A desert elopement in Joshua Tree

When uber talented (and super sweet) photographer Katherine Dalton calls you up from across the country and asks if you wanna play around in the desert so she can take some photos while she’s in town, you immediately say yes.

Only after you exchange a few emails since your brain is swimming in details do you ask, when?

And when she tells you that you have less than a month, you jump up and down, and squeal, hyperventilate a little, and then put the pedal to the metal and gather up some of your favorite southern california vendors and put together a magical shoot.

One of my favorite things about the desert is the sunset. I grew up in Northern California where one of three things was always blocking the horizon: trees, hills, or buildings. In the desert, you get this fabulously unobstructed view of that molten orange globe shimmering and dipping beneath the curve of the earth. The show of colors is out of this world! Violet, tangerine, amber, blush, mauve, indigo, gold.

The essence of the desert sunset sparked the inspiration for this shoot in particular, and we were able to work with a fantastic team which helped make it happen in just a few weeks. Having booked a campsite, site unseen (and we wouldn’t see it until the morning of the shoot!) we made sure to pick up lots of items that would work in different environments be it the large beautiful boulders or flat expanses of sand against tall cacti.

Elan Event Rentals has some of the most unique, organic and natural furniture and decor I’ve come across. I had seen these dried tree trunks on Elan’s website and immediately the ceremony site came to life! Elan’s handmade tables and animal hide stools, styled with mixed metal and crystal table settings from both Otis & Pearl and Barn Relic rentals made for the perfect mismatched reception vibe I had in my brain. Forage Floral and Honey Paper worked together to create works of art based on the color palate of the setting sun for the menus, table cards and escort cards.

People are what really breathes life into a styled shoot, and in this case Sarah Loven and her incredibly handsome husband were able to get away from their nomadic lifestyle of life-on-the-road blogging to model for us (they live out of their refurbished airstream and travel the country – check them out!).

The best part though? After a full day of traipsing through Joshua Tree, chasing the sun and climbing boulders, we got to hang out and eat the cake pictured (which was INCREDIBLE and custom made by Sweet + Saucy Shop) around a massive bonfire under the endless desert stars.