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!
Allie and Dustin booked us for their Montana destination wedding long before the word “pandemic” landed in our daily lexicon. They wanted plenty of time to plan the ultimate blowout celebration with all their closest friends and family, so they had planned their date two years in advance. Luckily, that meant that they skipped the whole 2020 rescheduling chaos and still got the wedding of their dreams.
At most of our weddings, we leave feeling like we made a handful of new friends. At Lizzie and Dylan’s Greenbriar Inn microwedding, we left feeling more like we had reconnected with several long lost friends.
f you’re looking for the perfect location for your wedding, there are what feels like millions of options to choose from in Colorado. But for Maggie and Justin, whose shared passion for music is only rivaled by their shared love of each other, there was no other possible spot for their summer wedding than Planet Bluegrass. It’s got room to roam. It’s not so far into the mountains that you have to worry about your out-of-town guests driving a mountain pass. It’s just off the highway, but it feels like it’s as far from civilization as you can get. And best of all, it’s a great place to dance the night away to a band!
One of my favorite things about being with couples on their wedding day is witnessing the community they’ve built around themselves.. The best communities don’t have to be big. They often aren’t showy or boisterous. They’re your ride-or-die people. Your emergency contacts. The people who would back you in a fistfight. They’re the people Katie and Paul had next to them at their Boulder microwedding.
From the very beginning of imagining their Estes Park Resort wedding, Brittany and Tony knew they had a large community that wanted to celebrate with them. So when the pandemic first hit, they paused their plans and waited. They rescheduled. They planned. They re-planned. And they waited some more. For what felt like eons some days.
On wedding days, I like to ask our couples how they’re feeling at various times. Ostensibly, this question helps me check in with them to see if there’s anything we can do to make the experience more enjoyable. But I’ve found that it also helps bring them into the present, so they can more easily remember the day and how they felt. So when I asked Michele how she was feeling just before her first look with Eric at their Black Canyon Homestead wedding, I was intrigued when she shrugged and said she felt pretty calm.
Considering that Amanda and Jason’s relationship first began at a party, it’s only fitting that their EagleVail Pavilion wedding ended with a crazy, raucous party. What else would you expect from the girl who always got the dance party started and the guy who kept it going all night long?
When I first talked to Anaeli and Patric about what they most wanted us to capture at their Spruce Mountain Lower Ranch wedding, both of them agreed: they wanted to look back at the photos and see themselves madly in love and having the time of their lives.
When I say “backyard wedding,” what pops into your mind? Picnic tables, maybe a small tent? Erin and Kevin’s definitely had that. How about “backyard wedding in Boulder”? Mountain views in the background? A dog exploring to its heart’s content? Erin and Kevin’s wedding also had that, times four.
While it’s never fun to have to change your wedding day, we’re secretly happy that Maggie and Dan had to upend their plans. If the Canadian border had stayed open, we wouldn’t have gotten to meet these two amazing souls or been able to photograph their Garden of the Gods Resort wedding.
When Katherine and Ben reached out to us over a year ago about photographing their Arapahoe Basin wedding, we were excited out of the gates. After 14 years of photographing weddings, we’ve been to a lot of wedding venues. But there are still a lot more on our “want to photograph” list and A-Basin was one of them.
Kristine and Dustin warned their guests that their spring wedding at the Black Canyon Inn might see any kind of weather. After all, springtime in the Rockies is notorious for its variety. But it turned out that the Weather of the Day was perfect for their Workout of the Day with the right amount of sun and just a little breeze.
