Knots in the Pines

Knots in the Pines Adventure Elopement Photographers, Videographers and Planners

If you could elope anywhere, where would you go?
05/05/2026

If you could elope anywhere, where would you go?

If you’re torn between a wedding and an elopement, no stress: there are dozens of options for you!Consider an intimate w...
05/01/2026

If you’re torn between a wedding and an elopement, no stress: there are dozens of options for you!

Consider an intimate wedding, like J + K did! It gives you the traditional vibe with a lot less stress and the breathing room to create beautiful memories.

Consider a destination wedding.
Intimate weddings lend themselves great to local backyard soirees, but they also make great destination weddings.

For a cosy feel, we recommend couples rent a large AirBnB or two, which can house all their guests. This allows the memory making to extend beyond the wedding day.

You can plan optional activities on the days leading up to your wedding. Some of our favorite activities to plan for guests in Hawai’i include snorkel tours, day trips other the national parks, lu’aus, and coffee farm tours and tastings.

Keep it small: We recommend no more than 35 guests, with 10-20 guests being ideal.
With a guest list to around 30, J + K they were able to spend quality time with every single one of the people they invited. During the reception, they were able to dance with all their friends, have a few toasts, and chat with all their family members.

A limited guest count also allows you to splurge on things like food, drinks, and gifts. Instead of having to budget to feed 100 people, with a small group, you might be able to hire a private chef that can cook fresh fish caught from the ocean that morning. Gifts can be handmade or personalized (one bride we worked with recently was a ceramicist and she made a trinket bowl for each guest! Try doing that when you have a guest count of 250!).

We’re going back to Utah! We only have spots for a few elopements, engagements, or portrait sessions, but they will be E...
04/29/2026

We’re going back to Utah! We only have spots for a few elopements, engagements, or portrait sessions, but they will be EPIC!

We have a few dates available between July 9th and 17th. It’s a great time of year for the mountain ranges of Utah with wildflowers poppin’, lakes shimmerin’, and moose a-moosin’. Some desert areas like Moab and St. George will be miserably hot during the day, but will have STUNNING sunrises, sunsets, and stargazing. Bryce Canyon is high enough in elevation that it will be super pleasant with highs that might kiss 80F and prairie dogs everywhere! 💕

04/10/2026

What should you wear for your Adventure Elopement?

Anything you want.

When you elope, you can embrace the traditions you love, ignore the ones you hate, and make new ones to reflect on you and your partner’s values.

While you can go the traditional route of white wedding dresses and tuxedos, you can also embrace color, your heritage, or your personal style.

Many of our couples blend the traditional with something unique—a 3-piece suit in Park Service Green with dog-patterned custom lining; a wedding gown embroidered with gold stars and dip-dyed blue; a cathedral train covering hiking boots.

Some couples draw from their backgrounds— Ao dais, lehengas, bringing their Vietnamese and Indian heritage to their elopement.

Other couples completely ditch tradition and celebrate in a way that feels the most like them. We’ve had couples wear everything from overalls, leather jackets, cowboy hats, and even flowsuits straight out of rave culture.

As long as your:
1. Confident and absolutely love the way you look;
2. Prepared for the conditions you’ll be experiencing; and
3. Able to do the activities you want to do in your outfit,
Then you’re perfectly dressed for your adventure wedding.

Fire + IceV proposed to C under the Northern Lights in their home state of Alaska. Being from a land of snow, ice, and ...
03/31/2026

Fire + Ice
V proposed to C under the Northern Lights in their home state of Alaska. Being from a land of snow, ice, and darkness, they decided to have an elopement with the complete opposite theme: fire! V + C told me their free dates and their desire for active volcanism, and let me run with their theme from there, giving me nearly complete freedom in the planning process.
We started with a moody sunrise in Hilo. A beach with jagged black rocks jutting out from the ocean and pounding waves pulling the black stones in and out of the ocean creating a constant tumbling and grinding soundtrack. The jungle competes with the waves to overtake the beaches, with dense vines raining down from the branches of giant trees.
V + C wore traditional Ao Tai to celebrate V’s Vietnamese heritage. Joe incorporated both of their heritages into their ceremony by modifying a Celtic handfasting to embody the Viet red thread of marriage.
As the sun rose, we snuck off to a lovely waterfall, where basalt columns frame the water pouring down into a crystal clear swimming pond.
After getting our feet a bit wet, C changed into her mother’s wedding dress and, descending into the jungle, we entered an undeveloped lava tunnel.
One can’t just adventure all day—one also needs good coffee and food! We grabbed fabulous , and after a short rest, we watched half a dozen sea turtles in a shallow cove while munching on mochi.
Now for the grand finale! Most people would expect a Volcano local to take a couple to Volcanoes National Park to see Kilauea’s active caldera. But, I had a different idea.
Our friends’ farm was the epicenter of the 2018 lava flows, losing much of their farm to lava. You might imagine this area as just hardened lava flows, but it’s still very active, with steam vents surrounding all the sulfur-crusted cone-shaped fissures. John gave C + V a private tour of the area, complete with before and after photos of the eruption and then serenade us all with a song.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, C + V threw on their swimsuits and waded into a hot spring created during the 2018 eruption.

It’s your wedding: dream big! Horse big! 🐎When C + K wrote us asking if we could plan and photograph their wedding, they...
03/12/2026

It’s your wedding: dream big! Horse big! 🐎

When C + K wrote us asking if we could plan and photograph their wedding, they didn’t know where or what they wanted to do, but they wanted to experience the best scenery Kaua’i had to offer over 2 days of photography. I try to start by planning around activities and locations, so I sent C + K a list of activity ideas along with my favorite hikes, beaches, places to eat and more. C immediately feel in love with the idea of horseback riding. The two of us reached out to every stable on Kaua’i and after chatting with CMJ Stables, we knew we found our perfect match. Janine and Jimmy (the stable managers) helped us every step of the way, from letting Joe and me scout to find our favorite angles for photography to prepping C + K on horseback riding.

These photos are from just 1 of 4 different locations and shoots we did with C + K for their wedding. Other locations included their ceremony with friends and family on an albatross-covered cliff overlooking the ocean and mountains, a sandy beach with their pet dachshund, and a hike to the top of a Pali (cliff mountain).

The day before Trudy and Chris’ elopement, Hawai’i had intense flash flooding. Roads had a foot of water in low points....
03/07/2026

The day before Trudy and Chris’ elopement, Hawai’i had intense flash flooding. Roads had a foot of water in low points. Visibility was 100 feet with no chance of seeing any views. The forecast was for the rain, high surf, and storms to continue through Trudy’s and Chris’ elopement day. Panicking, Joe and I were circumnavigating the island to see if there happened to be any spots that were less flooded. It was NOT looking good. We all went to bed with a strong worry and a healthy dose of hope.

Like magic, the morning of their elopement, the storm cleared enough for a mystical elopement! The high surf didn’t let us get super close to the ocean but made for dramatic waves and the winds carried Trudy’s veil, making for dramatic shots. Between the surf and the light rain, there was so much mist in the air in the morning that our lenses all looked like we’d rubbed vaseline on them to create a dreamy hazy effect. Trudy and Chris exchanged some of the most authentic, heart-felt vows I’ve ever heard on a deserted beach, then Joe serenade them with a Bob Marley cover on his guitarlele (1/2 guitar 1/2 ukulele and 100% epic Hawaiian vibe).

Heading inland, Trudy navigated the giant mud puddles in her wedding dress and Chris in his suit up to a Pali view and a waterfall that flowed in its full glory. Trudy + Chris b-lined right for the bottom of the falls :D (most couples stay back out of the mistune, but not these bad asses!). The rain began as we were taking our last few photos at the waterfall. We joked and partied as we made our way back in the car and said our farewells.

Hope y’all are all staying safe and warm out there! Hope you have fun in the cold like these couples! And if you don’t? ...
01/24/2026

Hope y’all are all staying safe and warm out there! Hope you have fun in the cold like these couples! And if you don’t? Remember Hawai’i is here for the warm weather elopers :)

The question we ask all our couples, whether they’re eloping or doing a photoshoot with us, is “are there any meaningful...
12/29/2025

The question we ask all our couples, whether they’re eloping or doing a photoshoot with us, is “are there any meaningful activities you want to include?”

I’ll admit, this question usually gets blank stares. People think you elope by having a meaningful CEREMONY then take epic photos, but we encourage couples to do something meaningful and memorable during the photoshoot as well. Swim under a waterfall. Have a picnic of your favorite food. Cliff jump. Jam around a camp fire. Let us make you a hot coffee while you snuggle in a blanket and watch the sunrise.

Trece and Tony totally got it! Looking for a “Game of Thrones” vibe for their elopement, they asked if we could find them the perfect blend of fire and ice at an amazing hot spring. Rather than getting to the epic spot, having a ceremony, taking a few photos and leaving, we planned a whole hot springs day.

We started with a 2 mile hike into the mountains at dawn, arriving at the hot springs in the early morning. Tony and Trece got married on the rock ledge of a heart-shaped hot spring (Joe officiated in swim trunk bottoms so he could get in and out of the photos quickly! HAHA!). Afterwards, we all changed into swimmies and shared an epic picnic in the hot spring. We made hot drinks and they snuggled, looking out over the canyon. After a long soak, we explored the canyon, jetting behind a waterfall into a secret grotto and enjoying amazing scenery, plants, and the winter wonderland.

Dinner was back in our sprinter van (we used to have access to a sprinter van on the continent and it was amazing! I will forever miss that van!), where I made gnocchi and veg on the stove.

🥂To Nora and Pete, the sweetest couple that let us show them three of our favorite places on Kaua’i, and woke up crazy e...
07/24/2025

🥂To Nora and Pete, the sweetest couple that let us show them three of our favorite places on Kaua’i, and woke up crazy early so we could watch the sunrise, beat the crowds, and watch rainbows appear. Thank you for trusting in us when we knocked on your room door at 4:45 am, stuck you in the rain so we could get the best shots as the rainbows began to appear, and hiked through 8 inches of mud to get to the bay beach on Earth.

Nora sent us the sweetest review this morning (see the review on slides 11 and 12). It melted our hearts. Thank you Nora!!!

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Dallas, TX

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+14695569453

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