The Priority
When we first called, Mavely and Tyler talked about how they had just clicked when they first started dating and knew they would get married. They wanted their elopement photos to be how they announced it, once it was official.
What They Considered
Mavely and Tyler skipped the big wedding.
Why It Didn’t Work
They wanted to start forever as soon as possible, so waiting on a full wedding back home wasn’t going to get them there.
How It Came Together
So they came out to Utah from Texas to elope and spend their weekend snowboarding, turning the ceremony into a beautiful adventure together. Jordan Pines sits about 8.8 miles up Big Cottonwood Canyon, just downhill from Brighton and Silver Lake, at an elevation around 7,500 feet. In February, that means deep snow on the ground and bitter cold in the air, the kind of winter elopement backdrop Mavely and Tyler were after.
Jordan Pines Elopements
We met at Jordan Pines campground with Greg from Orange Bird Officiants and walked about a half mile through the snow to a fresh, untouched field. Greg walked Mavely and Tyler to the middle of it and married them under the open sky, the ceremony built around the journey they were just starting together.
Mavely and Tyler exchanged rings, each one custom-made with an engraving hidden on the inside.
After the ceremony, we filled out the marriage certificate, then took about 20 minutes of couple photos with Mavely and Tyler.
Then: BEER POP. They'd brought four cans of Lone Star all the way from Texas to crack open the second they were officially married.
Jordan Pines is a group camping and picnic area about 8.8 miles up Big Cottonwood Canyon (SR-190), in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest at roughly 7,500 feet. It's just downhill from Brighton and Solitude, the same stretch of canyon as Silver Lake.
Yes, though the developed campground itself is a seasonal, reservation-only site that isn't set up for winter use. Mavely and Tyler's February ceremony happened in a snowy field about a half mile from the campground, reached on foot, which is the workaround: use the surrounding forest in winter rather than the summer group site.
If you're hiring a professional photographer, the Forest Service requires commercial photographers to carry their own special-use permit to work on this land, the same requirement that applies at nearby Silver Lake. That's something your photographer handles, not something you need to arrange yourself.
No. Jordan Pines sits inside the Salt Lake City watershed, which bans dogs and other domestic animals throughout the area, even inside a parked car. It's the same canyon-wide rule that applies at Silver Lake and everywhere else in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
Cold enough to plan for: at Jordan Pines' elevation of around 7,500 feet, winter temperatures can run 20 degrees or more colder than the Salt Lake Valley floor. Mavely and Tyler leaned into it with cozy knit sweaters instead of a traditional dress and suit, which held up better for a half-mile walk through snow.
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See how a Utah elopement day works
Written by
Utah-based wedding, elopement, and proposal photographer since 2025. I've scouted these locations myself, so the advice here comes from firsthand experience, not guesswork.
