This Couple Got Married in the Alps…and Brought Their Sisters Along
After getting engaged, Kelsey Row and Ali Reed felt reluctant about hosting a big wedding, so when they stumbled across a photographer who specialized in Alpine elopements, they jumped at the chance. The couple packed wedding outfits and hiking boots, invited their sisters, and set off for a weekend in the mountains…
DAY BEFORE WEDDING
Ali (left) and Kelsey
Kelsey: The day before our wedding ceremony, we took a long hike to three different alpine lakes. Our photographer Cat helped coordinate our elopement — she asked us what we envisioned, recommended hikes, and found a great bakery. It was nice to be working with someone who knew the terrain so well.
Kelsey: We thought, Why not get married with our sisters by our sides? The four of us are around the same age, quite similar in many ways, and very close. It felt really special.
Kelsey: I felt a lot of hesitancy to get in the glacial lake. It was freezing but super fun.
Ali: Then we had lunch at a restaurant on the mountain and kept hiking.
Ali: Before we came to Austria, we figured there was no way it could be as beautiful as it is in pictures. But it was even more beautiful in person.
WEDDING DAY
Kelsey: We stayed in an apartment in the city of Innsbruck, Austria. One of my favorite parts of the day was getting ready together. We are not morning people, so we slept until nine, did each other’s hair and makeup, and had mimosas with our sisters. It was nice not to have a tight schedule and worry about a lot of guests.
Ali: We finished getting ready separately, so we could do a proper first look.
Ali: I found a jumpsuit with a cape for $98 and joked that I was yielding the rest of our dress budget to Kelsey. She had me guess beforehand what I thought her dress would look like, and I was totally wrong. I was thinking lacy and boho, and she had silk goddess vibes. It felt awesome to turn around and see her.
Kelsey: After our first look, we met up with our sisters and hiked to a lake for the wedding ceremony and a picnic.
Ali: Since our parents weren’t physically there with us, we asked both sets to write something, and then our sisters read their letters aloud. We laughed, then cried, and then laughed at the fact that we were crying.
Kelsey: Then Ali and I said our vows.
Ali: We took a few long pauses to just soak in the moment. It felt like the whole world stood still.
Kelsey: Hilariously, I forgot to bring water when packing for the picnic, so we only had Champagne to drink.
Kelsey: Ali and I covered our sister’s expenses, and then, after the wedding, we all took trains together around Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. Two weeks with four people in Europe — a once-in-a-lifetime trip — was still much cheaper than the quotes we were getting for larger weddings in the U.S.
Ali: Getting legally married in Austria was complicated, so we signed our marriage certificate with Kelsey’s sister at a random airport bar before we flew abroad. Now, whenever we’re at the airport, we’ll pass the bar and be like, ‘That’s where we officially got married!’
P.S. A wedding at home, and how would you make your wedding feel true to you?
(Wedding photography and planning by Wild Connections Photography.)
Comments
78 commentsoh I love this idea. so intimate. if you are into special weddings go check out @gesinadem as well. she hiked the Italian alps and married her husband in ski outfits sounded by lots of snow.
I can’t get over how insanely beautiful these photos are! Cheers to doing something totally different, looks like you four had an absolutely killer time. Congratulations! :)
I love a relaxed wedding! And that silk dress is to die for.
Two weeks with four people in Europe — a once-in-a-lifetime trip — was still much cheaper than the quotes we were getting for larger weddings in the U.S. The pictures and itinerary look ridiculously beautiful and expensive, I am not sure how the statement can be true!
I would have agreed with you up until a couple of months ago when a very frugal friend shared the cost of her smallish wedding in the US. Absolutely outrageous how much weddings cost these days.
I had your classic teenage acrimonious relationship with my mom…which I am really trying not to have with my daughter. Despite my best efforts, she will counter anything I ask her with, “Well, I have free will so, I don’t have to.” She is 9. And the other night, she turned to me and said, “I don’t want to be anything like you when I grow up.” Ooof! I knew she didn’t mean it that way, despite the initial shock. she only knows me as a person with a hidden disability who cannot do that much fun stuff anymore, so I agree with her. I don’t want to be like me, either!
Kim! I just wanted to tell you that this behavior from your nine year old, while painful, is very developmentally normal. I have 12 and 10 year old daughters and we very much went through the same stage. My 12 year old daughter has fully grappled with her free will (the flip side of which is the sheer terror that comes from realizing she is a separate person from me) and has developed the others-awareness to not want to try to say the most painful thing she can think of to me. My 10 year old and I are still in it, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just keep being calm, present , empathetic and nonjudgmental and she will move through it. But don’t take it personally. You and wonderful and it sounds like she would be very lucky to be like you!
Oh my gosh! Reading this late, but sending all the congratulations & happy wishes to this couple! My heart is aflutter! Thank you for sharing your photos & story with us.
Wow the most beautiful pictures!!!
I loved reading this! Especially as it took place right next to the village I grew up in in Austria. Funnily enough here it’s totally normal to do bridal shootings in the mountains, I have sooo many friends who did that, as the backdrop of the Alps is just stunning! (However, and the photographer did a really good job here, I was baffled at her pricing, I guess it’s targeted towards people from abroad bc in Austria you could not afford a 7500 euro photoshoot for your wedding lol, usually you pay around 2-3k for a professional photographer who shoots at your wedding for 12 hours).
The absolute best! It’s like a dream.
This is incredibly wonderful and beautiful.
Woah! Incredible. That last shot with the just married sign took my breath away.
This made my day! Congratulations you two!
Ahhhh this makes me love my people. Queer perfection, y’all.
Quite possibly the best wedding story I’ve read here or anywhere. I smiled, I laughed, I teared up! And that picture of the smiling couple and the champagne spray is everything, pure joy and exuberance. Thank you to you and them for sharing it with us!
Oh my goodness, this is so very beautiful and moving in every way. Good for you for not having the “traditional” wedding. Weddings, unfortunately, have become such big business and it is horrific how expensive they are. Small, intimate, beautiful and personable wedding for the win!
I love everything about this!
Seriously, if I could have a wedding do-over it would be something like this! The smaller the better! They look so happy and relaxed which should be the goal.
Wow! What a dreamy wedding and those photos! Spectacular!
I am floored by the beauty of their love and this location!
Congrats lovelies! What a gorgeous wedding and you both looked so happy. Cheers to many more adventures together!
Congratulations, very cute!!! Luckily I also married my love in Innsbruck last October. It was cloudy day and it was perfect. We invited friends and familiy to a little restaurant closed to a farm above Innsbruck. The ceremony was in the garden and the party in a 100 year old wooden glashouse. It was a wonderful celebration. I´ll never forget it.
Love this and imagine I would have been super inspired by it when I was in my engagement era. AND YET, I now wish I had invited more people to our wedding. We decided no kids and only “close” friends. There were ~45 people there and now, I wish I had not been so exclusive. A marriage is a long game, the most joyous and generous party. The people who show up to witness are important on that day and in the future. I think about the weddings I attended and can access the joy and possibility of those days instantly — a useful skill when marriages hit the skids, which they always do. Every year, when I get together with my college girlfriends we reminisce about our weddings. It brings some of the spark back, the best gift!
Congrats, Kelsey and Ali! I wish I had a sister! My other half wishes he had a sister he was close with. This would be so perfect! I would so love a post about getting married, when family dynamics aren’t the best. How couples overcame this obstacle. I want the whole crazy family there. But this just isn’t possible. Eloping seems to be the best idea for us. But this makes me incredibly sad. We don’t have a ton of really close friends, either. So I would love to read more how others have successfully navigated these waters.
I can totally relate to this but I am the mother and hope my kids elope because I cannot fathom a joyful day if their father and I had to be in the same space. This may be somewhat selfish but it would be so uncomfortable for all. I can love and support from afar and all the days of their marriage. My husband and I eloped (second for both of us) and it was glorious, we don’t regret it at all.
Hi Betsy – my husband and I eloped, because it became clear that if we had a wedding, my family wouldn’t show up, and to avoid any awkward imbalance, we went away with just his parents and our siblings and had a celebration that was meaningful to us, and then partied with our friends when we got home. His mother wanted a big traditional wedding and had some feelings about it, but it’s a decade later, and hopefully she’s moved on (getting to spend time with her grandkids has been a good consolation). I love being included in other people’s weddings, and getting to celebrate and share their joy, and I also know that you build a life together day by day, and the wedding will end up just being one day out of so so many. Best of luck to you and yours.
Absolutely dream wedding. What a fun family!
this was already perfect but then the SHEEP set me over the edge.
magical!
The last picture! Brought tears to my eyes! What a beautiful idea and setting and dresses and couple! Loved it!
I love the idea of turning a wedding budget on its head and having a bucket-list adventure with your partner and closest bff-siblings instead. I might be biased by my own 7-person wedding in the CA redwoods instead of a big wedding :) What a glorious backdrop for a wedding and how amazing it is that this photographer has found this niche and that this couple found them. Magical, memorable moments for all. And forgetting water for the wedding picnic made me LOL – guess we’ll just have to drink Champagne! x
stunning! especially the first look photo! also love the link to the hike loop. I had the gift of spending a few weeks in Austria in my mid-20’s during graduate school… take me back!!!
This wedding feels like a gift to the world. It’s such a shining example of love. The photos made me rejoice in being human, which I haven’t felt like doing in awhile. They also have me wondering: what beautiful thing might I do if I weren’t afraid of breaking norms and conventions? Thank you so much for sharing this day, this love story, this testament to the awesomeness of humans.
This makes me wonder why I didn’t do this!! Amazing, gorgeous, all the things. Thank you so much for sharing.
dreamyyyy
wow, amazing!!!
Hands down my favorite wedding I’ve ever seen and definitely favorite one i’ve seen featured on this site. It is absolutely perfect.
Bucket list wedding – just stunning… all of it 💗
This is incredibly beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
So, so pretty. Those signs though – hiking out with heels! I mean, cmon! 💓
I am usually not very into weddings, but this was the absolute best. What a bad-ass, beautiful, and unique experience. Congratulations!
To be able to share one of the most important moments with your siblings by your side!!!! This is everything a family is all about 🩷
Come on! Every wedding featured in this blog makes me want to get married again, including this one. Gorgeous!
How beautiful in so many ways! I felt sad for the parents missing the actual wedding for a minute and then I had the thought that if my kids only wanted each other at their weddings I would feel accomplished in helping to form a sibling relationship so special.
This!! My sister got married to her husband during covid, and the only people present were the couple, me and the grooms brother (and the person who married them, a lovely woman). They got married on the beach, and as it was off season the beach was empty. Both sets of parents were happy for the couple and for having their siblings there, and instead of getting sad or jealous my mom actually told me afterwards “when we are no longer around she is going to be the most important person in your life, no matter if you have your own families. You are sisters and that matters”. Made me tear up.
This!!!
I can’t be reading comments like this when pregnant with my second, SOB! (Sob, not son of a b, just FYI…)
Damn. Love. Joy. Risk taking. Beauty. Doing what feels right for YOU. The best most necessary kind of rebellion. Thank you for the tears of joy, for sharing. All the love and light to y’all!
So, SO beautiful!
Could this possibly be sweeter? No, no it could not! Best wedding ever! Congratulations!
Needed to see this right now! Thank you Aly, Kelsey and sisters for sharing. Thank you Joanna and COJ community for being. We. Will. Get. Through. This. 💪🏻 hugs
So so lovely!!
I love this! What a great way to get married and celebrate. May you always approach challenges in your life together with creativity and love 💕
Joke’s on you. I WANTED to cry today. Especially including the sisters. Sob.
Ha! This made me laugh, Betsy.
What a brilliant way to do it! Wish this beautiful couple the absolute best!
Tears in my eyes (happy and sad) for a queer couple who had siblings AND parents on their team for their wedding. I cannot express how much of a rarity that is.
I teared up. What a beautiful post and wedding. Congratulations Kelsey and Ali and Thank you for sharing your lovely wedding day with all of us
What a gorgeous and life-affirming way to get married. Congrats!!
Goodness! Gorgeous! And so special…many thanks for sharing your special day. Congratulations Kelsey and Ali!
Incredible. Love every detail and what beautiful life capturing photos! Congratulations sojourn ladies!
super beautiful and super special! Congratulations :)
Perfection.
Thank you for sharing this with all of us. Everything feels so fraught right now, but this was so beautiful and human. Deep, Alpine-scented breaths. We are going to be ok.
Love, Love, love all of it! And congratulations Ali & Kelsey.
This is a dream wedding!!! Congratulations 💕
best wishes to you! The champagne picture is fabulous … the joy, the view, everything!
Oh my gosh, the “just married” signs on your backpacks! I loved this whole post and all of these pictures are stunning, but that last picture had me cracking up in the best way – such a fun and sweet little detail! Congratulations! :)
That jumpsuit! So perfect. Also, epic spot for the ceremony, wow. And bringing your sisters? 💚
This chokes me up and is 100% something I’d love to do! (21 years after my own wedding ;) The dresses are gorgeous, the flowers, your smiles, the cold plunge! Congratulations and I hope you have a lifetime of happiness together
Every single thing about this is beautiful! Best wishes to this amazing couple!
Wow am I choked up. This is so beautiful.
I do relish everything here: the people, the idea, the scenery, the sisters, the joyous energy. It feels so light and alive; and I want us all to get there (again). Thank you for uplifting my evening in a very beautiful way, Kelsey and Ali! :)
Lovely brides forging a new path together. Such a refreshing and intimate celebration. Wishing you many,many wonderful years celebrating your friendship and love.
oh wow so perfect. This is what I would have liked if my husband would have been on board too.
This is so gorgeous!!! Wow! Love that they did what felt right to them for their wedding. I love when people look super happy in their wedding photos. Obsessed!
Beautiful!