I was ecstatic when Justine and Benoît expressed their desire to have intimate wedding portraits taken in the Pyrenees Mountains just outside of Toulouse, France. Ever since I had moved to the Occitane region of France, I had been eager to see the Pyrenees. The mountains teased me from a distance as I walked across the bridge over the Garonne River in Toulouse. Getting anywhere remote is much more difficult when you don’t have a car.

As my beautiful friends shared their vision of running along mountain tops in their wedding attire and taking me to see the mountains, I was deeply moved. On the car ride up, we were giddy with excitement, sharing music and dreams. We traveled past wild horses, castles with drawbridges, and rolling hills of deep green. As we got out of the car, we realized there were beautiful rock formations and horses right where we intended to take our photos. It felt like a dream.

Before I moved abroad, I never knew France looked the way it did. Fog had settled among the hills, reminding me of the Highlands of Scotland. France never ceased to amaze me with the diversity of its landscape. I could wander with my camera in France alone and never even scratch the surface.

Adventuring gleefully with these two kind souls will remain one of my favorite experiences of being a wedding photographer in Toulouse.