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2025 Year in Review | Colorado Elopement and Wedding Photographer

2025 Year in Review

Savannah Chandler Photography | Colorado Elopement and Wedding Photographer

2024 | My Year in Review

How is it that time again already?

Another New Year, another chance to look back at the amazing people I get to spend my working hours with. Looking back on 2024, I’m filled with memories of traveling across the globe to photograph and many many hours spent in the new 4Runner driving back and forth across the great state of Colorado.

In that timeframe, I listened to 234 hours of Audiobooks (a little on the lower end for me, I got in a pretty big book slump this summer) and my most listened to author was Robert Jordan. I’m on book 4 of the Wheel of Time series, but am taking a little break to listen to Stormlight Archives 5, a book that I’ve been waiting a few years to come out. My favorite book of the year was Project Hail Mary – one that I would argue strongly the audiobook is the only way to consume.

One of the most bittersweet things about this past year is the fact that one of my very favorite wedding venues closed their doors. SkyView in Estes Park (where I photograph most of my traditional weddings) was sold to the town of Estes Park and is being converted into a (crazy fancy if you ask me) daycare. I photographed there the first year they opened, and always looked forward to heading there on wedding days. The views, the staff, and the couples that gravitated towards SkyView will forever hold a special place in my heart.

My Dub for the year 2024 – New Adventures

I started my year off photographing a winter wedding in the quaint mountain town of Buena Vista, a rarity for me to be driving out so far in the colder winter months for a non-skiing wedding. The wedding day was one for the books with a professional singer stopping my couple to ask if he could play them a private song to dance to out in the courtyard. It was quite the romantic and unique experience.

As is customary for me, I had the spring months off from weddings. May rolled around, and I jetted off… to COSTA RICA! After 36 hours of flight delays (with our 9 year old) and a very unexpected stop in Nicaragua, we made it to Quepos for a private villa wedding. I’ve traveled to many places with my job, but Costa Rica was pretty special. From seeing monkeys and sloths hanging out just outside our windows at the Villa to the stunning Ocean and amazing food, we loved our time in Costa Rica. Though as the groom said at his welcome speech, it was beyond hot and humid and we were all covered in sweat from dawn to dusk. If you’re looking for an AMAZING, private wedding location overlooking the Manuel Antonio national park, check out Villa Punto de Vista.

Believe it or not, my next elopement was once again not in Colorado but in the tropics. In June, I found myself in Kauai once again for an intimate beachside elopement. My family was not able to come with (due to me having so many out of state weddings this season), so I enjoyed 5 days to myself on this amazing island. I hiked for sunrise everyday, and there was no one there to complain about it. The wedding day was so lovely – laid back and filled with family coming from as far as Russia to celebrate. The couple had a kiddo, which always gets me in ALL the feels to see children be so excited to be a part of their parent(s) wedding day. I met an amazing video team while on Kauai, Aya Productions and hope to work with them again in the future on this spectacular little island in the middle of nowhere.

Summer in Colorado hit – meaning the start of my crazy busy mountain season.

I found myself photographing all over this beautiful state. In Estes Park at SkyView with multiple amazing couples, making sure to stop at the most scenic places in Rocky Mountain National Park to get those amazing mountain couple’s portraits. In the ever-stunning San Juan mountains, 4x4ing and hiking through fields of wildflowers. In Aspen, gazing up at the famous Maroon Bells and searching for the Milky Way. On Quandary Peak, being chased by rain and finding secret fairy circles. On a train taking us to the ceremony spot after spending the afternoon with a Beverage Burro. One of the coolest things that I’ll likely ever get to witness (and photograph) was a wedding this summer in which the Bride and Groom paraglided into their ceremony.

As the end of the wedding season began to approach, I had one more wedding far from home. In my favorite place in the entire universe. ICELAND.

Returning to the land of Fire and Ice always brings up big emotions in me. Of all the places I’ve traveled, this is the one where I get a feeling of home. I love everything about it. The wildness of the terrain. The way the wind is always whipping and you have to open your door a certain way. The fact even being on the road driving means you’re seeing some of the coolest things imaginable. If it were solely up to me (and I didn’t have a husband with a career and a small child), I would be living in Iceland. I’m asked all the time what my favorite place I’ve photographed at and the answer is without a doubt always the same. This was my 5th time photographing in Iceland, but the first my husband has been able to join me. We drove around the whole island after spending the day with my couple adventuring around Vik and the southwest corner, then added on a side trip over to the Faroe Islands. I would say that if you’re looking for the wildness of Iceland without the crowds – the Faroes are AMAZING and would be the most perfect place to elope (wink wink). The AirBNB that we stayed at would be the perfect place for an elopement, overlooking the ocean stacks from the front yard.

Closing out my year, I had another rare winter wedding. The perfect capstone. The snow came down in BUCKETS all day and created the most magical atmosphere.

Some Personal Notes from 2024:

I started running in 2023. I decided to continue building on my base and do some crazy races in 2024. I ran 4 Half Marathons, including the Telluride Mountain Run (a technical mountain race). I ran 510 miles in 2024, even taking nearly 5 months totally off the sport after a nagging injury. Combining my running and hiking, I was at nearly 800 miles for the year with 98,000 ft of elevation gain. I can say that I’ll be wanting to hit 100,000 this upcoming year ;).

Our sweet pup that had been battling nasal cancer, Jax, left this earth to cross the rainbow bridge. The doctors had given him weeks to live and he had nearly 3 more years of life after diagnosis. He was the dog we got for our son when he was cleared from Chemo to have pets once again, and thus it was quite the blow to our family. We’ll always love and miss you sweet boy.

Our kiddo reached 5 years being cancer-free, and we were told that he’s now graduated into Survivorship status. We had no idea that was going to happen, as we expected 2 more years of MRIs. His oncologist let us know that since he never received radiation (just chemo), he is forever DONE with MRIs. Pretty surreal to think about.

We saw the Northern Lights in both Iceland AND here at home in Colorado.

I spent my birthday amoung the Mountains once again with a good friend on a 12 mile hike out into the Weminuche Wilderness. On the same trip, we went alpine fishing and she caught a cutthroat up at Hope Lake!

I had way too many amazing mountain adventures to reminisce on every single one. Just know that if I was in the mountains, it was a good day.

What’s to come in 2025?

2025 is the year of my 4th decade on this planet.
40.
How in the world did that happen.

There’s a few things that I’m looking to accomplish this year:

An UltraMarathon
I’ll be running the 50k race at Behind the Rocks in Moab, Utah this March.
If I’m going for 26.2 miles, might as well add a few and get the badge of Ultra runner.

A Triathalon
I swam competitively all throughout my younger years. I would LOVE to complete a Tri and see how I feel about the sport. Let me know if you have a favorite Sprint length to check out.

Travel more amazing places.
I love to travel. So much.
We’ll be heading to Scotland in August to see the Oasis reunion, and later in the year I’ll be heading to the Dolomites to photograph an elopement.
More travel dates would, as always, be incredibly welcome.

Take my kiddo on more hikes.
His stamina is finally that of a normal 10 year old, and he’s been able to join me on more and more hikes. He hiked Chief Mountain with me a few times, and I’d love to get to some more alpine lakes to fish together.

Hike Chicago Basin
I would LOVE to get onto the Narrow Gauge train and hike into Chi Basin. It’s been a pipeline dream for some time now.

Run Mirror and Crater Lakes
I’ve been twice hiking, now it’s time to run it 🙂

Without further ado – here are some images from 2024.

Cheers, and here’s to an amazing 2025.



Savannah Chandler Photography | Best Colorado Wedding Photographer
Based in Denver, Colorado | Available for Travel Worldwide

Iceland Wedding Photographer | Costa Rica Wedding Photographer | Hawaii Wedding Photographer