Here is a story of Monika and Riho who had a two-day elopement in Florence, Tuscany and at lake Garda in April 2025. This blog post will cover all locations and activities, timeline, their full gallery and their review of my service.

Introduction

Monika and Riho are a very sweet and funny couple from Estonia. They have been together couple of years and they’ve always known they do not want a big wedding fuzz. Just the two of them. When they contacted me they asked me to take photos of them in Estonia (as we both live in Estonia). They were planning to do a courthouse wedding with a fun photoshoot after.

The more I got to know them the more I understood that they might actually want something more. Something different. At that time point they didn’t know I also do adventure elopements in Italy. So… I helped them dream a little better. I proposed the idea of eloping in Italy instead. And they were IN! Right away! She being a part-time photographer herself, she loves epic photos and values good quality photos a lot.

As we got to the planning we were trying to narrow down to one location. We wanted mountains in Northern Italy, but we also loved the hills of Tuscany. And we also loved the idea of taking photos in a city. Since they loved all those locations equally, we decided to do them all! 🤗

THE ELOPEMENT

The first day: Elopement in Tuscany

Morning: Florence elopement

I met the couple in their hotel room at 5AM to capture them getting ready. Since we had a two-day elopement planned in various different locations, it did not make sense to hire a make-up and hair artist multiple times. What Monika did: she hired a make-up artist in Estonia to teach her privately how to do her own professional make-up and which products to use based on her skin type. This is also a skill now that she can use in her every day life in the future. She applied all the knowledge and products on the day of the elopement and I must say, the make-up was just perfect! And the makeup stayed flawless through the entire 17-hour day – even after crying her heart out during the ceremony!

Make-up and hair done, dress and suit put on, we headed out around 6.30 and started at a spot in Florence, where you can see the entire city.

It was foggy, but not so foggy that we couldn’t see a thing. It created such a beautiful, soft, and mysterious vibe. We had a lot of fun taking photos.

Just as we were taking the very last shots in this spot and started to drive back, the fog became more intense and covered everything in one big thick layer of white cloud. We couldn’t see a thing. Perfect timing 😅

As the next spot we went to the Dome of Florence. We arrived at the perfect time. The sun was just starting to come out behind the building and creating the perfect lighting conditions for amazing photos.

We started walking around the Dome. Just taking it all in, enjoying this beautiful city. We walked those cobble-stone streets for a bit and noticed a little gelateria and very spontaneously decided to have a gelato-break. Because… When in Italy you can always have a gelato break! And ooopps, it turned into face smearing 😂

It took us about an hour to take photos in front of the Dome, walk around the Dome, have the gelato break and to take a lot of pretty photos. When we were there we noticed another photographer taking photos in front of the Dome. It was a moment where we all realized how important it is for your experience’s sake to choose a very good photographer your values align with. You can read more about this incident here:
How your photographer’s approach defines your entire experience

We went back to our hotel and had breakfast. We packed our bags for the upcoming part of the day and headed out to Pienza!

Pienza

Pienza is a little sweet town in Tuscany. It is really one of the most beautiful little towns I’ve ever been to. Very clean and polished. Houses were looking nice – not too old and having too many cracks in their walls. But still giving this rustic and beautiful Italian vibe. When the day is sunny then during mid-day I try to plan us be somewhere more shadowy. May it be in a forest, canyon or a town. Having high walls around you softens the harsh light. From a photography perspective, that’s ideal — it means you won’t be squinting into the sun, and your photos will have softer, more flattering light..

It was lunch time, therefore there were quite many people in town. But, our main goal here was not to take a lot of photos, but to have pizza in wedding attire! This was one thing the couple said to me right away when we started planning: We want to have pizza in our attire and take fun photos of it! So we did!

Right next to Pienza is the field where one of the last scenes of Gladiator was filmed. It was groom’s special wish that we go to this spot, too. So we did!

Cypress streets

Tuscany is known for its cypress streets. There are so many of those all around the area! We visited some of those spots. For this setting, Monika had another beautiful wedding dress with her.

And then it was time for the most important part of the day which was the sunset ceremony!

Sunset ceremony in Tuscany

We drove to this beautiful spot to have a sunset ceremony there. The last part of the day consisted of them reading their vows to each other, exchanging rings, having their first dance, popping champaign and eating their wedding cake. The ceremony was very emotional. They laughed a lot, they cried a lot. They had a really hard time saying the entire sentences without crying, so that made them laugh. I cried a lot, too…

The weather forecast predicted clouds to be out the entire evening. BUT…

When they were finishing their vows, the most beautiful golden sunset came out. They didn’t notice it at first as they were so deeply concentrating on their vows. When they were finished with their vows and had it all hugged out, I kindly asked them to look behind them to see what had happened…

It was pure magic. We had the kind of luck you can’t plan for — the most breathtaking golden Tuscan sunset you can imagine. Just that view made us all cry even harder.

There was such a deep emotion in the air — a mix of endless gratitude, disbelief, and overwhelming awe. We stood there, tears in our eyes, unable to fully grasp how real and beautiful it all was.

This was the perfect setting for them to have their first dance in this very spot with this most beautiful view and with the strongest loving and amazing feelings one can feel.

But this wasn’t the end of the day. They popped champaign, cut their wedding cake and enjoyed the sunset views until the sun had set and more.

DAY 2: Elopement at Lake Garda

On the second day, we woke up in Florence, had breakfast in our hotel, packed our stuff and headed out to lake Garda. Since we had agreed to be driving in one vehicle and the driving was done by the groom and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us, I sat in the backseat and made ready their sneak-peek photos from the first day.

When we arrived in Malcesine as the first thing we went out to have lunch. This is when I gave them my laptop to see the photos from the first day. For me this was a rare opportunity to see live how my clients react when they see the photos for the very first time. There were a lot of “WOWs” and “OMGs” included in the reactions. You could see them being so amazed, so grateful we ended up hugging it all out. All the emotions from the last day came back rushing…

Tummies full, they put back on their wedding attire and we went up on Monte Baldo with gondolas. Since it was quite cloudy we didn’t go too far from the gondola station. As I wrote in the beginning the couple wanted to see the mountains. This was our mountain location. So we took in the incredible views. And we took some incredible photos.

And at lake Garda we had amazing luck with the weather, too. When we were finished with couples portraits, we started taking individual portraits. And just as we got that done, a massive cloud came running up the side of the mountain and within seconds, it was all entirely white. With zero visibility.

We went back down with Gondolas and drove to Riva del Garda. This is a beautiful little town on the northern side of the lake.

And then there was one more dress change… Why? Because if you have the opportunity to take maternity photos with a view like this, YOU TAKE IT!

And just as we finished taking the maternity photos, it started raining 😅 It is just unbelievable how much luck we had with the weather over these two days! We are deeply grateful to the weather lord or whoever helped us have so much luck!

We ended the day with a beautiful dinner at Riva del Garda, where we had just the best food possible! I had the best Spaghetti Carbonara I’ve ever had and the bride and groom were very satisfied with their orders too. It was the perfect end to a perfect two-day elopement!

P.S. We had a lot of fun and the couple goofed around quite a bit 🤪

FULL GALLERY

Their full gallery can be seen HERE.

ITINERARY

Day 1

5-6.30am Getting ready at hotel

6.30-6.45am Drive to first location

6.45-7.30am Photos at first location

7.30-8am Getting to city center

8-9am Photos around the Dome in Florence

9-11am Breakfast, packing

11am-1pm Driving to Pienza

1-3pm Photos in Pienza and lunch break

3-5.30pm Exploring Gladiator fields and cypress streets

5.30-6.30pm Drive to ceremony spot

6.30-9pm Getting everything ready for ceremony, vows, rings exhange, first dance, popping champaign, eating cake, taking in all the views, relaxing.

9-11pm Drive back to Florence

Day 2

8-9am Breakfast and packing

9am-1pm Drive to Malcesine

1-2pm lunch

2-4.30pm Monte Baldo

4.30-5pm Drive to Riva del Garda

5-7pm Riva del Garda

7-8.30 Dinner

REVIEW

Here is the 5* review Monika and Riho wrote:

“If you’re thinking whether to elope or not – just do it! And trust me, you want Eva by your side while doing it! I am so glad we did!

Originally we thought of a little elopement in our home country Estonia, just something special but private, just for two of us. But Eva helped us dream bigger – ideas escalated and instead we decided to elope in Italy, have two-day elopement in multiple locations. Once we started working with Eva, we had no doubts that our elopement is going to be amazing! In reality it exceeded all our expectations! Eva really made it very easy, exciting and special for us and we can’t imagine doing it any other way.

Eva is so much more than a photographer. She helped to plan the whole two days, gave us advice during whole planning process on outfits, flowers, vow books and traditions – you name it! Since we kept our elopement a secret, Eva was like a little fairy helping us out with everything. Eva stepped in like a best friend – we talked about everything starting from emotions and ending with wedding cake, things I would usually discuss with my best friends. She truly cared how I felt in every step of the way. And when we finally met for the elopement, it already felt like we met a long-time friend as we felt so comfortable with her.

On our wedding day Eva was amazing! She helped to put on my dress, veil and made sure we had time to just enjoy the moment. Whole day felt relaxed, fun and full of love. Even though Eva was there with us whole time, we still had space and time to be just the two of us. She knew exactly when to guide us and when to let us enjoy the quiet moments – she gave us the perfect timeline. We never felt rushed and had enough time to soak in everything. And somehow yet she captured it all without making us feel like we were in a photo shoot all day.

Eva picked out the most beautiful locations. We visited several bucket list locations and ended the day with magical sunset ceremony in Tuscany. She even made my husband’s dream come true by taking us to the spot where the final scene of Gladiator was filmed!

The photos? Breathtaking! Every picture was better than the last. It is hard to even pick a favorite as they’re all THAT GOOD! And the best part? We got photos so fast that we were able to share them as soon as we got home from our elopement travels!

Booking Eva was truly the easiest and best descision we’ve ever made! She made everything stress-free, easy but at the same time so incredible and special. Our endless gratitude goes to Eva for organizing and capturing such a special and important event of ours!”

Conclusion

Monika and Riho couldn’t decide on one location and this lead them having a multi-day elopement in Florence, Pienza, hills of Tuscany and at lake Garda. We had a lot of fun and many emotional moments, incredible luck with the weather and an adventure of lifetime! This is what an elopement is about: quality time with your loved one! 🤍

Other blog posts you might be interested in:
Kaisa and Laur full day elopement at lake Garda
Sigrid and Sander multi-day elopement in the Dolomites
Helena and Keio winter vow renewal
How I help couples make their elopement day true to them
How your photographer’s approach defines your entire experience