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Elopements in Tyrol and the Dolomites
Elopements in Tyrol and the Dolomites
You walk up before it gets light, you say what you came to say, and there is nobody else there. I choose the route, the timing and the light, I get you up and back down safely, and I photograph all of it.
From €3,800 all-in · Your photographer is a certified mountain guide · Sneak peek within 3 working days
Elopement photographer in Innsbruck
Me. I am a photographer, and I am also a certified Tyrolean hiking guide. That is not a fun fact on the side, it is the whole point. Most couples who want to elope here go looking for a photographer, and then for someone who knows the routes, and then for someone who can tell them which spot has the light at six in the morning. That is one person, and I have lived in these mountains since 2014.
So you do not have to work out how to get anywhere, or whether it is safe, or what happens if the cloud comes in. That part is mine. Yours is the walk up and everything you want to say at the top.
how a day like this runs
The shape of an elopement day · an example
Before sunrise
Coffee in the dark, head torches on, and a drive to the start of the route while the valley is still asleep. Nobody else is out yet, and that is exactly the point.
We go up together at your pace, on a route I have chosen around your fitness and around where the light will be. In winter this part happens on snowshoes. I photograph as we go, because the way up is part of the story and you will want it back later.
You get your breath back, you put the bags down, and you look around you. Almost every couple goes quiet here for a minute. I stay well out of the way and let that happen.
The heart · in both collections
This is the part you came for. You say what you want to say, the rings go on, and the mountain is the only one listening. I photograph it from far enough back that you forget I am there.
The mountains and the two of you. I keep it light and I like to keep you moving. No awkward posing, and every couple tells me afterwards that they simply enjoyed it.
Would you rather change into the dress up here than walk in it? Most couples do. I will tell you exactly where.
If wind, weather and airspace allow it, the drone goes up. From above you see how small the two of you are up there, and that tends to be the photograph that ends up on the wall.
Slower, lighter, and usually a lot more talking. There is often a hut on the way where you can sit down with something warm and let it all land.
Optional
If your parents or a couple of your closest people have come along, the evening is where they come in. More about that further down.
Summer or winter, sunrise or the golden hour before dark: the shape of the day stays the same, the route does not. Which one it becomes depends on your fitness, the season and where the light is that particular week.
Before you fly in
You cannot come over to look at locations, and you should not have to. Between booking and your day there are three things I do, and they are the reason this works from the other side of the world.
01
We meet properly. I hear what you want, how much walking you are up for, which season you are thinking of and whether anyone is coming along. Off the top of my head I sketch two or three directions, so you get a feel for what is possible before you commit to anything. No homework for you.
02
Once you have booked I go looking properly: satellite images, sun paths, route data, hut opening times. Then I spend a full day on the mountain itself. I walk or snowshoe the route, time it, and stand on the spot at the hour we are planning for, to see what the light actually does there.
03
I show you the plan. The spot, the route, how long it takes, the timing on the light, what to wear and what to carry, and what we do if the weather turns. By the time you get on the plane, there is nothing left for you to figure out.
And about the weather
You will not lose your day to the weather.
I hold two backup days around your date, so there are three days with your name on them instead of one. A day or two beforehand the forecast is reliable enough, and then we decide together which of the three it becomes. It asks one thing of you: be in Tyrol for a few days rather than flying in the night before.
She helped me find the perfect location on a mountain I wasn't familiar with and captured the moment perfectly in the middle of a snow storm.
Nathaniel · winter
The collections
The difference between them is not what is included, it is how much of the day you spend up there. Everything else is in both.
€3,800 all-in
One part of the day in the mountains, around sunrise or in the golden hour before dark.
Half a day in the mountains
For couples who want the moment itself, without building a whole day around it.
€4,800 all-in
The whole day up there. No hurrying, more of the walk, more of the adventure.
A full day in the mountains
For couples who want the day itself to be the adventure, not only the ceremony.
In both collections
Extras
Eloping outside Tyrol, in the Dolomites or in Vorarlberg? Then travel costs are added, and they are always in the offer before you sign.
Bringing a real guest list who are flying in on a fixed date? Then the backup days stop working, because thirty people cannot move their flights. In that case you are in better hands on the wedding page, where the day is built around a fixed date and around your guests.
everything is in there
Dinner with your favourite people
Almost every couple who wants to elope hits the same wobble somewhere along the way: are we doing this to our parents? You are not, and you do not have to choose either.
A handful of people, a table somewhere good, and the two of you walking in still slightly windswept. I photograph it from the moment you arrive through to well into the evening, so your mother gets to see the dress after all, and you get the whole evening back in pictures rather than in three phone photos.
Dinner photography + €650, on both collections
From the registry office to the congratulations and on to the family and couple shoot up on the mountain, she was there for all of it.
Marie-Sophie · summer
your story, on paper
The photo album
Both collections include an album. Something you can hold right away, and that keeps its value for good. I design it myself, so there is nothing for you to click, drag or choose. It simply arrives.
The album can also be made entirely to your own taste: another size, more pages, a cover in linen, nubuck, leather or wood. There is a lot more possible. After the day we will look at what you like.
All about the albumsWinter elopement
A winter elopement runs exactly as described above, only with snow underfoot, crisp clear air, and light that turns golden by four in the afternoon. Hardly anyone else on the mountain, and the valley below you completely quiet. This is the season I am most at home in.
There are two ways up in winter, and they make for genuinely different days.
On snowshoes, guided by me
This is the guided version. As a certified Tyrolean hiking guide I choose the route, watch the conditions and take you up and back down myself, away from the pistes and away from everybody. It is quiet in a way summer never quite is, and it is my favourite way to do a winter elopement.
On skis, inside a ski area
Would you rather be on skis? Then we do it inside a ski area: lifts, marked pistes, and a spot I have scouted beforehand. To be precise about what that is and is not, I am not guiding you off-piste there. I am skiing next to you with two cameras and a drone in my backpack. I taught skiing for years and hold a Landes ski instructor licence, which is why I can work at your speed instead of holding you up.
Both are part of the collections, at no extra cost
We needed someone who could ski, and she is a phenomenal skier. GS skis, no poles, a backpack and two cameras, and she out-skied everyone in our group.
Emily & Phil · winter
Video · cinematic footage
Photographs show you what it looked like up there, but a film lets you hear it. The wind on the ridge, the snow under your boots, the cowbells two valleys over, and your own voices saying the words out loud. Filming (with sound!) and photographing are easy for me to combine, and it gives you something you can come back to again and again. One reel of 60 to 90 seconds, cinematic footage and not a wedding film, for €550 on top of your collection.
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What other couples say
5.0 on Google
On planning from far away
Being from the US I needed a lot of help planning. Sophia found a location, was flexible on timing, and made the whole thing easy.
On not being posed
She captured moments that were not overly staged or forced. Sometimes wedding photos can feel too posed, but she struck the perfect balance of organic, real moments.
On the calm of it
Her presence was calming, pleasant, and the photographs turned out beautiful. She captured the atmosphere of the day so well.
On the photo stress
She helped us with posing and, despite our complete lack of experience in front of a camera, the results were amazing. She takes away all the photo stress and all you have to do is look good.
On arranging it from a distance
Beforehand we were given all the information and online meetings, so that we could arrange everything from a distance.
On keeping it small
A small ceremony, and such a pleasant, calm and likeable way of going about it. Exactly what we had hoped for.
The Dutch and German reviews have been translated, the English ones are in their own words.
From the gallery
Frequently asked questions
Before you book
You fill in the contact form. I reply personally, usually within a few days, and send the pricing guide with it. After that we have a video call to see whether it clicks. If it does, you get an offer, and your date plus the two backup days are yours as soon as it is signed and the deposit has come in.
Enquiry, then my personal reply with the pricing guide, then the first video call. If it feels right you get an offer and a contract. Then I start the real search for your spot and spend a full day scouting it, and in the second video call I show you the whole plan. Everything up to that point can be arranged from wherever you are in the world. After the day you get the first photographs within three working days, the full gallery within six weeks, and the album after that.
Not the real one, no, and I would rather be honest about why. Finding the right spot is a day of research plus a full day on the mountain, and that is not a sample, it is the thing you are paying for. What you do get before you book is a first call in which I sketch two or three directions out loud, and a portfolio that shows the pattern: every couple gets a spot that fits them. The bespoke search starts the moment your date is fixed.
Most couples book seven to fourteen months ahead, especially for the summer months and for the weeks around Christmas and New Year. Is your date already close? Just ask, sometimes it still works out.
Yes. On signing the offer you pay a deposit of €1,200. That fixes your date and the two backup days, and I will not take on any other work on any of them. The remaining amount is invoiced and paid before you travel, so once you are here there is nothing left to sort out.
Because there is more of me in it. Two video calls instead of one, a day of research into locations, a full day on the mountain to scout the route and the light, the driving, and three days blocked in my calendar for one couple instead of one. On the day itself you have my full attention with nobody else in the frame, and afterwards there is the selecting, the editing, the gallery and the album. A wedding day is longer, an elopement is deeper.
The mountain and the day
Almost certainly. I choose the route around you, not the other way round. Tell me honestly what you do in a normal week and I will match it. Most of the spots I use are somewhere between forty minutes and two and a half hours of walking, and if you would rather it were forty minutes, that is a perfectly good answer. Nobody has ever had to turn back.
You can, but almost nobody does it in one go. Most couples walk up in proper clothes and boots, and change at the top or just below it, out of the wind. I will tell you exactly where, and it is in the plan we go through in the second call. Bring shoes you can actually stand up in on uneven ground, and let me carry whatever will fit in my backpack.
That is what the two backup days are for. A day or two beforehand the forecast is reliable enough, and then we choose together which of the three days it becomes. If all three look bad, we go lower or somewhere more sheltered. It rarely rains or snows all day here, so there is nearly always a window, and mist on a ridge is not a problem, it is often the most beautiful light you will get.
No, but there is a reason I keep suggesting it. At sunrise the light is at its best and the mountain is empty, and the two of you really are the only people up there. The golden hour before dark is the alternative and it is beautiful too, only busier on the way up. We decide together in the first call.
A handful, yes, as long as they can manage the walk. Parents, a sister, a best friend. Beyond that it quietly turns into something else: a bigger group cannot walk to a ridge at dawn, and a group flying in on fixed tickets cannot move with the weather. If that is where you are heading, have a look at the wedding page instead.
I am a certified Tyrolean hiking guide and a licensed ski instructor, and I have lived and worked in these mountains since 2014. To be precise about what that covers: I guide on hiking terrain and on snowshoes. I am not a technical mountain guide, so no glaciers, no climbing routes and no off-piste ski touring. Everything I will take you to is reachable on foot or on snowshoes, and that still leaves more beautiful places than we could ever use.
Less than you think, and you get the full list in the second video call. Roughly: walking shoes with grip, warm layers even in August, a head torch for the early start, water, and whatever you want to change into. I carry a first aid kit, spare gloves and more camera gear than anyone needs.
The legal side
Not in the way most couples picture it. Almost everyone I work with arranges the legal part at home, at their own registry office, and comes here for the ceremony that actually feels like the wedding: the vows, the rings, the promise. It also takes the paperwork out of your trip entirely. I am a photographer and a hiking guide, not a wedding planner, so I do not arrange the legal side for you.
No. Plenty of couples simply read to each other, and it is often the most moving version. If you would like someone to hold it all together, I can put you in touch with celebrants I enjoy working with, but that stays your own booking.
English, German and Dutch, all three at native level. So whatever you are most yourself in, we can do the calls, the emails and the day itself in that language.
After the day
Within three working days the first ten to fifteen photographs are ready for you in your own online gallery, usually while you are still in Austria. The full gallery is finished within six weeks. The album follows once the selection is done.
Every photograph that worked. There is no fixed maximum, because I would rather give you the whole morning than a number.
Only what you are happy with. I make a small selection and ask your permission before anything appears on my website, in the gallery or on Instagram. If you say no, everything stays private.
You get a simple usage right: using and publishing the photographs for non-commercial purposes is fine. Selling them on to third parties is not, unless we agree that in writing.
Do my photos and the way I work speak to you? Send me a message and you will get a personal reply from me within a few days, with the pricing guide.
see you in the mountains soon!
