You don’t want an adventure wedding photographer

Excuse me…what?!?

I know…it’s more than an unconventional opinion.

But don’t make the common mistake of focusing on finding a great photographer, stay with me here:

You need someone who knows how to craft an epic adventure.

There’s a funny contradiction in the adventure wedding world.

You want to have an adventure engagement, elopement or wedding because you want something truly once-in-a-lifetime wild. You want to backcountry ski up and down a volcano, overland through a desert canyon, surf on a hidden beach, piece together an unclimbed route, and then wake up somewhere spectacular and say, “Holy Helsinki.. We're getting married here.”

And yet, a lot of “adventure elopements” follow a surprisingly familiar playbook.

Pick one of three beautiful locations. Choose a package. Hike 20 minutes to a viewpoint. Put on the wedding clothes. Take some gorgeous photos. Maybe have a picnic. Head home.

The photos are incredible.

But to paraphrase the poet Mary Oliver, is that what “you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Is that really the adventure that defines you two?

You both already know that a beautiful backdrop isn't the same thing as an adventure

Yet, to be honest, this is where the adventure wedding industry has gotten a little stuck.

“Adventure” is increasingly synonymous with a fairly vanilla vision.

Mountain? Adventure.

Cliff? Adventure.

Jeep? Adventure.

Wedding dress blowing in the wind? Definitely adventure.

But there's a difference between having your wedding photographed somewhere beautiful and adventurous and building your wedding around an actual adventure.

At Joyage, we're interested in the second.

We don't want to put you in front of an impressive landscape and call it an adventure.

We want the landscape, the journey, the experience—and everything that happens along the way—to be part of your wedding story.

Maybe that's a multi-day hut-to-hut backcountry ski in Chamonix.

Maybe it's an overland surfing expedition through Baja.

Maybe it's sailing between remote islands in the Aegean sea.

Maybe it's climbing, paddling, biking, surfing, paragliding, or some completely ridiculous combination of the above.

The point isn't how extreme it is.

The point is that it's yours. And that's why you need more than a photographer

Here's the thing: being a great photographer and being an adventure expert are two different skill sets.

And we think you deserve both.

When you're planning a genuinely unconventional adventure, someone needs to know how to figure out the stuff that happens between the Instagram-worthy moments.

• How are we getting a 4x4 camper van capable of running the White Rim trail?

• What gear do we need to backcountry ski down Mt. Rainier?

• Who can provide sumptuous food for our aid stations along the Lycean way?

• What's the wind going to be doing if we’re paragliding in Rio de Janeiro in September?

• What's the safest route that meets both of skill levels on Half Dome?

• Where can we legally boondock along the Oregon coast with an incredible view?

• What permits do we need to elope in the Dolomites?

• What happens if the road washes out in the middle of Iceland?

• Does the photographer have the technical skills to adventure alongside us?

• What if Plans A, B and C all go sideways?

• And how do we pull all of this together without turning your wedding into a six-month logistics project?

Those are not questions for a photographer. They are expedition questions.

They require experience with backcountry travel, wilderness safety, overlanding, remote logistics, equipment providers, guides, outfitters, government officials, and vendors.

And then, once you've figured all of that out, somebody still needs to make absurdly gorgeous photographs.

That the point where photography comes in.

Your adventure shouldn't fit into a package

We're not anti-package.

Packages make sense when you want a straightforward experience.

But if you're the kind of couple who says, “What if we did combined X, Y and Z adventure sports in (names several remote mountain ranges, stretches of coastline or canyons in different countries) and then immediately starts Googling whether it's actually possible...

you probably don't want a package.

You want someone who can say:

“That sounds truly incredible. Beyond unique. And completely possible. Let's figure it out.”

That's a very different relationship.

Instead of choosing from a menu of predetermined locations, we start with you two.

What do you love doing together?

Where do you want to go?

What are each of your adventure passions?

In what ways do you share them, and in ways do you enjoy them alone?

What kind of experience would make you look back 20 years from now and say, “Remember when we did that for our wedding?”

Then we build from there.

The photographs should document the adventure—not create it

This is probably the biggest difference in our approach.

We don't want to manufacture adventurous-looking moments for the camera.

We want to create experiences that are actually adventurous—and then make photographs that let you relive them.

• The feeling of snorkel-level pow in Japan

• The exhaustion after a century gravel-bike ride through the Canyonlands

• The ridiculousness of eloping amidst a bivouac paragliding expedition in Pakistan

• The campfire from your secluded spot on the rim in Yosemite Valley, looking across to El Capitan

• The sunrise as you head together towards the summit of Cotopaxi

• The champagne you somehow carried six miles into the Sierra Nevada backcountry

• The moment you realize you've made it

• The moments when it's just the two of you, completely removed from everything else

Those are the photographs we want to make.

Because the best wedding photographs aren't just pictures of what your wedding looked like.

They're evidence of what you experienced together.

So, should you hire a photographer?

Absolutely.

Hire a great one.

But if you're dreaming about an adventure wedding that's genuinely wild, personal, and a little outside the box, don't stop there.

Ask yourself:

Who is actually creating the adventure?

Because if the answer is essentially, “My photographer has a few cool locations,” you may be getting a beautiful photoshoot in an adventurous setting.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

But if you want something bigger—something luxurious, wildly personal, logistically ambitious, and genuinely epic—you need someone who knows how to make the whole thing happen.

Someone who understands adventure, expedition logistics, safety, travel, equipment, vendors and photography.

Someone who can take the crazy idea you've been kicking around and say:

“Yeah. Let's do that.”

That's Joyage Adventures.

Not adventure weddings that look different.

Adventure weddings that actually are.