Vintage Rustic Mountain Wedding

Colorado

August 14, 2015

By Couture Colorado

Notes from the Bride, Jamienne : The first and biggest decision we had in the wedding planning process was location. My dad started throwing out some fun ideas and said let�s make a vacation out of this. My fianc�, Ryan and I started searching all over the county, outside the country, you name it, we looked it up. Finally, I looked at him and said, �what about Keystone, Colorado?� He said, �And this is why I am marrying you.� Keystone, Colorado was our very first vacation together and where we annually go for a ski vacation. He said that is brilliant, how come I didn't think of that. In Keystone, the venue became very clear to us once we found Timber Ridge. We were told all the guests would be taking a 30 minute gondola ride up to the top of North Peak, where the ceremony would take place outside on a beautiful deck overlooking the mountains, and the reception would then be inside in big timber cabin. It was a done deal. The details fell into place after that. We wanted a small and intimate wedding but as everyone knows, that is harder than it seems. We ended up with 110 of our closest family and friends, mostly all traveling from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Texas. When guests arrived, they received a welcome bag filled with mountain goodies including, organic palisade peaches from Palisade, Colorado. We bused our wedding party and family to Breckenridge, Colorado to have a wonderful rehearsal dinner at Modis, full of great food, laughter and drinks. After dinner we met the rest of our wedding guests at Kickapoo Tavern in the Keystone village for a happy hour to kick off our wedding weekend. We had a few special touches that made our wedding unique. One of the most memorable things about our wedding was the people who married us. In Colorado, you can be married by anyone. Because of this, we decided to include our family so we had my brother, Chad, and his sister, Jill conduct the ceremony. It was beautiful and so personal, you would have thought this was their full time job. During the wedding planning, his mom and sister had found these gorgeous antique old skis and so we had one of the groomsmen refinish them and add metal plates with our names and wedding date. At the wedding, we had everyone sign them and now they are hanging in our home.If one guest book wasn't enough, we had pieces of fabric that everyone signed that we have now turned into a beautiful quilt (By SoutherCharmQuilts) with love notes from all of our favorite people. I will cherish that blanket forever. We incorporated both of our nieces to be the flower girls, and our nephew to hold a sign that said �Last Chance to Run, Uncle Ryan,� although he became bashful right before the walk down the aisle. The star of the show was our goldendoodle, Hank, who was our ring bearer and ran around greeting all of our guests throughout the reception. Another sweet moment was not only getting to dance with my father but I also had a separate special dance with my mom. The first vendors we chose were our amazingly talented photographers. I cried when I was looking at their website because I just felt like Michele and Mark, of IN Photography had to be the ones to capture our wedding. I was out of town when my fiance called me with a surprise that he booked the photographers. I was elated and never looked back. They are a husband and wife team who we would recommend to every couple. It was so comfortable with them and they captured every single moment, and then some. Right before I walked down the aisle, I did a first look with my dad and I will cherish the tears and excitement on his face forever. All of the bridesmaid dresses, groomsmen attire, flower girls, sign holders, and grooms attire were from JCrew weddings. I was wearing an Eve of Milady dress from Stardust Bridal in Plano, Texas with Jcrew shoes. The flowers were pretty easy for me to decide on because who doesn�t like succulents? Cindy and Rochelle at Bloom in Breckenridge nailed it when it came to the flower and tables. I screamed when I first saw my bouquet because it was simply perfect. Our wedding favor was different kinds of Chocolove candy bars, made in Boulder, Colorado with a love note that explained to our guests that a donation was made in their honor. We donated to a foundation called, Amazing Little Hearts, which supports families of babies with congenital heart defects at Medical City Children�s Hospital. This is very close to our hearts because my husband is a pediatric perfusionist and works with these families every single day. We stayed in Keystone for a few nights to visit with all of our family and friends and then we escaped to Aspen, Colorado to enjoy the rest of the week together. When we think about our wedding we just keep saying we wouldn�t have done it any other way.