Mae & Stelle – A Boho Elopement in the Sedona Desert

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They’ve been together for three years, but met twelve years ago at a mutual friend’s birthday party back in New York. We’ve always stayed in touch over the years, but when we really reconnected in 2018, it was undeniable fate brought us back together.

Aside from your wedding, what is your favorite memory together?

This one time, we were in Italy, and we got stranded in Lake Garda. After six+ hours of traveling, we arrived at the train station to discover this station is in the middle of nowhere.

Surely there are cabs. There were not.

There are also no elevators or escalators at these stations, so we had been lifting our fifty-pound bags up flights (and I mean FLIGHTS) of stairs all day when we finally broke down laughing mid-climb, realizing we’re most likely stranded after all we had been through to get there.

Okay, so now we’re outside the station, no cabs, and no one spoke English. 1. We had been in Florence and Tuscany, and everyone spoke a little. 2. Stelle speaks French and Spanish well, not Italian.

We managed to call a cab service and google translate some words, but it’s difficult with slang, you know? So anyway, Stelle hangs up and thinks they’re coming in five minutes. We’re not sure. A few minutes later, this blacked-out Mercedes comes flying around the corner. Uncertain if we would get murdered, we got in anyway. It was over an hour’s cab drive and the cab wouldn’t accept anything other than cash, so now we’re trying to find an ATM.

Finally arriving at our destination and the walk/mountain climb up to this place was so steep I didn’t know if we would make it. We were back peddling up this hill with those bags, but we did it. We made it to the most epic Airbnb with a view of the lake and white-cap mountains!

Whenever we are faced with adversity, we work together as a team to overcome the situation, as we stress laugh how it’ll be a good story for the grandkids. The best part is, we have a similar story from our honeymoon in Costa Rica!

Tell us about the proposal.

Picture this: You’re waking up next to the love of your life in Paris on your thirtieth birthday. She has the day all planned, and it’s a surprise. You just need to wear something nice. You get to the Trocadéro, and you’re watching the sunrise over the Eiffel Tower. After getting an espresso, you take a walk to a secluded area where the most beautiful picnic is displayed. There are candles, croissants, champagne, macaroons, pillows, blankets, and the cutest stuffed flamingo. She gives you a pair of headphones. Now, you’re watching a movie that is filled with all your loved ones wishing you a happy birthday. Your girlfriend is singing your song in the background. And, of course, you’re ugly crying. At the end of the video, you turn around. There she is, down on one knee, holding a ring, asking you to marry her.

Talk us through the decision to elope.

As wedding videographers, we’ve been to our fair share of weddings. So we knew we wanted our day to be intimate and as stress-free as possible. We love to travel, so we knew we wanted a destination wedding, and we were immediately drawn to the red rocks. We wanted only our closest loved ones there with us to celebrate so we could genuinely spend time with them as well as each other. Ultimately we wanted the day to be focused on our love.

Talk us through the actual elopement day.

We arrived in Sedona with our loved ones and stayed in a large Airbnb together. The night before, we enjoyed pizza and lots of laughs and catching up. The morning of the wedding, we woke up pretty early, and each enjoyed a relaxing bath. Next, we decorated the space with Eucalyptus, candles, and lots of crystals while sipping some bubbly. Mae and I then went our separate ways, and each got ready.

After our first look with the red rocks in the distance, we drove to our ceremony and took a short hike to Bell Rock. Then, we walked each other down the aisle, hand in hand with the Turkish rugs, pampas grass, gorgeous lanterns, bell rock, and courthouse butte in the background. Mae serenaded me with a beautiful cover of “Bones” before her vows with the help of her sister and best friend. My best friend who married us also performed a smoke cleansing before our ring exchange. After that, we enjoyed a bottle of champagne and took some pretty epic photos with the most fantastic sunset among the red rocks.

Afterward, we went back to the Airbnb and had an unforgettable candlelit dinner with our loved ones. So it was four days filled with lots of laughs, happy tears, relaxing in the red rocks and all the love!