After Dom and I got engaged at the end of 2019, we started to do some wedding planning for a small Disney World wedding for December 2020; we planned a morning wedding at The Paddlefish in Disney Springs and then were going to spend the afternoon at one of the Disney parks. Like a lot of people, by around May 2020 we decided to cancel the few things we’d booked because of COVID – there was too much uncertainty and we didn’t want to stress about it for another six months. We were able to get our deposit money back and hadn’t put too much time into planning yet, so cancelling (thankfully) wasn’t really a big deal for us.

Instead of figuring out a new wedding plan, we ended up planning a lot of traveling during our engagement. In those two years and one month, we visited:

• Disney World (FL) – I think we did 6 weekends
• Charleston (SC) – Summer 2020
• Mount Rushmore (SD) – March 2021
• Salt Lake City (UT) – March to April 2021 (month Airbnb)
• Zion and Canyonlands National Parks (UT) – March 2021
• San Francisco (CA) – Summer 2021
• Las Vegas (NV) – September 2021
• Capitol Reef National Park (UT) – September 2021
• Salt Lake City (UT) – September to October 2021 (two-week Airbnb)
• Madison (WI) – January 2022

So, when we booked another month-long Airbnb for Phoenix, AZ for this spring, we knew we had to get married before we went or we honestly might have kept putting it off forever. We buckled down for a few days in early December – I found my wedding dress and took it in for alterations, we started coming up with some ideas we were excited about for getting married and the honeymoon, and then Christmas / New Year’s hit and we never actually… booked anything else.

Then all of the sudden, it was mid-January and we had no plans, so we spent a very busy week booking pretty much everything for a mid-February elopement in Estes Park, Colorado. I tend to have this (honestly kind of delusional) mindset that everything will work out, but even I was a little stressed about timing for getting everything done because it was tight. Literally, Dom’s tie was delivered two hours before we locked up the house and left to drive to Colorado. There was very little wiggle room, but it really did all work out.

One disclaimer that I want to make for this post is that even though this was the perfect day for us, I’m not trying to imply that this is the best way to get married for everyone. Deciding how to get married is really just about sitting down and thinking, “how can we get married in a way that will make us the happiest?” and then doing that – whether it’s a more traditional wedding with lots of guests, more of an elopement like what we did, or just going to the courthouse ASAP to get married and start married life. We planned something that we felt would be the most enjoyable for us, and it really worked out and was the perfect way for us to start the next stage of our lives. Even though we loved it and I’d recommend it to anyone who isn’t a big fan of the traditional wedding, loves hiking, and doesn’t mind the cold – it’s not for everyone.

Another note is that the photos in this post from breakfast until we left Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) were taken by our photographer: Vivian at Wild and In Love Photo. She does photography primarily for elopements with some kind of adventure involved, so she’ll go hiking, skiing, rock climbing, etc. with couples to capture their big day. We loved our photos and were glad to have a photographer that didn’t mind braving the chilly Colorado wind with us. Vivian also put together my bouquet and Dom’s boutonniere, which were absolutely perfect – and the bouquet still looked beautiful even after hours of being out in the wind.

So, this post goes over the details of our wedding day – February 13, 2022 – in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. We had an absolutely beautiful day together and it was so incredibly special. At the end of this post, I also included some additional details about the planning process and vendors we used.

Morning at the Airbnb

I woke up a little early on our wedding morning so I did a yoga class from Peloton – it was really relaxing and a great way to start the day (and I noticed later that the class I did that was created on our four year dating anniversary which was a funny coincidence). Dom woke up right when I finished the class, so that was perfect timing.

From there, we wrote our vows in our vow books – we had both typed them up the night before (somehow this was something we had very much procrastinated on). Dom said “no cheating” and set his vow book cover up like those dividers we had on test days in elementary school.

A Few Errands

After we finished writing in our vow books, we went into downtown Estes Park because:

• I had a hair appointment
• Dom was going to pick up breakfast for back at the Airbnb
• Dom wanted to get a run in at Estes Lake to scope it out since that’s where we were going to say our vows in a few hours

My hair appointment was at Glow Salon and Spa with Devyn – I was a little nervous when I was trying to find a hair appointment at first because it was one of the last things I booked and I wasn’t sure I’d find something open on a Sunday, but it worked out. The salon was really cute and Devyn did a great job.

From there, I walked to the Starbucks next door for a Caramel Macchiato while Dom finished his run; when Dom picked me up he got his classic cold brew. While I was at my appointment he had picked up cinnamon rolls from Cinnamon’s Bakery but it was a close call – the bakery’s hours are listed as “7:30 – 10, or until we run out!” so thankfully he called when he saw that on their site and they set aside a few of the last cinnamon rolls for him. The cinnamon rolls aren’t iced in advance so you can choose the level of icing that you want when you buy them – none, light, medium, or heavy. He went with medium and they were perfect; he picked two regular cinnamon rolls, a cinnamon roll with raisins, and a pecan roll.

Morning Pictures

We originally weren’t going to do many pictures of the morning because we were going to do an official “first look”, but when I was getting my hair trimmed before our trip, my hairdresser (Amber) mentioned that in hindsight she wished she had gotten ready with her husband before their wedding. Dom and I talked about it when we were driving out to Estes Park and decided to do some getting ready and breakfast pictures instead. We were really glad we did because then we got to start the wedding photos with eating our cinnamon rolls and drinking our Starbucks together. It also made the morning feel a little less rushed and more casual.

Vivian (our photographer) arrived at 11a and took pictures of some of our wedding details (rings, flowers, tie, shoes, cake, etc.) while we finished getting some last minute things ready for the day.

The cinnamon rolls were were probably the best I’ve ever had – which could be slightly biased given it was our wedding day and everything felt more special than normal. I also really liked the pecan roll – it was basically a pecan pie in socially acceptable breakfast form.

Once we’d filled up on cinnamon rolls, we put the rest in the fridge for the next morning and got ready to get married! Even though we didn’t do an official first look, this was the first time Dom saw my dress which was still fun. We also realized that somehow throughout all of the packing, we never once thought about how Dom would need to bring a belt for his suit – we decided if anyone noticed, we would just say no belt was part of his look for the day.

Once we were ready, we packed up our daypacks (I listed everything we brought with us at the end of this post), our charcuterie board lunch, and headed to Estes Lake to get married!

Estes Lake – Ceremony

One thing we weren’t anticipating when we went to Estes Lake for the ceremony was that most of the parking right at the lake was permit only. We had to park down the street a bit and walk which wasn’t a big deal, and honestly was kind of fun because people honked and waved since we were in wedding clothes.

We had our ceremony on the south side of the lake – there was a small sandy bank that we were able to step onto so it felt really private which was perfect. We read our vows, exchanged rings, and then we were married!

After our ceremony, we sat down for a quick picnic / charcuterie board lunch – we had a variety of crackers, cashews, grapes, and cheeses. Dom organized the charcuterie board in an incredibly aesthetically pleasing way (he said he planned it out while he was on his run), and it was a cute and peaceful lunch. We also signed our marriage license before we packed up and went to Rocky Mountain National Park for pictures.

Rocky Mountain National Park – Hiking & Pictures

We had planned to go to Dream Lake for our small hike and pictures, but when we got near the trailhead there was a park ranger turning the cars around because there was a medical emergency on the trail. Thankfully, there was another beautiful trail nearby that goes around Sprague Lake in RMNP. It’s actually a really common place to get married in the park, so I’d seen lots of photos and knew it was still incredibly scenic.

Sprague Lake Trail

The Sprague Lake Trail is an easy, .8 mile loop around Sprague Lake. There are some trees around the lake which were pretty and helped block some of the wind, and the mountains were beautiful in the background. The sky was also gorgeous throughout the day – even though it would have been nice if it was a little less windy, I wouldn’t have traded it for a warmer day with clouds. We were fine just putting our gloves (and my jackets) on between photos to warm up a bit.

As we walked along the trail, the few people we did see were super sweet and told us congratulations; there was also an older lady who looked completely shocked that we had just gotten married – I guess since going on a hike in RMNP isn’t a traditional way to celebrate getting married – which was pretty funny.

Moraine Park

After pictures at Sprague Lake, we decided to go to the Moraine Park area to get a few photos with a different landscape. This was the only time through the day where I really was very cold and was glad to have my scarf to use as a wrap – there wasn’t really any break from the wind since it was more of a field and didn’t have any trees nearby to block it. We weren’t here for long though – so it really wasn’t too bad. Overall it was a really pretty area to end our day in RMNP.

Rocky Mountain National Park Sign

From there, our time with Vivian was up so we headed to the nearby park entrance to get a few pictures with the RMNP sign.

Wedding Evening

After we left RMNP, we went back to our Airbnb to talk to family a bit and try our wedding cake before our dinner reservation. We’d ordered the cake from The Cupcake Gypsies in Loveland, CO and it was exactly what I had pictured when I ordered it – they did a fantastic job. It tasted incredible, too – it was a confetti cake with vanilla buttercream icing. We had some sparkling grape juice with it – we’d meant to bring it for our picnic but forgot, so it made for a good pairing with our cake instead.

Dunraven at The Estes Park Resort – Wedding Dinner

We’d looked at a few restaurants in Estes Park for dinner but decided on Dunraven because it had a decent number of vegetarian options and I really love Italian food. Everything we had was delicious:

• Drinks: Prosecco and Lemon Drop Martini
• Appetizer: Artichoke Dip with focaccia toast
• Salads with homemade Italian and ranch dressings
• Herb bread & butter
• Entrees: Eggplant Parmesan and Seven Cheese Alfredo

It was an incredible dinner and the restaurant was really quiet – possibly because it was Super Bowl Sunday so not many people were out and about. They offered us a complimentary dessert since it was our wedding day but we declined so we could go home and have more of our cake.

From there we went back to the Airbnb, had some champagne and more wedding cake, and watched some Seinfeld. It really was the perfect day for us and I don’t think there’s anything I would have changed about it.

Tips and Notes

The rest of this post goes over some details from our day – we did some research but came up with a lot of it on our own from just general winter hiking experience and thinking through what we wanted our day to look like.

Planning

Compared to most weddings, we didn’t really have to do a ton of planning / booking, and the booking we did was relatively painless and quick:

• Date: We actually worked backward from our honeymoon plans to figure out when we’d get married. We had two dates that would have worked (Saturday and Sunday) and our photographer was available for both, so we chose Sunday to give us an extra day to hang out in Estes Park / make sure we had everything for the big day
• Photographer: I sent emails to around seven Estes Park / Denver / Colorado photographers asking if they were available for our weekend; I think three or four emailed back and said they were available. We went with Vivian because she focused on elopements, clearly was comfortable hiking with us to get the photos we were picturing, and I liked her portfolio from her website and Instagram
  • Pictures: Make sure to have wedding photos you like saved on your phone (I got most from Pinterest) for ideas to show the photographer
• Airbnb: We wanted somewhere that had a lot of natural light because we knew we’d probably get a few photos there, even before we decided to do breakfast photos. I also tried to find something that wasn’t overly decorated since we didn’t want the focus to be the Airbnb in those photos. As always, we looked through reviews to make sure nothing stood out as red flags – the only thing people had said was that the unit could be hard to find if you arrived at night (which we did) and to bring a flashlight, so we were really glad for that tip
• Marriage License: This was the most challenging part of the whole weekend because we had to drive through a snowstorm to Broomfield, CO to get the marriage license; it would have been better to reschedule our appointment when we saw the weather was going to be bad, or to have planned to pick it up before we got to Estes Park.
• Cake: This was probably the trickiest thing to book because there weren’t many bakeries in Estes Park; we loved our cake from The Cupcake Gypsies but just wish we had planned better so we could have picked it up on our way to Estes Park (like I mentioned with the marriage license). Driving back out to Loveland to get the cake wasted some time that we could have spent exploring Estes Park
• Hair: Glow Salon & Spa was easy to book and the stylist that did my hair – Devyn – did a great job. I think it would have been nice to be able to do a trial run a few days before just so I wasn’t as nervous about it going into the appointment but it wasn’t necessary and turned out well. It was slightly more than the website had listed for bridal hair, but that wasn’t a huge deal.
  • Makeup: I don’t usually wear much makeup so didn’t want to do anything drastic for the wedding; I did my own makeup (but Glow Salon offered to do it several times, if that’s something you’re looking for) and just practiced a few times beforehand to make sure I was happy with it and had a plan. I used some of my favorite eyeshadows, my usual mascara, and an ILIA tinted moisturizer with SPF 40 – it has a nice, light coverage.
• Vows: I checked a few different sites and ended up going with vow books that were on Amazon; Dom and I both typed our vows up before writing them down so we didn’t have to cross things out / reword / erase / etc. Colorado doesn’t require witnesses or an officiant (more on this later) so we self-solemnized and married ourselves. We completely wrote our own vows which was really fun; the only semi-traditional part was the end – Dom asked if I would take him to be my husband, I asked if he would take me to be his wife, we exchanged rings, and then we were married
• Picnic: Dom did the planning and organizing for this (honestly I forgot and then on our way to Estes Park he realized I didn’t have a plan) – we picked up a cute cutting board and small bowl from Target; crackers, cashews, cheese, and grapes when we got to Estes Park; and brought a picnic blanket we had from home to set everything up on
• Backup Plans: If you’re hiking / going somewhere public like we were for Estes Lake and RMNP, have backup plans! You never know when something will happen that can change plans, like the medical emergency on the trail we had planned to do. Thankfully we had seen the sign for Sprague Lake on our way in and recognized it, but otherwise we could have wasted some time trying to figure out a new location. Our photographer took care of backup plans for us in case of an extreme snowstorm that would have completely changed our plans for the day, but that’s another thing to consider if you’re going to be somewhere outdoor
• Outfits: My dress was ready with plenty of time (I got it from Simply Elegant by Cheri in Lincoln, IL and highly recommend looking there if you’re in central Illinois – the girls that helped me were fantastic). Dom’s suit (from Men’s Warehouse) was a little more last minute; I think he bought the jacket and ordered the pants about two weeks before we left, they put the pants on a rush order so they were in about four days later, and then we took them in for just length alterations which only took a few days. The trickiest part with his outfit was the tie – he likes skinnier ties and there just weren’t many options in town, so he ordered one online from Dazi and it was really nice. It took a little longer to come in than the time estimate for standard shipping, but that could have been because there was a big snowstorm the week before we left that seemed to delay the mail a bit. Like I mentioned, his tie arrived just a few hours before we left for the trip.
• Dinner: This was literally the last thing we booked (I thought I’d made a reservation a few days before, went to change it to an earlier time after we finished pictures, saw it never had even gone through the first time, and ended up just making a brand new reservation about an hour before we went to dinner). I heard that some people actually hire a chef to come to their Airbnb to cook dinner for them which would have been fun too, but we really enjoyed going to a nice restaurant nearby and like I said – Dunraven was delicious so we were glad we went there.

Legally Getting Married in Colorado

There are a few unique things about weddings in Colorado:

• No witnesses necessary; your dog, baby, etc. can “sign” the marriage license since it doesn’t matter
• You can self-solemnize (marry yourselves) without an officiant and without being a registered officiant
• You can get the marriage license in any county and then get married anywhere in the state within 35 days; then mail the license back to the county office you picked it up from within 60 days.

So, Dom and I picked up our marriage license in Broomfield, CO and then married ourselves in Estes Park. The license cost $30 and certified copies were $1.25 each. This turned out to be the most challenging part of the whole marriage process because in addition to the big snowstorm we drove through to pick it up, when we got to the Broomfield County building the credit card machines weren’t working and we didn’t have cash. It all worked out thanks to a really nice lady who let us borrow the cash and mail her a check, but obviously don’t count on that. Bring a debit card (they did have an ATM), checkbook, or cash just in case the machines stop working.

Wedding Daypacks

Dom and I each had a daypack with us throughout the day:

Essentials

• Water
• Snacks (and probably a lunch!)
• Keys and wallets
• Phones (keep things out of pockets for pictures!)
• Masks (this was still when some COVID restrictions were in place; we were thinking about going into the RMNP visitor center and would have needed them there since it’s a federal building)

Wedding things

• Rings
• Vows
• Marriage license
• Pen to sign marriage license!
• Bouquet
• Boutonniere

Just in case

• Chapstick / Carmex
• Bandaids (especially if you’re wearing different shoes than normal – nothing worse than painful blisters)
• Hair pins
• Hand Sanitizer
• Makeup (in case you want to touch up anything)

For hiking

• Microspikes (for snowy / icy conditions)
• Caribiners for taking spikes off and hanging on bags
• Glove liners
• Ski / warm gloves (in case the liners aren’t enough after a few hours)
• Hand warmers (we didn’t bring these and were fine, but thought about it)
• Jackets
• Scarf to use as a quick wrap – I found one that matched our colors in case I wanted to leave it on for pictures, and I did in a few

Wear Layers

Since this was mid-February in Colorado, we were pretty worried about being cold.

Under Dom’s suit, he had on:

• Cold Gear Under Armour white shirt (make sure any logo is in an inconspicuous spot!)
• Warm running tights
• Sock liners
• Smartwool hiking socks

I layered up under my dress for the lower half of my body, and alternated between a few jackets:

• Two pairs of fleece-lined leggings
• Sock liners
• Smartwool hiking socks
• Sherpa jacket for warmth – this was really cozy but I accidentally set it in the snow and it got wet
• Puff Patagonia jacket for warmth / blocking wind (I would stay away from anything with a hood because of hair / aesthetics if you’re getting pics in it)

As always, reach out with any questions you might have!