Blue Hour Salt River Elopement | Phoenix, AZ
Blue Hour in the Desert is Completely Unrivaled—
If you’ve ever watched a sunset in Phoenix, you know what I mean. Our skies are painted with a million different vibrant colors, that last long after the sun has gone down. Where some other elopement locations are limited to the daytime and golden hour for ideal times, here in the desert, we also get to enjoy blue hour for all it is! Nicki and Jack just moved to Scottsdale, and were enthralled by this little hour of time after the sun goes down from the day they arrived in the Valley. We had not gotten very deep into planning their elopement just yet, so when they brought up the idea of having their wedding capture during blue hour, I was so excited.
Here in Phoenix, we have so many naturally beautiful locations in the East Valley, with the most striking features in the area facing west. What this means, is these locations photograph especially well at blue hour, as the sun sets at the opposite end of the Valley, and lights up all these cliffs and rocks and buttes in the most gorgeous way. After running Nicki and Jack through a couple location options, they selected Water Users Recreation Area on the Salt River, struck by its own dramatic cliffs and easy accessibility.
This new season of marriage for Nicki and Jack brought so much change, aside from the obvious— marriage itself. These two just moved to Phoenix from Chicago, and decided to elope upon seeing the beauty of the desert for the first time. Coming from a very urban setting, and then finding themselves in the middle of what is still a big city surrounded by so much natural beauty, made them want to begin this new chapter of life immediately. The party will come, they thought, but for now, we’ll just start this new era ourselves. Enter me and the Salt River—
Nicki loves the filmy, cinematic look, but also wanted the warm colors of the desert captured in their elopement photos. All of these also pointed directly to a blue hour elopement— with less ambient light, I’d have to bring my shutter speed down at times to account for the lack. In fact, I brought my mirrored DSLR cameras with smaller sensors back out for this elopement, to really force myself to play with low shutter speed. What resulted was tons of motion blur (as well as some very nice, classic wedding portraits, of course!). As more extroverted people, Nicki and Jack were drawn to more playful, motion filled prompts as we captured some editorial style portraits. I was grateful to these two for trusting me, while also allowing me to be a bit more creative with their photos (you’ll notice this gallery doesn’t look as classic/timeless as some of my others do, and sometimes it’s fun to lean a little more artistically!!).
An element of this elopement I loved was Nicki’s hat! She is self proclaimed, not a veil girl, but still wanted something to wear on her head. When they first visited and decided to move to Scottsdale, Nicki and Jack visited Rancher Hat Bar, where Jack bought Nicki a hat she was able to design herself. She chose a white hat, not knowing they’d be eloping a few months down the road. It was such a neat and personal touch to their elopement, which they hoped to really embody this whole new season of marriage and life in a new city 🥲.
If you’re looking for a sign to:
A) Elope just the two of you instead of worrying about throwing a big party right away
B) Elope in the desert
C) Elope at blue hour
D) All of the above
Then hopefully this little collection of photos from Nicki and Jack’s Water Users elopement can convince you 😏. ENJOY!
Hellooooo! We’re Katie & Joseph, a husband & wife team, and Phoenix wedding photographers.
We really love intimate elopements and traditional weddings! We are big fans of documenting wedding days in an unposed, raw, genuine, and honest way that allows our couples to maximize their experience on their day while also receiving a gallery full of stunning images that communicate how it felt to be there.
Though we’re based in Arizona, we’ll travel anywhere for a good love story (and adventure!). We invite you to follow the links below to learn more about us and our services, and to get in contact with us!
