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Tell us your story

I’m Mariah! I’m originally from Michigan. It’s one of those states in the US you’ve never heard of, and probably won’t again after this sentence. I don’t have many remaining ties to the States, and consider Innsbruck, Austria my first possible forever home. If not there, though, then my van. Most of the year, that same 5-6 square meters of living space hurtling down the highway is “home.”

But let’s go back in time; in 2017 I decided to run off to Canada for a summer. I had a very brief entanglement with the 9-5 office life, the conclusion to which was that I’d rather be homeless. For about a year and a half, I lived out of my car or on friend’s couches, with no permanent address, working odd service jobs and underpaid freelance photography to keep me going. 

I traveled Canada, the US, Hawaii, and Europe. It was during that time I fell so embarrassingly head over heels for a handsome German lad. I sold all my things except what would fit into two suitcases and a backpack, said f*** it, and moved across the world. I had no backup plan, I spoke no German and I had about as much money. 

You’re only 25 once, okay?

8 years, a global pandemic, multiple moves, failures, business ventures and (worst of all) learning German later, I’ve settled into finally (maybe) growing roots.

I’m a full time writer, artist and adventure elopement photographer. I specialize in fun, quirky and carefree marriage celebrations centered around the outdoors, and a deep appreciation for it. 

For now 🙂

How long have you been working in the wedding industry?

This one is hard to answer as I shot my first wedding in 2012 and did a real shit job. Then around 2015 I started freelancing for one of those wedding photo corporations that barely vet their freelancers and pay peanuts. I realized I kind of (no, definitely) hated weddings. They were traditional, predictable, uninspired, unnecessarily stressful and shamelessly materialistic. 

I cashed those checks and steered clear for a while after that.

What made you get into weddings & elopements?

It was April 2020, after I moved to Germany. An acquaintance recommended me to someone looking for wedding photos in the mountains since they had eloped in order to be stationed together in the US army. No family, no church, no uninspired speeches or ugly centerpieces – just go outside and take beautiful photos in wedding attire. I was intrigued. I helped her pick out her dress, I helped her find a florist and scouted the perfect locations. I realized I loved every aspect of that, and one day in a voice note to her, told her “if I could do one thing for the rest of my life it would be this!”

Then it hit me. What’s stopping me? So I spent the rest of the pandemic, head down, building my own website, writing my own copy, honing my client experience, my workflows and my plan for success in 5 years or less.

It’s 2025 now, and it actually worked. Wild.

What do you love about intimate weddings and elopements?

It creates a space to celebrate love for those who, by choice or circumstance, aren’t traditional. That those people are like me: Sometimes misunderstood, probably neurodivergent, outcasts in their families, fed up with wedding expectations and emotionally allergic to the bullshit that comes with it. Elopements are honest, real, and fundamentally connected to nature and travel. They take something which is inherently about tradition and normativity and says NOPE. Nuh-uh. None of this works for us. Try and stop usss 🙃

How would you describe your approach to your work?

A past client of mine said it best, I “don’t take myself seriously at all, but I take my work very seriously.”

Life is short, and nothing is so serious it needs to ruin the day. That’s my take. Plan intentionally, make room for spontaneity, and laugh off the rest. It’s all memories, in the end, choose to remember them well.

What’s your favourite part of a wedding day?

It’s not an event, or a planned activity. It’s actually not tangible at all.

It’s that moment when both couples are so fully immersed in each other, the place and the emotion, you see all the walls fall. They are overcome with love and awe, and are just giddy. It’s this childlike innocuousness that adults so rarely indulge in.

That’s the goal of every day for me, and it always happens at some point 🙂

What advice would you give couples who are in the process of planning a wedding or elopement?

Figure out what you really want – I mean REALLY – and do that. It’s really simple. No excuses (unless you want to go to the moon or something, let’s be for real).

When you’re not at a wedding, what do you love doing?

Sleeping in. Hiking, pummeling down trails on my mountain bike, climbing, swimming, traveling, surfing, snowboarding, eating, weight lifting, climbing trees, yelling into the void, you know, all very normal things.

Do you have a dream wedding or elopement you’d love to do?

Honestly? Not really. I guess I’m lucky to have checked off so many dream locations (Dolomites, Lake Como, Patagonia, Japan, the Faroe Islands) early in my career. 

I don’t like putting any one thing on a pedestal; I find it ruins the magic of what it actually is when it happens. Nothing is ever what you build it up to be in your head.

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