My husband and I decided last minute to get married on an already planned vacation in February 2016. One look at Maddie's website and we were totally sold. We contacted her with three weeks until the actual wedding day, which seems stressful, but Maddie made it SO EASY. We weren't quite sure where we wanted to have the elopement, and she sent us an initial email with several well thought out ideas and locations and even included photos from each if she had been there before. We ended up choosing St. Mary's Glacier, one that she suggested, and it was PERFECT. My husband and I talked later about how amazed we were that we didn't feel nervous the entire day. She made us feel super relaxed and awesome, which truly showed in the photos. They were seriously STUNNING and captured us perfectly, and even got some super adorable photos of our dog. She is incredibly talented, helpful, energetic, and worth every penny. We hope to work with her again in the future--it was truly a perfect, stress-free, fun day! We were only sad that we didn't have more time to spend with her!!

Maddie, thank you SO much!
- Kelsie + Tyler 2/17/16

Maddie was wonderful to work with. When we weren't sure where to have our engagement shoot, Maddie offered many ideas and helped us choose the one right for us. Maddie created business cards with a photograph from our engagement shoot for our guest so that they knew how to access pictures from the ceremony and reception once they were available. From the simple contract, her day of direction and presence, to her timely and well done website where the photographs are available, Maddie's work is thoughtful and beautiful.

While waiting for my fiance's visa to be approved so he could enter the United States, there wasn't much about our wedding that I was ready to or able to commit to. The exception was Maddie. When I saw Maddie's photos of previous elopements, I knew we had to have her at our wedding. I wasn't sure when Adrian would arrive, so I couldn't set the date, but Maddie was flexible and worked with me through the entire process; despite the fact that we only had a concrete date weeks in advance.

Maddie is a photographer; however, she somehow managed to also play the role of wedding planner. She helped me find an epic location for our snowy elopement, and she also brought the most amazing bouquet I have ever see from Fort Collins to Telluride for me. I can't imagine every bride can put so much trust into their photographer, but that's what you get when you hire Maddie.

Maddie captured every single moment of our special day. She spent time capturing the groom getting ready, just as she did the bride (and believe me, my husband loved getting his photo taken!) She took the time to get to know my family members' names, and she even ate dinner with us, making sure to capture every moment! Maddie was ever so prepared for our snowy elopement with her own snowshoes, and we really had an epic adventure with her, which resulted in photos that sincerely take our breath away.

Maddie was ever so patient and understanding as I took breaks to warm up, and my husband used snowshoes (and saw snow) for the first time. Not to mention, she's also bilingual, which means my husband was able to speak in his native language on our special day.

I can't think of a negative thing to say about Maddie. She made our day feel as special as an elopement should feel, and she gave us the wedding photos of our dreams. 7 months after our wedding, we're still drooling over her amazing work.

I am so happy i came across Adventure Instead on Facebook. I didn’t want a big traditional wedding(love straying away from the norm), and their photos are INSANE. Truly talented. I had the pleaser of Amber being our elopement guid & photographer and she was amazing!! Everything went to smoothly and felt so comfortable on such an important day

When choosing a photographer it was very important to me that we chose someone I felt comfortable around, that I would enjoy spending my wedding day with and that would stress me out with the schedule. After shooting our engagement photos I knew Maddie was the perfect fit. She keeps the day moving without making everyone feel rushed and ordered around. She has a great sense of humor and takes incredible photos. We had an amazing day and are so, so thankful to have such a beautiful collection of photographs to look back and remember it by. She is very on top of asking you your preferences and really getting a big picture sense of what you are about so she can get just the right shots. It was such a pleasure working with her from beginning to end!

John and Melanie K.

First, Tori was wonderful and so great to work with!
Our process with Adventure Instead was simply amazing! Our planning stages before the elopement date was well planned due to the fact we had a few months to get our vendors and wedding things together. Of course there is stress before the Big Day but I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day and setting. We asked Tori many questions on our location and how long our adventure was. We knew what vendors we wanted to go with and she also recommended many vendors to help us through the process! They have so many sources so it did help so greatly. Because we planned so well the elopement day had no hiccups. (Only thing was John popped our raft to do our vows on the island) BUT it worked better in our favor. She helped us find another location to read our vows and also helped my wife when she felt a little nervous at the top of the mountain! It honestly felt like Tori wasn’t there and the pictures are so beautiful! We were both in awe of all the beauty around us! We wanted a location that wasn’t far from where we were staying in Denver and also wanted Lost Lake because we grew up on a the lake in the Carolinas.

Tori knows exactly what she is doing and she wanted us to feel like she wasn’t there and made sure the day was about us and how we wanted! We had so much fun and we even talked about going back to our location in the future..possibly with our kids..when that time comes. I think everyone can agree on the fact that the pictures are breathtaking and captured our love for each other. It was a very emotional day and we were so glad we incorporate music into our day. We had our “let’s get married” playlist going all day with our favorite bands and songs!

If anyone is on the fence about doing an elopement, we would say just do it! We had no stress with time, family, or friends..it was just us three! I never imagined doing this but we are so happy that we made the decision to do it for OURSELVES. At the end of the day it is about US. We spent a lot of time in Denver going to the best restaurants and going to Red Rocks. John’s family was a little upset about the elopement at first but when they saw the previews of our big day, they realized how beautiful it was and how great the pictures were..his family still talks about the pictures and how great they are! We had a little bit of everything on our day. It got hot at one point, rained a little, got cold and windy, had a beautiful sunset and a full moon that day! The best part was when we had our ceremony and read our vows to each other, it was very emotional for both of us but the whole time we didn’t even notice Tori and she truly captured our love and emotions! We can’t wait to venture to Washington in the future and we will he contacting Tori when we go! We hope to see you in the future, and again thank you soooo much Adventure Instead and Tori, you guys made it perfect and stress free!

We fell in love with the Pureness of the Adventure Instead photos we saw on instagram and reached out to them . Maddie made our dream day possible!
Right from our 1st phone call everything about the way Maddie guided us was perfect and tailor made for us and our personalities.  We had so much fun and Maddie is the best guide , friend , and photographer that we could ask for on our wedding day! Her fun personality, compassion , knowledge and enthusiasm did shine through everything she did.
There are guides (for location scouting, vendors etc), checklists and advice provided through out and Maddie and the Adventure Instead team were always very responsive and lovely. Our marriage day was magical! On our marriage day all we had to do was relax and enjoy thanks to her taking care of everything around us.
The photos are SO gorgeous, true to our vision and we absolutely love every moment Maddie has captured. We are reliving our dream day. Maddie is the BEST! We definitely plan to work with Adventure Instead again in future. They have exceeded our expectations. 5 stars!

We loved Maddie as our wedding photographer! She was so much fun! It's so easy to work with her, you cant help but smile and look good! :) We did our engagement pictures and wedding pictures with her and we loved how they turned out!!! She took all the pictures we asked for and so many more. Her creativity is amazing and truly gives you one of a kind pictures!

The women at Adventure Instead helped us plan our perfect day. They provided us with step by step information while making it personable. No stress, just excitement through the whole process. Amber was our amazing photographer! She was so kind and patient with us. On top of their excellent service, the photography is stunning!! We're going to print out all our photographer. We highly recommend eloping with Adventure Instead. Thank you for providing us with such treasured memories!

Tori and Adventure Instead were like a breath of fresh air to my wife and I! We were quickly frustrated from trying to plan a traditional wedding, and then having a pandemic hit was the last straw. When having a large gathering was no longer possible or safe, we needed a plan B. We were going to elope October 2020 in central Oregon, but when the wildfires hit... we needed a plan C! And ended up eloping still in October but on the Oregon coast. The day was still amazing, incredibly fun, the photos turned out beautiful and we could not be happier with all of it. If you're considering this route, I would encourage you to pursue it, and I wouldn't recommend anyone else but Adventure Instead! Tori was so flexible, empathetic, great at listening, supportive, communicative, and helpful. I think we all became best friends.