Planning a mountain wedding
There’s just something about mountain weddings in Colorado. The air is clean, the people are happy and the views are breathtaking. And, our course, there are endless outdoor activities to keep wedding guests occupied if they’re coming in from out of town (skiing, hiking, fishing, mountain biking, snowmobiling, to name just a few). It’s no wonder that Colorado has become such a popular wedding destination for couples all over the world looking for a secluded location to tie the knot.
From Breckenridge to Durango, Aspen to Vail, Glenwood Springs to Steamboat Springs, there are countless mountain wedding venues in Colorado to choose from. We often joke that the state is so beautiful, you could pull your car over to the side of any road in the Rocky Mountains and it would be the perfect spot for a wedding.
When planning a mountain wedding, be sure to encourage your family and friends to drink water in abundance and alcohol in moderation, especially if they’re coming in from out of town and aren’t accustomed to being in the mountains. Altitude sickness is no joke! Also, make sure they carpool and/or rent all-wheel drive vehicles. Weather in the high Rockies can be unpredictable throughout all four months of the year. In fact, we photographed a wedding in Breckenridge on the summer solstice a few years ago and it snowed nearly two inches.
We’ve been photographing mountain weddings in Colorado since we moved here way back in 2008 and we have had the pleasure of traveling to every corner of the state. We’ve shot hundreds of weddings during that time, the vast majority of which have been in the mountains. Below, you’ll find just a handful of our favorite mountain weddings from over the years. Take some time to browse and let us know if you have any questions or would like to check our availability for your wedding. We’re just an email, text or phone call away!
After Rayleen and Bryan’s Zapata Falls engagement near the Great Sand Dunes, we continued west to the far southwestern corner of the state for Julie and Ryan’s Cortez, Colorado elopement. One of our favorite things about Colorado is its topographical diversity. Never have we seen this on display during one shoot quite the way that…
During the pre-ceremony portrait session at Jenny and Dustin’s summer wedding at Black Canyon Inn, Jenny turned to me and said, “I can’t wait for the dance party.” Approximately six hours later, I found out why. Sometimes, photographing a dance party at a wedding for three straight hours can feel a bit monotonous. There are…
For Moira’s brother’s wedding a few years ago, my now brother and sister in-law decided not to have a cake. Instead, they had pie. This was a big point of contention in the family at the time. One family member proclaimed “You can’t have a wedding without cake!” Well, I’m here to tell you that…
Mia and Scott never thought they would get married. And once they decided to get married, they never thought they would have a wedding. Instead, like many couples these days, they were leaning toward an elopement. Then, after giving it some thought, they realized that they really wanted to share a celebration with their closest…
One of our favorite things about Colorado weddings is hiking to remote places in the mountains to take photos with the newlyweds. Sometimes, we do this for the engagement session. Sometimes, we do this for the day-after session. And sometimes, we manage to do this on the actual day of the wedding. Such was the…
Midway through the reception at Sarah and Austin’s Estes Park wedding at Black Canyon Inn, I was standing at the venue’s large plate glass windows overlooking the Rocky Mountains trying to determine if the sunset would be interested enough to take the bride and groom outside for sunset photos. I was slightly bummed out because…
Amelia and Jeff’s SkyView wedding at Fall River Village was quite possibly the windiest wedding we’ve ever photographed. Which is saying a lot because we’ve been doing this for 17 years. And most of our weddings are in the Rocky Mountains. It was one of those days where you couldn’t hear yourself think. One of…
Generally speaking, when you’re planning a wedding, you book a venue and hire a planner first. But in the case of Kass and Zack’s Taharaa Mountain Lodge wedding, the first item on their to-do list was to pick a photographer. In fact, they even included this info on their wedding program (see photo below): “Days…
After a short couple of months off from weddings to cozy up and refresh our creativity, we dove right into the 2024 wedding season with three weddings in four days! Starting with Lacey and Josh’s raucous party at the Boulders, Estes Park’s premier wedding venue! It’s no secret we love working at the Black Canyon…
We wrapped up our 2023 wedding season “early” for us with a mid-December winter wedding at the Boulders, one of our favorite venues in all of Colorado. From the very first meeting I had with Meredythe and Robert, two things were clear: They work hard and they play hard. The working hard part was more…
Ok, so maybe Sarah and Joe didn’t exactly have a Bishop Castle wedding (you can check out their wedding blog post here), but we would love to capture someone getting married there, so this is us putting it out into the Google-sphere! When I first talked to Sarah and Joe on the phone, they described…
In October of 2022, Jesse and I were at home with a rare weekend off from weddings in what’s typically our busiest month of the season. I was doing what I’m currently doing now and catching up on writing blog posts. Jesse was sequestered in his editing cave. And we both got a notification on…
