An Adventurous Mountain Elopement: Katie + Corey

General, Real Elopements,

3 min read Nov 8, 2018

For three and half years (and counting), Katie and Corey have had a Saturday morning breakfast date at a cozy coffee shop in their small mountain town in western Maryland. One sunny Saturday morning in June, Corey pulled a ring out of his pocket and asked Katie if she would be his breakfast date for life.

Early in 2018, Katie had earned her nursing degree online from Aspen University in Denver, Colorado. She had spent months working hard at school while working full-time and ultimately made the International Nursing Honors Society. They decided to make the trek to Colorado to celebrate her accomplishment at her graduation ceremony — a place that had stolen both their hearts while visiting friends on a snowboarding trip.

“We had joked about getting married while we were out there, then I started to seriously look into how that would work and found Simply Eloped. Once I saw it was going to be relatively easy we started doing some planning,” Katie said. Both Katie and Corey love the outdoors and spend their free time climbing, hiking, biking, and camping. After seeing photos of Rocky Mountain National Park, they knew it was the perfect place for their wedding.

Neither Katie or Corey are big entertainers and they knew they wanted to be able to focus wholly on each other during their wedding.

Katie and Corey married on July 24, 2018. The day was filled with fresh air and true love. Katie and Corey stayed in a little cabin close to the park’s Visitor Center, where they met up with Jess and Austin Drawhorn, a photographer and officiant duo that specializes in outdoor elopements. Dressed in wedding attire and hiking boots, Katie and Corey exchanged vows at an intimate ceremony at 3M Curve, a beautiful rock outcrop that overlooks the national park. The remainder of the day was spent on a four-mile hike through incredible scenery with photos along the way.

For Katie and Corey, the hike was one of the best parts of the day. “It felt like we were hiking with friends; everything was so laid-back and relaxed,” said Katie. As things were wrapping up, Jess and Austin suggested another lake not far from their current location.

“We were finishing up and Jess told us about another lake at end of the trail that we could check out if we wanted. We were losing daylight but we said why not and ended up spending the rest of our wedding day by another incredible lake,” said Katie. “By the time we left it was dark and we somehow ended up with one headlamp between the four of us,” she laughed. “But it didn’t matter because the moon was full and bright, so we hiked out in the moonlight.”

The best part for Corey, besides marrying his true love, was the no-rush, no-frills feel of the day. “We woke up at like 8 o’clock, got breakfast and coffee, went for a short hike and screwed around the town of Estes Park for a little bit. We didn’t even start getting ready until half an hour before we were supposed to be there. It was our wedding day, but we got to just do whatever we want and actually enjoy it. I didn’t realize until that day how much I appreciate that.”

“It was so nice to be able to do all the things we love to do on that day,” reflected Katie. “To be able to hike and explore this really beautiful, incredible place and then get married in a way that was totally and completely the way we wanted it to. No one else had any say in it besides the two of us and it was exactly what we wanted. It was just perfect.”

Katie and Corey were one of the first couples to elope with Simply Eloped’s Wildflower Package, and it was exactly what they were looking for. “It gave us that extra time to hike and just be outdoors on our wedding day. It was really nice,” said Katie. “We are smiling and laughing in all our weddings pictures and it’s all genuine because we were having such a good day and such a good time.”