rest and relaxation (and good food, too!), but it’s also a place for adventure, at least for me. Every single wedding I’ve had there has been some sort of “adventure” for me as a photographer. The first was an elopement, which was my first elopement. The second was a winter affair with just seven guests. The third was a ceremony for two + a fur friend in the middle of a snow-covered lane. And my fourth visit!? Rain, fog and a purple dress.

One of my favorite things about elopements is that there’s so much wiggle room to do sort of do whatever you want. If you want to get married on a small wooden bridge in the middle of the forest, you can. If you want to get married in a stream (like literally standing in a stream, in your bare feet…I just recently had a couple do this and I’ll be sure to blog about that later), you can. If you want to move the ceremony up by 15 minutes because rain is coming, you can! And that’s exactly what we did for Jackie and Chad’s ceremony. 

The evening forecast called for rain and even though we knew we’d have pretty good tree cover overhead most of the time, we still wanted to act fast if we could. So we packed things up, had our officiant Jennifer meet us early, they kissed the dogs goodbye, and we headed down the trail. They exchanged their rings and vows in the middle of the forest as planned and the fog surrounded them. Within minutes of starting bride-groom portraits, the rain came and I was thankful for my newly purchased clear umbrella (we used it a lot, as you’ll see below). And this whole time, Jackie and Chad were calm and happy as could be! They didn’t have to worry about moving their ceremony time up and they didn’t have to worry about walking in the rain. It was a magical adventure in the forest and I’m thankful for willing and adventurous couples just like them! 

Cowboy boots for the bride and groom. 

And a cowboy hat, too!

A few pictures with the dogs before we headed out for the ceremony…

Isn’t the fog magical!?! 

And the umbrella comes in handy!

One of my favorites from the day! Definitely not in focus, a little film-like and a little magical. 🙂

Jackie and Chad requested a few pictures inside the lodge…and we hooked them up with some champagne!

And they especially wanted to utilize the fire! It was the end of May, it was rainy and it was chilly. The fire was appropriate!