Telima and Matthew’s Nature Loving, Rainbow Filled Mountain Elopement by Wild Connections Photography 

Today I am taking you to the mountains of Germany for this super romantic elopement. Telima and Matthew planned their wedding during the pandemic, so their plans got postponed more than once. They wanted to bring their wedding back to what was most important to them; celebrating their love with those closest to them. They wanted to incorporate their love of nature and the outdoors and hold an adventure elopement in the mountains. This they did incorporating their own personal vowels, a handfasting ceremony and a private chef. The highlight had to be the amazing weather they had, four seasons in one wedding, including rain, thunder, lightening and sunshine, all culminating in a spectacular rainbow! Cat from Wild Connections Photography  was there to capture the day for us in all it’s beauty.

An amazing experience, all of the forces of nature paraded before us showing their beauty together with views we will never forget. Lightning, thunder, sunshine, rain, clear skies, dark clouds, and even a Rainbow paid us a visit the day we were in awe of each other and everything surrounding us.

Telima and Matthew were married on 16th May 2022 at Lake Eibsee, Bavaria in Germany. ‘We wanted an adventure elopement and found Lake Eibsee to be a perfect location for us since we envisioned mountains, a beautiful lake, mossy evergreens, and exciting views all in the same location, Lake Eibsee and the beautiful Alps gave us an experience we’ll never forget. We also hoped to Honeymoon all over Europe afterwards! Bavaria was a perfect starting place for everything, and will always hold a special place in our hearts… we like to think it loves us back since it gave us a rainbow just before our ceremony started. We had a total of 5 guests. We started planning our wedding in 2019 for May 2020, Covid hit in March/April 2020… and delayed our plans for an additional 2 years. So about 3 years planning.’

How they met
We met while attending University in TN, USA at a mutual friend’s house warming party. Before getting married we had been happily committed, adventuring and traveling together for almost 10 years.

How did you allocate your budget?
A wedding lasts only one day, and a marriage is for life. We focused on what mattered the most to us in that respect. Our budget was helped by the fact that we wanted a small, private ceremony. A beautiful place in nature is free.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We splurged on the private chef (we love good food), honeymoon (half a year around Europe! We’ll have those memories for a lifetime), and Chalet. We saved by keeping our wedding small and finding the beauty in nature, which is free.

How did you choose your photographer?
We had been doing research in the area of Garmisch Partenkirchen Germany, and stumbled across Cat (Wild Connections Photography). Her blog showed that she wasn’t afraid of adventure photography so we went with her after a few interviews. She’s amazing and we highly recommend her!!!

The dress
Telima designed her dress herself and had modifications done during Covid to the best of her ability, unfortunately the shop there no longer exists. Due to our wedding day involving hikes through forests and mountains, she wanted to wear hiking boots for the shoes. All her accessories were purchased from small business owners through Etsy vendors.

The suit
The suit was purchased from Hackett London

Theme or colour scheme
Our theme was very focused on nature, so our colours were blue, green, and beige.

Flowers
The bouquet was provided by a local florist in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Bavaria. Telima’s favorite flowers are Iris and Edelweiss, and the bouquet was full of wildflowers and sweet smelling herbs grown locally.

Food
A private chef prepared a 5 course regionally sourced dinner which everyone said may have been one of the best meals of their lives. The food was masterfully prepared over an open fire. Check out Jörg Heid

Wedding cake
A tiered naked wedding cake, with Bavarian creme and decorated with wildflowers.

Entertainment
Spotify, Telima’s Sister & her Partner created a soundtrack of our favourite songs, she is the best DJ!!

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We started off in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Bavaria, where for one night we booked an entire spa to ourselves for the entire night. From Bavaria, Germany, we began exploring the Alps in Austria, Switzerland and Italy then down to the Greek Islands. We travelled all over Europe and the UK for the next 6 months! Our original plans for 2020, before Covid hit, was to begin our honeymoon hiking in the Alps, taking a train down through Italy and then spending time on the beaches of the Greek Islands. With all the cancellations, we decided to make the best of our situation when things were finally open in 2022 and instead see all of Europe!

Personal touches
My mom made a hand fasting ribbon, and we loved it. Telima designed her dress herself and added material from places we had travelled together (like Japanese silk, where we got engaged, and flowers embroidered from my family’s garden). Telima’s mom brought her great- grandmother’s pearl necklace. Her sister made a video of our loved ones’ well wishes and her amazing partner created THE BEST music playlist for us. It was a day full of love and support.

Special moments
The day started off pouring rain (which we actually enjoy), as soon as Telima was ready the rain let up and the sun started peaking through for our first looks. Then we had a rare spotting of a herd of horses as we took a cable car to the top of a mountain for our reading of vows. As we were shooting photos the rain started up again eventually, but toward the end of the photos, right before our ceremony started, an amazing rainbow appeared in perfect view of the spot Cat was shooting so we ended up with a rainbow on our wedding day which was epic.

Advice for other couples
We suffered delay, after delay, and had several personal difficulties to overcome but by the time of our wedding day we realised how much we had overcome to finally arrive at that point, and it felt amazing. Our advice is this: you are a team, work with each other, respect each other, and each person should pull their own weight to achieve mutual goals. Each person has a set of strengths that can complement your own. Enjoy the journey and party when you get to the destination!

Biggest surprise 
The biggest surprise of the day was how emotional we both got reading our vows, we had been with each other nearly a decade before the wedding took place and we both wept as if it were the first time seeing each other after a long absence. The other big surprise was the rainbow popping out from such a stormy day, we really felt the presence of something greater than us.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Photography: Wild Connections Photography 
• Planner: Amulet Events
• Day-of coordingation & styling: Dreamotions  
• Hair & Makeup: Beauty by Jerrianne
• Location: Chalet S
• Flowers: Blumen Rosl 
• Celebrant: Yvonne Beck
• Private Chef: Hansjoerg Betz 

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WILD CONNECTIONS PHOTOGRAPHY GO TO

 www.wildconnectionsphotography.com / www.wildconnectionsphotography.com/blog /  [email protected] / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / PINTEREST 

Cat is British adventure wedding & elopement photographer living in the heart of the Austrian Alps. She loves accompanying adventure loving couples in beautiful and wild locations across Europe, capturing their story in an honest and authentic way.