Some of you may or may not know that I have a secondary wedding based business. This one was formed during lockdown in 2020 when weddings could not go ahead but a tiny loophole in the whole covid saga meant that elopements could. A few WhatsApp messages and socially distanced styled shoots later With Abandon was born. Over the course of two years it has gone from strength to strength, a strength that neither I, Jenny or Erin even dared to contemplate it would. It took us to some epic locations in the UK, Skye twice, Scotland and mainly the Lakes. It has given us all a fierce awakening for what we all do in our respective businesses. For me, it allowed me to find a new love for winter work.

If you follow With Abandon on our social media you’ll have seen there’s been some changes afoot. Erin and Jenny both work full time and both run businesses, I am the only one fully self employed. We have also all had children in the last 3 years and so inevitably we knew deep down With Abandon as it was formed may not have the capacity to live in the new post covid world. Excitedly Jenny has launched another two successful business since With Abandon formed and has taken the decision to focus primarily on those whilst Erin and I have decided to move forward with a new With Abandon model. This elopement, Nicola and James, was that first one. While there was nothing wrong with the first model as such, we just wanted to give a little control back to the couples in terms of vision but also add a healthy budget for adventure and that would be a complete surprise.

James and Nicola here, a prime example of such a couple. I’ll get into them later but for now just need to touch upon what we do as With Abandon. We plan, photograph and film your perfect day down to the tiniest detail. The tiniest detail. You literally tell us what your perfect day would consist of and we make it happen, hell we move mountains to make it happen. We know people, we know places and we design it specifically to you, rarely using the same location twice and never having a cookie cutter approach.

So back to Nicola and James, at the start of May. They’d have their zoom chats with us, we’d written their notes, completed three recces, brought in an army of people to help…. it was go time. They knew nothing. I drove to Borrowdale the evening before their elopement and handed them a little envelope with a meeting time and grid reference and said my merry goodbyes. 6.30am the next day we met. They were bouncing around with big smiles excited for the day ahead. Nicola and James had thrown us some curveballs - in the nicest possible way. Prior to their elopement we were on an old model in which the couples would pay for our respective services and then we would plan a trip. The new model, which James and Nicola were the first to go through, the couple book their essentials themselves - accommodation (at our suggestion) flowers, attire, HMUA and celebrant and then they pay us a supplementary fee. This fee is their adventure. The adventure is designed from numerous questionnaires, conversations and zooms we go through…. so back to Nicola and James.

We knew they loved the outdoors, James is a Mountain Leader and in the navy, Nicola a newborn and wedding photographer with a keen idea for details. Possibly two of the most challenging professions for this kind of wedding. Trying to find the perfect balance so that James had an adventure but Nicola still got her fairytale ceremony by the water proved a challenge. Throw in unpredictable weather, absolutely no signal, and an 18 hour working day. Absolutely shattered in the most ecstatic way. When we say it took a small army, it took a small army. The first brief was for the Olde Mill in Ulverston. Our go-to caterers. They listen to our needs and wants and design a bespoke package for our couples. We didn’t just want to serve Nicola and James a picnic, that would be too boring right? We discovered their fave breakfast was smoked salmon bagels with scrambled egg and hollandaise sauce. What did the old mill do? provided all the ingredients for the couple to make their own hollandaise sauce. Throw in an hour hike, a sub zero naked wild waterfall swim and then tell them to separate egg whites….. we are having a laugh right? no. We most certainly are not. But these two smashed it, shivering their way through the meal and surviving enough to carry on with their adventure. So back to Borrowdale….

Nicola is a girl after my own heart, a details queen. Erin and I had to dart to their ceremony location (more on that later) to meet Charlotte their celebrant and set up the fairytale island we had found for them. 16 Moroccan lanterns from Wilde and Romantic a boho bell tent and a bluetooth speaker disaster later we met the couple back at their cottage for prep. Kim Wolfe was already in charge and cracking on with Nicolas makeup, Florists had already dropped off their specific bouquet and button hole. To explain, James and Nicola love foraging. In the planning stages we had grand ideas of letting them forage their lunch and having an outdoor chef cook for them but unfortunately we just couldn't connect the dots to make it happen. Unbeknown to us Nicola had requested mushrooms in James button hole. At first I thought it was weird, now I bloody love them!! Just look at this!!!.

We left James writing his vows whilst Nicola had her makeup done and then I headed off with James to the ceremony. But first, we presented him with a little surprise. Little did they know that Yorkshire vehicle hire had dropped off a top spec black Land Rover for a few hours so they could explore the Lakes.

So where do we begin with Nicola, we had a brief. A very detailed brief. Her vision was to marry on a shoreline by water, to be able to walk through a natural aisle and to have James stood at the end of the aisle waiting for her. The Twilight song A thousand years to be playing as she made her way to him. All this though at the same time James wanted an island and they both wanted total seclusion, James was also keen to ensure the day flowed and was a journey rather than a pit stop tour of photoshoots. Anybody who knows the Lake District knows that is near on impossible, espcially at this time of year. Setting aside the tourists, we then have to play with permissions, permits and logistics. In then end though, as if by chance when looking on a map we found an island, at the very end of a valley, with a grassy aisle and a huge oak tree we decided to call Dave. this was the spot. We took the coordinates and details and set to work designing their details. I enlisted the help of my office neighbour Claire of Brightstar109 to make them two bespoke silver tags with their wedding co-ordinates and date on. Jenny from Layer and soul to laser engrave some leather tags they can later sew onto their rucksacks and Oubas to provide them with bespoke cumbrian threads to make friendhsips bracelets with.

James and Nicolas ceremony was beautiful. Filled with trinkets and meaningful items that they had collected along the way over the years. Charlotte, as usual delivered the most beautiful ceremony. The couple wanted to incorporate water and so they stepped down to the waters edge and chose a stone together. After finding a private spot to exchange vows they threw the stone together.

After their ceremony the wonderful fabulous fox events had lovingly set up a bell tent for them on their island, complete with indoor seating area - incase it rained and another lovely buffett provided by The Olde Mill again. After this we headed back to the land rover to go on a scenic tour of honister. A map and set of instructions were waiting the couple when they got to their ride.

Once the couple arrived at their next location they handed the car back to the team at yorkshire vehicle hire. Realising they now had no form of transport and a downhill bluebell walk to what looked like a lake with a dark gloomy cloud overhead. Erin and I were safely shitting a brick. We knew what was coming next. We reached the shoreline and all that was there was a bright yellow candian canoe with you guessed it - another note.

After a spot of messing around on the shore with Erin’s camera, they shoved their life jackets on and pushed out to water. Their only instructions were to head for the island. Which seemed an easy task…. although the weather had other ideas. At this point I raced back up the the cars and darted round the other side of the lake to drone over the couple . I was hoping I would’nt be providing this footage to BBC news afrer they got washed away in a storm. Safe to say they survived and got on the island in time to find their codebreaker question to crack the cool box full of desperados. Here they had their first dance. On Rampsholme Island in the middle of Derwent water.

Once they landed on dry land again Erin and I presented them with their gift from us. Their final note told them they had a meal booked for 8pm and that their lunchtime belltent had been turned into a romantic retreat so they could spend the evening back on the island where they said their vows and sleep under the stars.

and so…. sometimes a photo doesn’t do something justice so here is the highlight film. A tiny glimpse into their day. If you’re interested in an adventure elopement then please visit our website - With Abandon Elopements. Alternatively if an adventure elopement isn’t for you and you’d prefer a small intimate one then I can do these under my own business and much less adventurous but equally as beautiful.