I’ll never forget my initial meeting with Kristen and Tom over Facetime. After chatting about our shared love for Idaho and, in particular, our favorite alpine hikes in the Sawtooths, we hung up the phone and that inevitable feeling as a photographer happened after a great consult where I tried to act like I didn’t care if they didn’t book me, but I really really wanted to work with them. Less than five minutes after we hung up the phone, Kristen texted me and said, “YES! WE WANT YOU! We didn’t even have to talk about it – we just know!”
Fast forward almost a year, on a July day, I rolled up to Tom’s Airbnb for getting ready photos and it was… silent. After waiting for a few minutes at my car, all of the sudden a dozen boys cruised into the driveway on bikes. Tom gave me a sweaty hug and said they’d all been on a morning bike ride. It was the best thing I’ve ever seen on a wedding morning! After grabbing the dude’s getting ready photos, I headed to the gal’s cabin where I found Kristen getting her nails done by a student of hers when she coached skiing in Sun Valley. The overwhelming sense of female power and strength from these badass, fit biking/skiing/hiking women was immediately refreshing and so easy to be around! They told me they’d summited mountains all week and spent the wedding week in the mountains out of service all week long. I felt at home immediately with both wedding parties and had a chill morning with both of them!!
After putting on her AMAZING Rue De Seine dress, I escorted Kristen to Galena Lodge for their first look. We found the perfect trail close to the Lodge and as we walked over to the trail, Kristen goes, “Oh! We used to live here!” and pointed to the tiny cabins and canvas tents off to the side of the road. She told me about their relationship, how they met both coaching and working at Galena several summers before. They were smitten immediately and felt like teenagers at summer camp. When they got off work, they would go into town for burgers and dance the night away at Lefty’s. On days off, they hiked and explored the entire Sawtooth mountain range, camping and backpacking as often as they could. After two summers of this, they both realized for their relationship to become more serious, they needed to spend more than a summer at a time together. A ski coach job opened up in Michigan and both Tom and Kristen applied separately, but when offered the job, they pitched that they get hired together. And it worked! They started their lives in Michigan together and the rest is history.
I loved this day so much. Kristen and Tom’s energy was so easy and effortless to be around. I stole them away at sunset for some photos and as they were swaying back and forth among the wildflowers in front of the Boulder Mountains, Kristen pointed at the sky and said, “Hey, didn’t we summit that one?” These two embody the spirit of living life the fullest they can, laughing together and facing every challenge head-on. I was so lucky to help celebrate them and watch this amazing couple dance the night away under the stars at their Galena Lodge wedding!
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Congratulations again to Kristen and Tom!
I’ll never forget that day, and I hope to find myself back in Sun Valley for another Galena Lodge wedding!
Looking for more boho wedding inspiration? Check out this Walla Walla winery wedding!
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Everything in this post is just GORGEOUS!
Fabulous wedding and absolutely perfect pictures.