Sam and Sean had been engaged for four years, with New Zealand originally on the horizon before 2020 reshuffled everything. When they finally rescheduled their elopement at Mt. Baker, the anticipation was at an all-time high until a week out, Sean's father passed away suddenly and without warning.
They chose to move forward anyway, full of love for each other and for him. It's what he would have wanted. The morning of, they met their photographer at a trailhead in the dark and hiked a narrow mountainside pass as the sun rose over the North Cascades. Sean's glasses broke somewhere along the way, and after every improvised fix failed, the group managed to patch them together well enough to carry on. A dear friend officiated while another had baked a huckleberry lemon cake topped with cat figurines as a quiet nod to Sam and Sean's beloved cats at home. Letters from loved ones were read aloud, vows were exchanged and there was not a dry eye on the mountain.
From there, the day continued up a winding road and on foot the rest of the way to a summit lake with Sam and Sean in full wedding attire and huckleberries ripe along the trail. They reached the top, sat for a while, shared snacks and took in the view. At sunset, they watched a mountain goat cross a nearby ridge and cracked open trail beers, eventually making their descent back under a sky full of stars with the Milky Way closing out a transcendent day.
