Couple Trains a Year for Epic Mount Everest Wedding (PHOTOS)

Some engaged couples train to master their first dance, others exercise more to get fit for their wedding day. Ashley Shmieder and James Sissom, though, spent the year before their wedding training to trek Mount Everest Base Camp—easy as pie, right?

They told the Daily Mail that “a traditional wedding was not the right fit for them.”

The adventurous California couple exchanged their vows and rings at 17,000 feet above sea level in their hiking boots, the snow-capped mountains being their witnesses. The photos were epic, but getting to that point was a hard-earned reward.

Despite Churchill’s extensive experience in high altitude mountaineering and photographing in cold, harsh weather conditions, he couldn’t avoid some troubles up to the base camp. During the three week journey up to the base camp, he and the bride and groom dealt with altitude sickness and food poisoning. They also had to deal with heavy snowfall and extremely low temperatures, ranging from minus eight degrees to 10 F. This provided difficult for Churchill as his hands would freeze when he tried to film and take photos to document this journey.

By the time they made it to the base camp, they were on a time constraint. The groom was still suffering from altitude sickness and was hooked up to oxygen. With only one and half hours to get married, eat, pack up, the couple and photographer worked fast to get their photos.

The couple was surrounded by stunning mountains and beautiful skies as they exchanged their vows. Though the location was not the usual setting for a wedding, Churchill captured the same elements of a traditional wedding up in the mountains. Whereas most images of the bride’s wedding dress would hang from a large window inside room, Shmieder’s dress hung outside a bright yellow tent with a mountain peak in the backdrop and trekking gear spread around the area. She and Sissom even took a number of photographs with their beanies, sunglasses and gloves too.