Acreage Wedding

When Taryn and Tim started planning their Acreage wedding, Taryn asked me a question that I love to get asked by couples: What can we do to make your job easier?

My answer is always the same. Be as type-A and detail-oriented as your heart desires during the planning. But on the actual wedding day, do whatever you need to do in order to let go of all your preconceived ideas so you can just experience the day as it unfolds. After all, nothing on a wedding day ever goes completely to plan. But what does happen is memorable and usually exactly what the couple needed.

However, while I was riding in the car with Taryn and Tim, it dawned on me that I rarely give couples ideas on how to be present. Fortunately, they shared an ingenious strategy that I’m now going to pass on to everyone else (and probably use at future weddings):

Do a scavenger hunt.

The germ of this idea sprouted while Taryn and Tim were on a long car trip that Tim had made many times. It was Taryn’s first time on the route, so they created a list of things to look for in order to keep them both engaged. They did the same thing for their wedding day, and Jesse and I got to play along.

The list included a variety of items, from things that were highly likely (like elk in Estes Park) to things that were much harder to find (like a cat). And the challenge of searching for these things ended up making us all more observant. Which also resulted in us seeing some really interesting things in places that we visit frequently and therefore stop really seeing. For example, we added “kiddie pool of frat guys all looking at their phones” to the list while driving through Boulder.

More importantly, it also reminded Jesse and I to forget about our preconceived notions. When Taryn first read off the list of items, Jesse and I both agreed that a rainbow and lightning would be really hard to find based on the weather predictions for that day and the almost two decades we have been observing wedding day weather. And yet, two miles from their Acreage wedding reception, we made a game-time decision to jump out of the car to take some photos when we spotted a rainbow and lightning! Note: the lightning was 30-40 miles away, over the mountains, so we were safe.

Taryn and Tim, we had such a wonderful time adventuring with you! We hope you’re having an amazing time on your honeymoon and can’t wait to share the full gallery when you’re back!