Hannah + Diego | The Emerald Forest Elopement

The Emerald Forest Theater, Redmond, WA

Hannah and Diego had the most magical Emerald Forest elopement in all the land. These two fell in love with this treehouse theater right from the start and wanted to get married among the moss-covered floor and tall forest trees (and of course their close friends and family)! Diego had just gotten back from military training in Alabama basically a day before their wedding so he got to see their kids for the first time on their wedding day, and their reactions to seeing their dad down the aisle were so beautiful. These two are beyond gorgeous and their elopement was so chill. They had a quick ceremony in the forest, followed by portraits around the golden trees (duh) a memorial for Diego’s mom who had passed away unfortunately, and then finished the day with watching their favorite movie, Spirited Away. This Emerald Forest Elopement is seriously one of my favorites.

This was seriously the coolest venue to photograph. First of all, it’s like a half mile into the forest (FYI there are tons of spiders to bring something along, like an umbrella, to wack them out of the path) and then you’re just greeted with this epic treehouse with all sorts of cubbies, nets to lay out in, cozy pillows, this giant movie screen, and everything is SO well built- it’s ridiculous. This was my first time photographing at this venue and I’m so in love with it all. It’s my spirit animal/ venue and I can’t wait to go back! There’s this amazing yurt to get ready in, a tee-pee to also get ready in or have cool photos taken in front of, so many cool spots to adventure around in, and plenty of popcorn for your movie.

One thing that was so hilarious on their day, was their original pastor was late getting to the venue, got caught up in the ferry terminal traffic craziness, so the venue owner stepped in, well more like zip-lined into the venue to conduct their ceremony for them. We all were singing, “Here he comes to save the day!” haha so funny and really cool seeing how they bring stuff back and forth into the venue.

Anyway! Here is how these two cuties met: “We started working together in Los Angeles and we didn’t particularly like each other at first. We carpooled and went to the gym together every morning, but it wasn’t until later that we actually even considered that we could be more than coworkers and then more than friends. I was deployed and Deigo and I continued talking every day, sharing laughs and consoling one another during some really tough times. When I came back from deployment we were already kind of dating, but we made it official and went to Universal Studios for our first date. He would always joke about getting married or ask me how I wanted to be proposed to. He would get down on one knee randomly as I would step back and say, “no, no, no.” I mean I would have said yes, but I definitely wasn’t ready for that yet. We organically grew closer together and more in love with each other every day and everything has just always seemed right between us.”

Here is how the proposal went down:”Oh gosh. So we’re driving to the airport so I could fly back to LA and we had just had an amazing weekend full of hiking and family fun. We had arrived early at the airport so we pulled off on the side of the road to spend a few extra minutes together. Diego was holding my hand and we were just talking about the weekend and future visits and out of nowhere he said “thank you for always loving me and loving my kids. Will you marry me?” I was crying so hard that I couldn’t answer and he was hesitant to slip the ring on my finger, but he finally held my face and wiped my tears, and said, ” Is that a yes?” I hugged him and said “yes.”

Soooo cute!! Congrats to Hannah and Diego and I’m in love with your elopement! Cheers!

Vendors:

Venue: The Emerald Forest / Photo: Works by Sarah Jane Photography / Gown: Callister Bridal / HaMU: @kyliehawkinsmua

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