This series is so incredibly special to me. I’ve been documenting moments in Kortney and Joey’s (Kortney’s daughter) life for some time now and this one takes the cake for sure.
One day last December, Kortney was sitting on her couch in her apartment. She told me she was feeling sad, drinking a gin martini in her bathrobe, when she saw this cute guy walk by outside her window with his dog. She said she threw on some clothes and went out to see if she could talk to him. When she went outside, there was a stray cat out there and so she sat down to pet it. Zach walked by and his dog scared the cat away so Kortney yelled at them for scaring the cat off. Zach sat down and was like, “We love cats, can we say hi to yours?” Kortney eventually had to tell him it wasn’t her cat (hahaha) and they ended up talking for hours and going for a walk by the river that night. She then made a plan to cook together the next weekend. Since then, Kortney and Zach have been inseparable.
They initially planned to elope at the Buffalo River in May, but COVID changed up their ideas. Instead of postponing, they decided they just wanted to be married and couldn’t wait any longer. It came down to them just wanting to celebrate their love with their daughter… and eat chocolate chip pancakes.
I woke up at 4:30am on Saturday to document their sweet, intimate backyard wedding and their 4 year old officiated it with a picture book that they made for her. It was the cutest, most relaxing sunrise ceremony and reception I’ve ever been to. After the ceremony, I watched them all make breakfast together in their new home, change into comfy pajamas, and eat cake.
Elopements like these are seriously what I live for in photography. Getting to see how these 3 were together all day and be a fly on the wall all morning as I documented these important moments is just everything. I am so, so happy I got to witness this.
