Before we dive in here, first let’s clear up some terminology so we’re all on the same page. A ‘location’ is the place you drive to and park at. If there is no parking there, it’s not a location. These are trailheads, parks, venues, pavilions, etc. A ‘ceremony site’ is a specific spot at a location where a ceremony could be performed. A ceremony site must, at a minimum, allow for two people and an officiant to stand together and enough space for a photographer to get photos.   

We are constantly on the hunt for new ceremony sites. We routinely search online by scouring maps, scanning blog posts and hunting down interesting lists to create our curated list of unscouted locations that we think are worth visiting. Then on regular intervals we drive out to an area to scout not only those unscouted locations we’ve identified, but also any locations of opportunity that suddenly present themselves.

Once we park at a location, we scout around to see if there is a ceremony site worth listing. Roughly speaking, we try to search for ceremony sites within about a 5 minute walk from the parking lot. And we will walk further down some trails if we suspect it may be worth it. Once we find a ceremony site, we start taking all kinds of photos to showcase the site and highlight all of the important features of it and the location in general. We make note of all the important characteristics of the site and location and record it onto a scouting report.

If a location doesn’t have any suitable ceremony sites, we mark them as not recommended in our system. It’s a reminder to us that not only shouldn’t the location appear on the website, there is no need to return to visit the site in the near future. 

Admittedly, our standard for what constitutes a ceremony site is relatively low. We believe it’s better to include the largest variety of sites possible for you to review. You can always filter the sites by what is important to you so you’ll always only get what you specify. Also, it’s not uncommon for a photographer to take a couple to a second site for couple’s photos. And a number of sites that you may not find so suitable for a ceremony could easily be used as a secondary couple’s photo location.

Oh, and there’s one more reason to be more inclusive with sites. It’s very rare but it can sometimes happen that a selected site becomes suddenly unavailable. Sometimes roads can become impassable or a bike race you didn’t know about blocks where you want to go. What do you do then? Well, having some nearby backup sites can be a great resource even if they aren’t ideal. We’re a firm believer in backup plans and more options are always better.