Travis & Erica | Ridgway State Park Elopement

This week I had the pleasure to spend an afternoon with Travis and Erica and watch along with their close friends/family as they exchanged vows in a beautiful Ridgway State Park Elopement! The two met in high school in junior year English class, where a group project first got them talking. It’s so special to me when I get to capture love stories of high school sweethearts! Erica told me, “After spending time apart and doing some growing up on our own during college, once we got back together, we knew it was meant to be.”

They tied the knot on the anniversary of when Travis first asked Erica to be his girlfriend (how cute is that?!) Equally adorable was their proposal story. Just after the 4th of July in 2016 they went camping at Rifle Falls State Park. One of the activities they planned for the trip had been a goal of theirs for quite a while – to hike to Hanging Lake. Because they knew how crazy the parking can be, they wanted to be the first people to get to the trail and planned on watching the sunrise while we hiked.

Erica recalled, “We set our phone alarms and managed to wake up at 3:30 am. The trail was too dark to navigate, so we waited in the car for the sun to offer a little bit of light. Once we finally reached the top and were enjoying the view of the gorgeous lake, I turned around to see Travis down on one knee with a ring! I knew that a proposal was going to happen, but I had no idea when, because Travis hinted at the fact that he bought a ring. I was very surprised when he proposed because I didn’t think he would bring a ring camping with us.”

It was so funny to me that she mentioned not thinking Travis would bring a ring camping, because that’s exactly what he talked about when he remembered the proposal: “I was not nervous about the proposal, but I was nervous that I would lose the ring on the hike. During the hike, Erica kept taking layers off as it got hot, but I had the ring in my outer jacket pocket, and I was scared that if I took it off that I would drop the ring or not be able to smoothly get it back out. Erica kept asking me if I was getting hot, but I pretended to be okay. She figured out what I was up to after the proposal.”

During their elopement at Ridgway State Park, Travis and Erica shared a unique unity ceremony wherein they both painted a canvas. Carving out the bones of the painting with oils first, they filled color into the mountain scene with watercolors. It was a really cool idea! Finally, after the vows, they shared their first kiss as husband and wife. Take a peek at some of my favorite moments from their Ridgway State Park Elopement: