Emma & Luis | Elopement Portraits at Oak Hollow Park in North Huntingdon, PA

My sister Emma is married!
Em & Luis chose to commit their lives to one another in a quiet, intimate, elopement ceremony last Sunday afternoon. They didn’t want any of the fuss of a big wedding – no elaborate setups, no big guest list, no being the center of attention. They simply wanted to stand together with our Pastor, say their vows, and run away on their honeymoon – and that is exactly what they did!

Emma & Luis met 5 years ago at Sheetz. And not just like, over a gas pump (although that would make for a great story), but they were both working there (and still are).
My sister, Ellen, was also working at Sheetz at the time. I think we all realized that something was going on when Luis showed up at my parent’s house for Ellen’s baby shower (that makes it sound super weird – it was an “open house” “everyone is invited” type of shower, so I promise, it wasn’t a traditional “girls only” event that Luis decided to crash). Ellen had invited all of her co-workers to stop by, but we were all slightly surprised when Luis walked in the door – I mean, here is this single-guy, boldly walking into my parent’s house, with a gift, for a co-worker’s baby shower?

Well, fast forward a few years & it is now quite obvious why he decided to come.

Luis proposed to Emma on Valentine’s weekend this year. It was a Sunday morning before church, and he had come over to my parent’s house to have breakfast with Emma.
He got down on one knee over their waffles.

I had no idea that this was happening, but I knew that Luis had talked to my Dad and asked for my parent’s blessing to marry Emma a few days prior.
We were standing in church later that morning – the service had just started, we were sitting in the row directly in front of my parents. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emma & Luis walk in. In my peripheral vision, I saw both my Mom and Dad hug Emma and Luis – and I knew. And I just started crying.
Of course, they told all of us the big news immediately after the service ended and over lunch they shared that they really wanted to simply elope. They needed to get a few things in order first (like: find an apartment) so they set their sights on May – and here we are!

Em & Luis – we all love you guys so much and are so happy for you both! We’re so excited for you to begin this brand new season of MARRIAGE and can’t wait to see what’s around the bend for you guys!
I can hardly believe that three of my siblings are now married – weren’t we all just little kids, sitting around the table doing school, and running around the backyard, like a few years ago? How did we all grow up all of a sudden and become adults getting married?!

Since Emma and Luis wanted to elope (in the more “traditional” sense of the word), my sister Ellen and I took Emma and Luis out one evening a few weeks ago to take some portraits to celebrate their elopement! We promised we wouldn’t share these photos until after they officially got married – so here we are!
These are just some of my favorite images that I took – Ellen has a whole other perspective she’s been sharing on her Facebook page! It was SO MUCH FUN to shoot together with Ellen again! We used to shoot weddings together all the time, but life and babies have happened and we truly don’t shoot together very much anymore – so this was an extra extra special treat!

Can you even with this MOON?! It was totally the perfect-place-at-the-perfect-time! It was SO fun to shoot!