Elopement photographer in the French Alps
An elopement in the mountains is a walk that happens to be a wedding. The photography has to be built around the walk, not the other way round.
- From
- €1,200
The session
The walk is the wedding
Couples who elope here often expect the ceremony to be the centre of the day and find it is not. The ascent is: an hour or two of talking, stopping, being cold, laughing at how absurd it is to be doing this in these clothes. Photographically it is the richest part of the day, and it is the part a photographer who meets you at the top will miss entirely.
So we walk with you from the bottom.
Weather is a partner, not an enemy
A ridge in cloud produces photographs a blue sky cannot. What it does not produce is a view, and if the view is the point you should say so now, because the two ambitions want different days.
What we insist on is a second date and a lower alternative, agreed when you book. It costs nothing and it removes the worst conversation in this job.
What we will not tell you
Nothing about the legal side. Residency conditions, publication of banns and the paperwork for a French civil marriage are for the mairie and usually for a local planner. We have watched couples receive confident wrong answers from suppliers and we are not going to add to them.
Around the mountains
If the day is larger than two people, the wedding photographer page describes how a full day is covered. For a warmer, flatter version of the same idea, see Provence.
Price
From €1,200, with the full range on the pricing page. A deposit of 30% holds the date; travel and any overnight stay are quoted before you commit.
What holds you back
The questions people hesitate to ask
- Can we legally marry on a mountainside?
- A French civil marriage takes place at a mairie, and there are residency conditions attached to it. Most couples eloping here marry legally at home or at a mairie and hold the ceremony that matters to them on the mountain. We are photographers, not advisers: the mairie and a local planner are who you should ask, and we would be wrong to tell you otherwise.
- What if the weather closes in?
- Then we use the alternative agreed months earlier, at lower altitude. Cloud sitting on a ridge is not a failed day — some of the strongest images we have made came out of one — but a lift closure or a storm is a genuine stop, and that is what the second date is for.
- How far will we have to walk?
- As far as you want and no further. There are places worth photographing twenty minutes from a lift station and places that need three hours. We will describe both honestly and let you choose, including what the dress will do to the estimate.
- Will you manage at altitude with all that equipment?
- Yes. We carry our own, we walk at your pace, and we plan the ascent with the shooting in mind rather than treating it as travel between two locations.
- Is it only ever the two of us?
- Not necessarily. Small groups work well up to about ten people; beyond that the logistics of getting everyone up and down start to dominate the day, and it stops being an elopement in any useful sense.
How it runs
How it works
The route, honestly assessed
How far, how much ascent, and what you are willing to walk in what you plan to wear. A route that reads as easy at sea level is a different proposition at two thousand metres.
The weather has a vote
We agree a second date and a lower alternative at the point of booking rather than in a panic the night before. Mountains close, and pretending otherwise is how a plan becomes a disaster.
The day
We walk with you and carry our own kit. Coverage runs from the ascent — often the best part — through the ceremony to the light going off the summits.
Delivery
Sorted, treated and delivered as a private gallery within 4 to 6 weeks.
Full gallery delivered within 4 to 6 weeks.
Pricing
What it costs
€1,200–€3,500
- Duration
- 10 h
- Delivery
- 4 to 6 weeks
- Deposit
- 30%
TODO_TVA
Included
- A planning call about the route, the altitude and the hours of light
- Coverage from the ascent through the ceremony to the end of the day
- Travel on foot with you, carrying our own equipment
- Private gallery in full resolution, reachable from any country
Options
Questions
Frequently asked
Which months work in the Alps?
Late June to September for high routes with no snow underfoot; February and March for snow-covered ceremonies reached by lift. May and early June are unpredictable at altitude and we will say so rather than take the booking blind.
Do you cover Chamonix and Annecy?
Both, and the valleys around them. Chamonix gives the dramatic high ground; Annecy gives a lake and a far gentler day for anyone not certain about a long ascent.
What should we wear?
Something you can walk in and something you can be cold in. Almost everyone underestimates the wind on a ridge; a coat that appears in half the photographs is not a compromise, it is what makes the pictures look like the day actually was.
Tell us about the day
Describe what you want to keep from it. You get back a written proposal with a figure in it, not a catalogue.