Destination Desert Elopement at Valley of Fire State Park in Las Vegas, Nevada

Olivia and Griffin flew all the way from Florida to have their wedding at Valley of Fire. After COVID ruined their main wedding plans they wanted to have an authentic day that felt like them, was mostly a non-traditional vegas wedding, and that included ADVENTURE. They did not invite any guests to their vegas wedding but will be having a big shindig back in Florida maybe in 2022. That is most definitely the new normal right now; small micro-weddings in the desert (Like this amazing places to elope, Valley of Fire which is located about an hour away from Las Vegas) with large wedding parties later. With COVID, you really have to be flexible in your plans and the safest bet right now if you want to get married is a small elopement at somewhere meaningful to you. These babes have seriously the cutest lovestory too. They met at the same bar that Griffin’s parents met at. As soon as Griffin saw Olivia he knew he was going to marry her someday. Serious notebook vibes, amiright?!

I’ve gotten a huge influx of couples wanting to elope in Las Vegas (psst. here’s a guide on how to get legally married in Las Vegas that I wrote!) and I can say with utmost confidence – you won’t regret it. I don’t personally do hiking elopements and the Valley of Fire is perfect if you want to just show up and get married with the most beautiful backdrop ever.

It’s totally possible to have a stress free desert wedding with a few of your closest friends and relatives and it can be as luxurious or as minimalist as you want. In this couples case – a little of both. I will probably write a guide on How to Get married at the Valley of Fire at some point soon because it’s a unique and tricky place for a few reasons. The location you’re allowed to get married at is not up to you. It’s up to the state park when they assign me/your wedding planner the permit to get married at VOF. For example, this location is called The Cabins and while it’s gorgeous, my couple didn’t specifically pick it. Don’t close this browser yet because of that fact though! The one upside is every wedding ceremony location in Valley of Fire is REALLY pretty. You’ll get sweeping gorgeous red rock views and they’re all ADA accessible.

It was very important to them that they keep some traditional elements of a wedding in their desert elopement – one being a ring exchange during their vows. They both had gold bands because they wanted to retain some classic elements in their wedding. I would say 90% of my couples theses days have silver or rose gold rings – not them!

To completely contrast the traditional wedding vibes, they were sure to incorporate some personal and funky ideas into their intimate desert wedding. First off – look at Griffins suit. Blue velvet with delicate paisley swirls gave him a super unique groom look that suited him and his personality perfectly.

Olivia wore a dress that she felt like a queen in (#yaaaaaas) and it suited her so nicely. It was a floor length Vera Wang Wedding Gown (She brought it all the way from Florida!). It (and she) looked SO stunning against the gorgeous backdrop that is Valley of Fire.

For her flowers she had a gorgeous green + white bouquet that had some sprigs of cute spring florals that really gave a nice variations and tones.

They were really nothing but smiles their entire elopement and could not keep their eyes off each other. There are a lot of things about my job I can’t teach. No amount of posing can allow me to get beautiful intimate moments like these where the couple just radiates love.