A Rustic Chic Ranch Wedding in Wyoming

From the bride, Ashley:
I am from Colorado and Greg is from New York and we live in Napa, California.  We knew we wanted to have a destination wedding on a dude ranch, Brush Creek Ranch was THE perfect place.

My favorite detail was our “cattle brand”.  We used it on the welcome bags, invitations, thank you notes and cocktail napkins. Our brand really tied into the whole dude ranch theme. 

When my mother passed away, I knew I wanted to incorporate her French blue lace wedding dress. Designer Jinza Jin Couture was able to include each inch of the blue lace and now my dress is truly an amazing heirloom.

I rode in on a horse and carriage with my father.

The ceremony took place in the wedding garden.  We wrote all of our own vows, which took a lot of time and testing on our relationship as to what exactly we wanted to say. I wouldn’t give up those nights mulling over our vows for anything.

We wanted to start a new tradition during the ceremony and we did this: to symbolize our victory of finding each other and vowing to spend the rest of their lives together, we sabered champagne bottles with sabers engraved with our names and marriage date.

Both of our fathers lead the ceremony and married us, which was very special. 

Greg and I took the carriage after the ceremony to Falcons Peak, which was really special.  Seeing the ranch via carriage was something I will never forget.

We mounted about 40 photos of when we were children and growing up and of all the folks who we were missing our day because they have passed away (my mother, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins).  We attached them to twine with hand died clothes pins and strung them from the sides of old wagon wheels.  They were on display upon arrival to dinner at the lodge.

We are both winemakers in Napa, CA so we chose the wines we wished to pour for each course of the dinner.  Greg organized a HUGE firework show after dinner, which was a surprise for me and one of the most special parts of the day.

Dancing and cake were held in cowboy dance hall.

Our advice: Be kind to each other and communicate during planning especially, if you are doing it all yourself (as we did) there are tough moments, but being kind to each other and being open really helped us out.

Ashley & Greg’s RECOMMENDED VENDORS

Venue, Catering, Lodging, Hair & Makeup: The Lodge & Spa at Brush Creek Ranch. We would recommend this gem to any couple looking for a dude ranch or destination wedding. It is truly one of the most amazing, spectacular and hospitable places we had ever been and our family and guests concur. The staff at BCR is unbelievable; every detail was taken care of ALL weekend. Everyone at BCR from every part of the ranch went out of their way to make everything go smoothly and it did. The Spa at BCR is excellent.

Photographer: Brinton Studios.  CR & Tiffany were a great duo and captured our wedding & evening before the wedding so well.  We love their candid shots, they are a talented couple.

DJ: Sound Master Entertainment. Tony was great all the way from our first phone meeting.  We only wish we could have danced the night away until dawn!

Cake: Sweet Marie’s Bakeshop.  Marie did a fantastic job on our cake we loved everything she came up with all the way down to positioning the cake topper we got.  It was a porcelain bride & groom with the ride lassoing the groom’s foot.

Florist: Flower Pot. Connie did a beautiful job on all of the flowers.  I especially loved my arrangement and the boutonnieres.   She delivered everything we spoke about and did an amazing job!  I would highly recommend her.

Paper Products: Salt + Pepper Press.

Honeymoon Location:  Mini-moon right after the wedding in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Honeymoon: Mozambique and South African Safari.

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