Mickie and Jimmy's Foggy, Family-Inclusive Elopement at Lake Willoughby in Westmore, Vermont

Photographing an elopement on Lake Willoughby has long been on my dream list of places to shoot, so I was thrilled when Mickie reached out about photographing her elopement to Jimmy.

Weddings are often the starting point of a family, but for Mickie and Jimmy (who are also known by their Vietnamese names Dung and Chung), who have been together for nearly eighteen years, have brought four children into the world, started businesses, and moved around the east coast together before settling in Vermont, this was more of a celebration of “look at what we’ve done and how far we’ve come.” It was wonderful to watch them share in their triumph and reflect on what they’ve done together. It was also just such a delight to spend the morning with them both and their four kids- I felt immediately welcomed into the family, and we were all joking around even before we left the house to head to the lake.

Many of you know me for my love of golden, intense light, but you may not know my absolute favorite weather to photograph is fog, so I was thrilled to see the lake bathed in fog when we arrived. While normally a bustling place, the lake was quiet on a cold, Wednesday morning, so we had the added bonus of getting to explore the place by ourselves (except when we came upon campers using the spot Mickey and Jimmy picked out for their ceremony, and they graciously moved their gear and let the wedding crash their campsite!).