Nicki and Kyle’s original wedding day plans were majorly affected by COVID, so the decided to have a gorgeous hiking elopement in Sedona with a few their immediate family. We hiked two separate trails, took in all the gorgeous sunset views and celebrated with pizza and dancing back at their air bnb that night. It was insanely incredible. Here’s their story:

HOW THEY MET:

They said: “We first matched on Bumble in July of 2016. Our first date involved meeting up at a bar in downtown Phoenix where we played all kind of games from Jenga to Shuffleboard. We spent the whole night chatting, with Nicki sharing funny stories about her second grade students and Kyle talking about his experience in grad school at ASU. Eventually we discovered that we had grown up less than 45 minutes apart from each other in the Chicago suburbs, and we were even in Nicki’s high school gym at the same time (Nicki for track practice, Kyle for a wrestling meet). For one of our first few dates, the Chicago Cubs made it to the world series and we decided to fly to Chicago to watch them play. The rest is history!”

THE PROPOSAL:

“Before the proposal (while Nicki was on vacation), Kyle scoped out the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in Saint Paul and reserved the sunken garden room after closing time so he could have a private proposal. Kyle planned a visit to the conservatory for the proposal, with the original idea being to swing by close to closing time so that we could walk around for a bit and then Kyle could pop the question. But when Nicki heard that there was a zoo attached to the conservatory, she decided she wanted to go earlier so we could see all the zoo animals (including giraffes, her favorite animal)! So, Kyle had to time out the zoo visit + conservatory tour perfectly to make sure we were in the sunken garden at closing. Kyle also hired a photographer to secretly follow us and capture the proposal. Luckily, the timing (mostly) worked out so that we were in the sunken garden right at closing and were able to have a private moment for the proposal and a mini photo shoot right after. Afterwards, Kyle surprised Nicki with a small party at home, which included close friends and both of our parents who had secretly driven up from Chicago the day before.”

WHY ELOPE:

These two decided to have the best of both worlds: an elopement with their parents and siblings AND a big celebration back home, in 2021! Nicki said: “We chose to elope once we had to postpone our Minnesota wedding due to COVID-19, and we decided that having a small ceremony in Arizona in the mountains would be the best way to make something special out of a tough situation. Also, Nicki loves Arizona and wanted some part of the wedding celebration to be in Arizona, so this worked out great!” 

THEIR BIG DAY:

They chose Sedona as their elopement location for several reasons. Kyle said: “We both love Sedona and Nicki has always wanted a mountain wedding. One of our favorite trips was a last minute trip to Sedona. We both felt so relaxed and loved waking up to the red rock scenery.” They also shared with me that their favorite part was: “…the Cathedral Rock hike. It was our first shared moment/memory together as a married couple. We loved that it was just the two of us (and our photographer) on a hike that was brand new to both of us. The views were absolutely incredible and it felt so special to have our own private adventure on our wedding day. We would have never had that experience if we hadn’t changed our plans. IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!”

The new Mr. and Mrs. celebrated in all the most incredible ways and it was without a doubt a gorgeous day. 

CHEERS!

Allison

 

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Want to book with me for your gorgeous hiking  in Sedona, or for your own upcoming elopement?

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• Photographer: Allison Slater Photography @allisonslater
• Hair Artist: Baxe Hair @baxehairstyles
• Florist: Mountain High Flowers @sedonaflorist