An Early Morning Elopement at Lago di Braies
Why Two American Brides Chose To Elope in the Dolomites
Malina and Palee are family doctors from North Carolina. They met at the hospital where they both worked, fell in love somewhere between running trails and basketball courts, and have spent most of their free weeks since hiking and backpacking together. So when the question came of how to celebrate their marriage, a ballroom was never on the table. The mountains were where their love had grown — it felt right to stand in the most beautiful ones they knew.
Already legally married at home, they flew over for a hiking trip in South Tyrol and asked for a ceremony that would belong to no one but the two of them. An elopement package gave them exactly that: no timeline, no guest list, nothing to manage. Just an elopement in the Dolomites, at eight in the morning, while Croda del Becco was still waking up above the water.
Eight in the Morning on the Shore of Lago di Braies
At eight in the morning, the boats are still tied up and the lake belongs to almost no one. Malina and Palee walked down to the shore carrying two bouquets of wild flowers — pink gerberas, hydrangea, craspedia — and stood facing each other on the gravel, with Croda del Becco reflected in the water behind them. Their celebrant read the passage they had chosen, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, and then stepped back.
What followed was theirs alone. They had written their own vows, and they read them from small notebooks, out loud, to each other, with no one watching. They remembered their grandparents by name. They exchanged rings, laughed, cried a little, and drank a glass of champagne on the beach at half past eight. A Lago di Braies elopement is what an elopement in Italy looks like when a couple keeps only what matters to them.
A Morning Walk Around the Lake, Just the Two of Them
With the ceremony behind them, they did what they always do: they walked. Along the rocky edge of the water, past the wooden rowboats moored on the emerald surface, up into the pines where the light comes through in patches. No schedule, no group photo to organise, no one waiting on them. Just the two of them, in wedding dresses, on a trail — which is more or less how they had pictured it from the start.
Malina and Palee met at a hospital in North Carolina, where one was the attending and the other the intern. They fell in love over running trails, basketball, Taylor Swift and the long conversations that come with night shifts. They see themselves in ten years with a house full of kids and a passport full of stamps, still going on adventures together. That morning in the Dolomites was the first of them as a married couple — and a mountain elopement is exactly the kind of beginning that suits them.
OUR REAL WEDDING STORIES IN THE DOLOMITES
Others couples from our blog stories
An Early Morning Elopement at Lago di Braies, M&P
When the time came to celebrate their marriage, Malina and Palee chose the place where their love had grown: the mountains. They flew to South Tyrol in Dolomites, walked down to Lago di Braies, and promised each other forever with no one else around.
An Intimate Elopement in the Dolomites – N&H Love Story
Discover the romantic story of an intimate elopement in the heart of the Dolomites. Breathtaking views, mountains, and pure love in Italy.
A Breathtaking Dolomites Adventure Elopement, V&J
An intimate Dolomites elopement at Tre Cime di Lavaredo—epic peaks, dramatic scenery, and unforgettable moments in one of Italy’s most iconic landscapes.
Micro Wedding in the Dolomites at Lake Braies, T&H
Discover the magic of a micro wedding at Lake Braies in the Dolomites—intimate, romantic, and surrounded by cinematic alpine beauty