Q&A with the bride and groom:

How did you meet?

Eli and I met at a party through mutual friends where he approached me and told me he was a pilot. I quickly realized he was not actually a pilot and was trying to impress me in fear that he would bore me talking about his actual finance job. Later in our relationship, I found out he was scared of flying so he could never be a pilot. I was over the silly conversation so my friends and I left to go to a bar. Once we decided we needed late night pizza, we started to leave the bar when a man stopped me as he was entering the bar. He said “Is it really that bad in there Danielle?” At first, I was so confused with who this person was, then realized it was the guy from the party (Eli). Coincidentally we both ended up at the same bar hours after we initially met. He convinced me to come back inside and give him a second chance. Eli took this opportunity to tell me about his actual life and of course showed me pictures of his golden retrievers. This time when I was leaving with my friends, he asked for my number. He is still shocked that I gave him my real phone number. Our first date was the following Wednesday, and we have been inseparable ever since!

What is your proposal story?

I could not have dreamed of a more perfect proposal. We were in Telluride, Colorado with both of our parents staying at my family’s home for the Holidays. That being said, there were some obstacles throughout the day. I made everyone breakfast only to find out everyone was “not hungry,” when really everyone had pre-proposal jitters. After no one ate my beautiful breakfast spread, they all told me to do my hair and put makeup on to walk around town. Although I did not listen to them, our moms snuck into our room and picked out some nice clothes and makeup that I would be very thankful for later in the day. We spent the rest of the day walking around town and had plans to meet both of our parents at a restaurant on top of the mountain for drinks. When we got off the gondola to meet our families, Eli convinced me to walk out onto the mountain to take a picture. There was caution tape blocking off the mountain, but Eli confidently pulled me right under it to “take our picture”. As we were walking out onto the mountain Eli brought up the first night we met, jumping on his couch with excitement when he asked me on our first date over text, and buying an expensive jacket just to impress me with his style. Before I knew it he was standing on one knee, in the snow, asking me to marry him. We cried, hugged and kissed for a good 5 minutes before he even had the chance to put the ring on my finger. We were so overwhelmed with happiness in the moment I even forgot to say “yes”. Little did I know, we had walked right past our amazing photographer, Lisa, who captured this whole moment. Lisa helped Eli plan the proposal, down to reminding him to bring makeup wipes and my makeup anticipating there would be (lots of) happy tears. Our parents were waiting inside, as planned, with a bottle of champagne. We spent the rest of the week in Telluride celebrating with our families and beginning to plan our big day!

 Tell us a little a bit about your wedding (your vision, color, style, and location choices).

Style. We wanted the style of our wedding to be the perfect combination of boho, classic,
elegant, feminine and trendy all at the same time.

Color. We knew we did not want anything traditional when it came to colors or flowers, so opted
for different shades of pink (blush, muted pinks, nudes), eucalyptus greens with gold and
black accents. Our wedding party all wore black and Eli’s tux was a dark emerald green
that went perfectly with the rest of our decor

Location. Planning a wedding in the middle of a pandemic definitely brought on some challenges,
including having to move our venue several times. Our final locations for the day ended
up being everything we had ever dreamed of. We got married in Telluride, CO on top of
the mountain at San Sophia Overlook and our Reception was at The Peaks Resort &
Spa.

Our ceremony location was steps away from the very spot we got engaged. When we
told our friends and family we were getting married on the mountain, they all assumed at
a Hotel surrounded by mountains. Everyone was shocked to step off the Gondola on top
of the mountain just steps away from our ceremony site. It was such a unique
experience for all of our guests. You feel like you are on top of the world at San Sophia
Overlook and there are no words to describe the views. We kept our ceremony décor
simple and only had an arbor for décor as we could not compete with the mountain
views. Simple is definitely not the word to describe our arbor and ceremony florals
though. We had a beautiful hexagon arbor that was adorned with the most beautiful
bouquets of textured florals. This mountain will forever hold such a special place in our
hearts as two of our most special memories took place here.

Our reception was held at the Peaks on Mt. Wilson Terrace and the Crystal Room.

What was the most important to the two of you while planning? Was there anything that you chose to splurge on or skip?

The most important thing to us was to get married on a mountain in Telluride. We came
to terms that because of the state of the world not all of our loved ones would be able to
attend, but we knew we wanted to stick to our date and not delay getting married. We
were just so excited to be husband and wife that starting our life together was more
important than having a huge wedding. My family has a home in Telluride and I have
been going there since I was born, and the first time I took Eli to the town he instantly
understood why it was such a special place to me. We always talked about getting
married in Telluride, then when Eli proposed in Telluride we knew we had to have our
wedding on the same mountain.

Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?

You will look back on all the stress and laugh. Everything will come together the day of!