Photographer Charleton Churchill, who specializes in
adventure wedding photography, said he had been wanting to capture a
wedding on the site of the world’s tallest mountain, at 29,029 feet,
since 2011. He had originally planned to do this with another couple in
2015, but while they were on the mountain, the 7.8 magnitude Nepal
earthquake struck and halted the nuptials.
This 2017 wedding was my second chance to get a couple on
the mountain and be the first wedding photographer to shoot a wedding
at base camp with the first couple to wear a wedding dress and tux.
In March, he headed to Mount Everest with the bride and groom, Ashley Schmieder and James Sissom.
The conditions behind the scenes were a little less than desirable, but
that didn’t stop the pictures from coming out beautifully.
There’s no glory without suffering. We worked hard for
these images with much less time to photograph a short wedding than we
planned.
A few days into the journey, it began snowing hard, and because of
the frigid temps, Churchill said it was hard to take photos. “Your hands
would quickly freeze if left out of the gloves,” he said. And at one
point, some of his camera equipment wasn’t functioning because it was
too cold.
On the wedding day, the temperature ranged from minus 5 degrees to 5
degrees. Schmieder, in particular, had to focus on keeping warm in her
strapless wedding dress. The couple wore boots, beanies and sunglasses
with their black-tie attire, and Schmieder ultimately covered her arms
with a wrap.
Because it was so far away from home, the couple had no minister but exchanged vows and rings. Churchill said:
It was truly a moment of awesomeness, knowing where we were at that time, and how hard we worked to get there.
see photos below
Source: TODAY Style: