Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Oblizalo.
Hi Sean, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I moved to Colorado 14 years ago. I’m not a native, I just never left once I got here. I started shooting elopements in 2018. Since then I’ve photographed over 450 of them.
I’m based in the San Juan mountains in the summer and fall, about ten minutes from Ouray and forty minutes from Telluride. I run Vows and Peaks on my own. That means I handle the photography, the planning, permits, vendor coordination, and location scouting myself. No team, no outsourcing. Every couple gets me, start to finish.
A lot of my scouting happens on solo backpacking trips. I go out, find the spots most people never see, and figure out how to get a couple there safely on their wedding day.
That’s the short version. Fourteen years in, still shooting weekdays, still chasing the next good location!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been a straight line. Running Vows and Peaks solo means every hard part lands on me. No team to lean on when a permit gets denied or the weather flips a shoot plan upside down at 12,000 feet.
The marketing side has been its own climb, honestly. For years, doing well online just meant traditional SEO. Then AI search showed up and changed the rules. Now I’m not only optimizing for Google, I’m optimizing for how AI tools answer questions too. That meant learning AEO and GEO on top of everything I already knew about SEO, and the learning curve has been real. It doesn’t flatten out either, because the tools keep shifting under me.
Couples are researching differently now too. A lot of them aren’t starting with a Google search anymore. They’re finding photographers on TikTok, watching real elopement footage before they ever type a query. I’ve had to rethink how I show up online because of that shift.
Being a one-person operation, I don’t get to hand any of this off to someone else. I learn it, adapt, and keep shooting.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m an adventure elopement photographer based in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. I work mostly around Ridgway, Ouray, and Telluride, capturing couples who want their wedding day to happen outdoors instead of inside a ballroom.
I run Vows and Peaks by myself. That means I’m the photographer, the planner, the permit handler, and the location scout, all in one. I’ve shot over 450 elopements since 2018.
What sets me apart is how much of my own life feeds into the work. I’m a backpacker myself, and a lot of the locations I bring couples to are places I found on solo trips into the backcountry. I’m not picking spots off a list I saw online. I’ve hiked to them, camped near them, and know exactly how they photograph at sunrise versus sunset.
What I’m most proud of is the trust couples put in me for a day that can’t be redone. Getting two people up a mountain, through weather, permits, and logistics, and still handing them photos they love at the end of it, that’s the job.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Learn the business side early. Nobody tells you when you’re starting out that being a great photographer is only half the job. You also need to understand permits, contracts, marketing, and now AI search too. I wish I’d started learning that stuff on day one instead of picking it up as I went.
Don’t wait until you feel ready to specialize. I found more traction once I stopped trying to shoot every kind of wedding and focused on adventure elopements specifically. Being known for one thing beats being okay at everything.
Get comfortable being the only person in the room. If you’re running your own shop, there’s no team to catch what you miss. That’s stressful at first, but it also means you control the quality of everything a client experiences.
And go outside more than you think you need to. The best locations I use came from my own backpacking trips, not from a list I found online. Scouting in person is worth more than any amount of research from a desk.
Pricing:
- $4,700 for four hours of elopement photography and planning
- $6,000 for six to eight hours of elopement photography and planning
- $7,000 for eight to ten hours of elopement photography and planning
- $12,000 for the all inclusive elopement package
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vowsandpeaks.com/
- Instagram: @vows_and_peaks
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vowsandpeaks/
