My car shook in gusts of wind as I sat inside, waiting for Heather and Ryan in the Lake Crescent parking area. Occasional downpours blew over, sometimes vertical, sometimes horizontal as the wind caught them. I looked through my window to grin at Sarah, the officiant, huddled in her similarly-windblown Honda Fit. What an exceptionally-PNW sort of day.

When Heather and Ryan arrived, they were all smiles. The original location they’d chosen had been closed off due to downed trees (gee, I wonder why?), but they were cheerful and ready for adventure. Heather’s two beautiful children exploded out of the car and ran around laughing in their finery. We made our way through the forest and back out onto the lakeshore, gathering just outside of the lapping water, mist swirling over the lake behind us. We all took a deep breath, and the magic began.

Sarah’s voice, just audible over the gusts and squalls of rain, narrated a beautiful ceremony. Heather and Ryan, blown about but still smiling, said their vows. The children played with sticks and rocks, dodging in and out as they pleased, enraptured with the lake beach. After the ceremony, we all gathered around a picnic bench and held on for dear life as the wind tried to knock us all over. Sarah clung to the paperwork and her hood simultaneously—I’m so impressed she managed to write anything in the gales.

We occasionally took refuge under the trees, running back out into the wind and rain to make a few portraits. Everything was so beautiful, so atmospheric, so immense, and so perfect. The scramble to keep rain off my lens was a small price to pay for what I witnessed.

Climbing back into my car, shedding GoreTex and warming my frigid hands over the heater vents, I was smiling uncontrollably. I often feel like I get to witness the most uncommon, grandest, glorious things during elopements, and this is why.