Asheville Brewery Session and Moody Forest Elopement | Stephanie + Scott

May 27

Asheville Brewery Portrait Session & Mountain Elopement | April 8, 2021

I met Stephanie and Scott in the early afternoon at Burial Beer Co., an award-winning brewery located in Asheville’s South Slope neighborhood. If you like high gravity beers, or fresh, constantly rotating and seasonal brews, this is the spot for you. I’ve never had a bad - or even mediocre, beer from this brewery.

Yes, it’s that good.

They met me in the upstairs roof patio in the early afternoon dressed amazingly. Stephanie’s dress was beautiful, with a modern elegance, while Scott’s deep blue suit looked sharp and classic. I was excited about how amazing they would look for their mountain elopement.

The weather was typical for April in Western North Carolina, and the grey skies above Asheville made the light flattering for mid-day, but also made the air feel cool and refreshing. In the distance, some of the surrounding mountains had steel blue precipitation raking them while other mountains seemed almost sunny. The forecast for their location had been wavering between thunderstorms and partly cloudy all week, but thankfully today it seemed like it might not rain after all. Weather is fickle in this region of North Carolina, but we stayed positive and decided proceed with the plan to have their adventurous outdoor ceremony at Black Balsam Knob—a location known for panoramic views and a short drive from downtown Asheville.

After a couple beers (several of which were gifts from customers!) and some fun portraits of them, we hopped in our cars and headed to the location. When we arrived we were met by the wonderful, and always psyched outdoor elopement officiant Amanda Jones of Happily Ever Asheville. We all got our things together for the wedding - they brought some drinks and in addition to cameras and equipment, I brought a fresh baked loaf of sourdough bread that I’d taken out of the oven just a few hours prior. (Quick backstory: A few weeks prior Stephanie asked if I’d possibly be down to bake a loaf for their elopement after she’d seen several of my bread posts on Instagram. They both were curious and just had to try it!). I was flattered and said hell yeah!)

When we finally made it out to the overlook areas, unfortunately the mountain had become pretty socked in with fog. Undeterred, we decided to head back down to the forest near the cars and find something entirely different. Visual story told below.

Enjoy!