I Shot My Own Engagement Photos at the Bonneville Salt Flats

Wendover, UT

When I proposed to my fiancée in 2021, we were based in Phoenix, Arizona. At that point we were planning on relocating to Salt Lake City Utah in the summer and came to the agreement that we would put our wedding planning on hold until we were more established in our new beautiful city. Fast forward to 2022 and wedding planning was in full effect! First we settled on a location (after throwing many cities around), then a venue, and then our guest list. Next was one of the most important if not the most important decision - our wedding photographer. We knew that availability was scarce for many wedding photographers due to backlogging from the pandemic, so we figured that we better get a move on with our search. After looking through many portfolios for wedding photographers located in or near Salt Lake City, no one really caught our attention. At this point I decided to throw a hail-Mary request at a wedding photographer both my fiancée and I admired.

The only problem was that they were located on the opposite side of the country.

Luckily they were very accommodating to our request and offered us a very reasonable travel fee to compensate their trek across the country. Great. We booked our wedding photographer, settled on a location, venue, and guest list and now we needed to work on our save the dates. The only problem was who was going to take our save the date photos? After debating all of our options and going back and forth on whether to hire yet another wedding photographer, we had a crazy idea.

What if we did our own Save the Date photos?

A crazy idea indeed! I had just done a lovely (yet freezing) wedding engagement shoot at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, and my fiancée & I had a collective realization that the Salt Flats would be an ideal location for such an endeavor. The Salt Flats would be flat (duh), private and still incredibly scenic. To pull this off, we would need a tripod, space and plenty of time to account for out of focus shots and misfires from setting a self timer.

When we got to the Salt Flats, it was a beautifully warm and sunny day unlike the freeze-fest only a couple of weeks prior.

We arrived probably a bit too early, but we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to set up before golden hour. We staked out a prime-looking spot on the Salty Flats, set up the camera and tripod, and quickly changed into our shoot outfits. My fiancee chose a lacy black dress by For Love and Lemons, paired with a colorful rose bouquet. (Pro tip: Costco offers beautiful, yet affordable, bouquets that are perfect for photoshoots).

How did we do? Check out some images from our self shot wedding engagement shoot below and if you are interested in venturing out to the Bonneville Salt Flats, send me a message!