Kailey & Hunter | Louisiana

Jun 6

Follow me on Instagram for more content!

A hiking vows renewal photo session is a unique and unforgettable way to celebrate your love and commitment to each other. Picture this: you and your partner, surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of nature, exchanging vows and renewing your love for each other. It’s a magical experience that you’ll cherish forever...and that’s exactly what Kailey and Hunter Gardner did.

One evening I was scrolling through Facebook when I someone [Kailey] had posted a question on a backpacking/hiking Arkansas Facebook group that I’m a part of. She had mentioned they would be coming from out of state and were looking for an adventure photographer to document their vows renewal. I commented and attached my website, and I let her know to reach out if she had any questions. Sure enough, she inquired! A little over a year ago I chose to steer my business towards destination weddings/elopements...and I’m still learning. Since I’m a backpacker, my vision when I switched gears within my business was to document adventurous couples. Kailey and Hunter made my dream come true! At first I was confused because I thought they had family here, or they’d be vacationing...turns out, they were driving all the way from Louisiana to Arkansas just to renew their vows. Petit Jean had always been on their bucket list, therefore they chose this beautiful location for this special occasion! I felt honored they chose me to document such important moment!

Please enjoy this beautiful, scenic, hiking-vows-renewal...

“Hunter and I [Kailey] met when we were sixteen years old when his girlfriend brought him to the church my dad pastored. We became friends when they broke up and remained in touch through letters after he went to basic training. We dated for two years [long distance] after he moved to Illinois, eventually moving to Germany two months after we got married. While we lived in Germany we formed a very strong bond because we only had each other...”

“Our first year of marriage was tough with a lot of stress from navigating a new country and no extended family support, we fought a lot the first year. We lost two babies via miscarriage the second year of our marriage. That was very hard on both of us, but it brought us closer together. We then got pregnant with our son Tucker during our last year in Germany and he was born in Hawaii two months after we moved there...”

“We traveled for twenty-four hours straight when I was seven months pregnant in order to get from Germany to Hawaii. our second son Levy was also born in Hawaii, he was a surprise baby. We found out we were pregnant with him one week after Tucker turned one..”

“When the boys were one and three we packed up our family to move to Louisiana where we live now. It was here that we experienced our first deployment and we spent seven months apart from Hunter. We celebrated our thirtieth birthdays away from one another. Military life isn’t easy, there is a reason that the military divorce rate is almost twice as high as civilians, but it’s also an amazing opportunity to see the world.”

“Something Hunter has learned: Being isn’t always the most important thing. Something I’ve learned from both marriage and being a parent: bonds are formed in the trenches..”