The mountains have always been my sanctuary – the places where I found solace, perspective, and a sense of belonging when the world around me felt uncertain. It’s in the quiet stillness of these landscapes that I learned how fleeting and precious life is. The mountains taught me resilience, patience, and the strength to keep moving forward.
The Power of Intentional Moments
When you spend years of your life struggling with something as fundamental as your health, you begin to develop an acute awareness of the present moment. The small things – the way the wind feels on your skin, the warmth of the sun, the deep connection to others – become profound. It’s these moments that matter most, the ones that remind us of what we can truly control in a world full of uncertainties.
This is the perspective I bring to every elopement I photograph. I understand that these moments aren’t just beautiful pictures, but profound transitions, sacred thresholds where two people make a conscious decision to choose each other, even in a world that can sometimes feel chaotic and unpredictable.
A Wilderness Without a Map
Behind the calm of the mountains and the wisdom they’ve imparted, my journey hasn’t always been easy. My health journey began when I was just five years old, though I didn’t understand what was happening until much later. Throughout my teens and twenties, my body became a landscape I couldn’t navigate – a wilderness without a map. At times, I struggled to walk, and words would slip away as aphasia took hold.
For years, doctors offered theories but no answers. I spent nearly ten years abroad, trying everything – traditional medicine, alternative therapies, and countless lifestyle changes – in Spain, Italy and Malta, but it wasn’t until my late twenties that I received a proper diagnosis: celiac disease.
Alpine Dreams: Finding Solace in Mountain Visions
During my teenage years, my family and I spent extended periods in Switzerland, and I found solace in the outdoors. At times, when I was bedridden, I would enter a meditative state and dream of mountains. Of high grasses swaying in alpine winds, of low, golden sunlight catching on distant peaks. These dreams sustained me when my physical world had shrunk to the size of a bedroom, offering me a sense of peace and hope.
What I didn’t know then was that these visions were glimpses of my future – that one day, I would stand among those very peaks, capturing love stories in the landscapes that had once healed my spirit.
From Survival to Purpose
Over the years, I’ve learned what it means to truly embrace life and to be present in each moment. In addition to my health challenges, I’ve faced several losses that reshaped my understanding of grief and resilience.
Every milestone, every moment I get to live and create, feels like a gift – a reminder that life is fragile, but it’s also resilient. It’s about choosing to love and to witness others choosing love, even when life presents us with uncertainty.
Sacred Thresholds: Where Mountains Meet Milestones
When you choose to elope, you’re often moving away from something toward something else – from expectations toward intention, from obligation toward meaning. This transition echoes my own journey from merely surviving toward creating a life of purpose.
Many of my couples have also experienced profound life challenges – navigating interreligious relationships, losing loved ones, healing from difficult family dynamics or abusive homes. It’s no coincidence they find their way to me, to the mountains that helped heal my spirit.
Nature as a Healing Presence
The landscapes where I now work – the soaring Alps, the dramatic Dolomites, the otherworldly terrain of Iceland – aren’t merely scenic backdrops for photographs. They are active participants in the healing process, in the creation of meaning.
When I guide couples to a mountain vista for their ceremony, I’m sharing something deeply personal: the medicine that helped restore my soul when medical science couldn’t yet heal my body.
The Courage of Authentic Choices
Over the years, I’ve come to deeply value honesty and intention. Life feels too short to live by someone else’s script. That’s part of why I’m so drawn to couples who choose to elope – people who carve their own path, who say, “This is our love. This is our day. This is our story to write.”
When life has stripped things down to their essentials, you begin to see what really matters. You begin to treasure the freedom to choose what aligns with your truth, and to celebrate that with the people who mean the most.
Finding Your Mountain
If something about my story resonates with yours, perhaps that’s why you’ve found your way here. Perhaps you too understand what it means to fight for your truth, to seek meaning beyond convention, to long for experiences that honor the depth of your journey together.
The mountains are here for you. And so am I.
