Posts Tagged ‘winter wedding’
A Winter Wedding with a Snowboarding Bride & Groom
Twee & John | February 16th
From the photographer, Mark Creery Photography: Twee and John had a small and heart-felt wedding at Sapphire Point overlooking a frozen Lake Dillon and the mountains of Breckenridge Ski Resort. After several days of fog and snow, they had perfect February weather and were able to have a fun day that reflected their true personalities. After their morning wedding they decided to do what they loved doing together – hitting the slopes for some snowboarding. Twee caught lots of attention in her cheetah print shrug along with her dress, which covered almost her entire board and collected many pounds of snow and ice along the way. That didn’t stop her from shredding up the slopes with her new hubbie. With gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains and the sun shining, it was an idyllic scene for some adventurous wedding photos.
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A Snowy Spring Wedding in Colorado
From the Magazine: Krystle & Ben
From the bride: We had planned for a green spring May 1st wedding. Originally, it was supposed to rain all weekend, so I came to terms with it and bought 50 umbrellas for our guests and was going to try to make the most of it. Those umbrellas were later returned after the rain changed to snow, which was a very unexpected but great turn of events.
Continue reading below….
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The Wedding Team
Photographer: Chris McLaughlin Photography
Event & Floral Design: A Design Resource
Cakes: The Bundt Shoppe
Venue: The Manor House
Wedding Gown Designer: Mori Lee | Hair: Harrahs | Makeup: Krystal Washington | Groom’s Attire: Ted’s Clothiers
A Winter Wedding at Sundance Mountain Resort
From the bride, Kwany: We wanted a winter wedding in Utah because we love skiing in Utah.
My bouquet was soft and slightly rustic. I had white/ivory roses and peonies with some dusty miller and mini pine cones, finished with a burlap wrap and twine overlay.
We played Chinese door games. This tradition originated from ancient times in Chinese culture – it implies that the bride’s family and friends do not want to marry the bride away. So as the groom sets out to the bride’s home, he will have to pass a series of tasks as a way to demonstrate that he really loves her. My girlfriends had the boys dress up in ridiculous outfits (tutus, butterfly wings), do yoga poses, push-ups, and eat the flavors of marriage (spicy, sweet, sour, bitter). It was definitely a good time for our friends and family to watch!
Even though it took a long time to write, I’m really glad that we wrote each guest a personalized note on their name cards. It was a nice way for us to show appreciation to our friends and family who came from all over the world to celebrate our happiness.
Looking back, I can’t imagine not having a day of wedding planner. On the day of our wedding, I was relatively stress free because I had her taking care of all the details!
My advice: Don’t drag out your wedding planning. We had a long engagement (1.5 years) which allowed for a lot of time to plan, look at Pinterest, wedding magazines, etc. And while it was initially a lot of fun, I was a little fatigued with the process and choices (there are always more options!). At some point, you just need to know where to cut yourself off. So, I would recommend doing wedding planning in sprints – do a lot of work and then set it aside from a while before you have to pick it up again. Otherwise, it will take over your life!
Kwany’s RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Venue, Caterer & Lodging: Sundance Resort. Sundance was just magical and we couldn’t imagine having our wedding anywhere else. Plus, I loved that everyone stayed in one place so that it was easier for our guests to hangout before/after the wedding.
Photographer: Pepper Nix Photography // Event Planner: Soiree Productions // Floral Designer: Blossom Sweet // Cake Designer: One Sweet Slice // Musicians: Echo Talent Management // Video: Lumineux Films
A Winter Destination Wedding in Park City, Utah
From the bride, Michelle: Matt and I have always enjoyed “mountain” activities: ski trips are our guaranteed yearly vacation and Matt even proposed on a hike in Banff National Park. Since most of our friends and family would have to travel for the wedding regardless of where we held it, we decided that we wanted to have it in a location that our guests would be able to help us celebrate our marriage as well as enjoy the beautiful location and recreational activities that it provides.
Instead of a traditional “Rehearsal Dinner” we had a “Welcome Dinner”, which was extremely important to us since we were doing a destination wedding. We really wanted to “set the tone” of a weekend filled with events for family and friends to get to congregate together as well as enjoy their own vacations.
Having our private reveal and mountain photo session was really special–between riding up and down on the ski lift (SO much cooler in a wedding dress vs skis) and getting extra (almost) alone time with your soon to be husband was amazing.
My family is Jewish and Matt’s family is Catholic. We had a relatively non-denominational ceremony with Jewish traditions added in (which was very important to me): a chuppah and breaking of the glass.
We had cake and ice cream sandwiches.
I loved all of the DANCING! Being lifted in the chairs for Hava Nagelah–it was the longest rendition of the song that I’ve ever heard and Matt kept looking back to the band making “cut it off” motions as he was sure his buddies were going to drop him. I could not stop laughing and smiling throughout the whole thing.
Looking back, the day went by so fast, it was truly the “best day ever” and I wanted it to keep going. I was specifically surprised about the sense of remorse after all of the planning when it is over.
My advice: Hire a wedding planner with a great reputation and ENJOY their experience and expertise.
Michelle’s RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Venue & Caterer: Deer Valley Resort // Photographer: Logan Walker Photography // Event Planner: MelissaFancy // Floral Designer: artisan bloom // Cake Designer: Snow Park Bakery // Band: Green Light Booking
A Snowy Mountain Wedding in Colorado
From the bride, Sara: I’m from Colorado originally, and knew if I got married, that I would want it to be back home. I grew up going to the mountains with my family, so it felt like a perfect fit to us. Peter is from San Diego and his family all lives in the LA area, so we knew for the southern California crowd, that the Colorado mountains would be unlike any experience they had ever had.
The season of winter was our biggest inspiration. We knew there was going to be a ton of snow, so we embraced that early on and incorporated comfy and cozy elements into the wedding weekend.
The bridesmaids were in beautiful berry-colored Amsale dresses, all silk chiffon. Although they were long, each was a different style. They carried baby’s breath bouquets, tied with a pink ribbon. I also custom-ordered Etsy angora wool wraps for each bridesmaid. The color was an ivory with gold thread weaved through it, tied with a silk ivory ribbon.
For my personal look, I wore a La Spose gown, I was trying to channel Grace Kelly, especially with my jeweled jacket and faux fur. I really love that timeless, effortless look.
The guys were all in custom-made suits by Jonathan Mustich at Evolution of Style, made of a grey wool tweed. Peter and his groomsmen had so much fun picking out their swatches and patterns. They really enjoyed the experience.
We held the ceremony in the Timber House on the Devil’s Thumb Ranch property. The room is gorgeous, with giant windows all around, in 360 degrees, including views of the mountains. On each aisle, there was a mason jar filled with baby’s breath and other flowers, tied with a pink ribbon. At the front of the room, we had large pink blooming branches in tall vases. And the guests were given fleece blankets to stay warm.
I loved the moment when I first walked in. Seeing Peter and all our friends and family as I walked down the aisle was such an incredible feeling.
My favorite memory from the ceremony was our personal vows. It was surreal and very emotional. I have no idea how I kept it together!
The reception décor was in shades of pink and gold. On the tables we had a beautiful burlap-type fabric and arrangements of flowers and candles, all in either mercury glass or golden vessels.
For the table assignments, my dad refurbished an old window pane and built an easel for it. A friend wrote guests names/ table numbers on the individual panes of glass.
Our party favors were individual bags of coffee from our favorite Brooklyn coffee vendor, Blue Bottle. We had them do a special stamp for us which read “Peter and Sara, a Perfect Blend, Feb. 22, 2014.”
We took old pictures of Peter and I from when we were kids (around the same age), and photoshopped them and created our table numbers.
The cake table was my favorite detail. It had all the pictures of our parents and grandparents on their wedding days. Instead of a tall tiered cake, we broke up the tiers into three separate cakes, each placed on a tree stump pedestal. On top of the cakes were pink flowers, and the middle cake had a mini “love” banner. It was very special for us, to take our first bite of cake, surrounded by all that history. Also on that table were little heart luminaries made from vintage books.
My advice: Try to get more small stuff done earlier. I saved too many “little to-do” items till the weeks before my wedding and it ended up taking up a ton of time. Also, Peter created Google Drive docs for everything, from payments to vendors to invite lists. It saved me. And finally, everyone told me to “soak it all in” because the wedding day goes so fast. It does go fast but I didn’t really know how to slow it down. So this would be my advice. Rather than trying to soak in every SINGLE moment (because that’s just not possible), I would say, pick a few times during the day to have it be just you two, or even take some time to be completely alone. I spent a few minutes alone in the morning, and it was really nice to have that time to be introspective.
Sara’s RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Venue, Lodging, Caterer & Cake: DEVIL’S THUMB RANCH – in my opinion, most beautiful location to get married in Colorado!
Photographer: Brinton Studios – cannot say enough about these guys – they were AWESOME! Everything was seamless because of them. The photos are so pretty. They really captured the day perfectly.
Event Planner: Michelle Gillette. She is truly amazing. Could not have done it without her.
DJ: Dwight Houser with Starkey Entertainment – by far the best DJ of any wedding I’ve ever been to – played so many good songs and everything we wanted to hear. We lost track of how many people at the wedding told us they loved the DJ.
Florist: A Perfect Petal – Cindy is so creative, she really made our vision come to life. Plus, she is super nice and easy to work with.
Table Linens: All Well Rentals // Blankets: Splendor // Videographer: Bella Luce Films // Officiant: Father Martin Hunckler
Honeymoon Location: St. Lucia – Sugar Beach Hotel (most amazing place I’ve ever stayed. Ever.)
A Winter Wedding in the Rocky Mountains
From the Groom, TJ:
We chose Estes Park because we knew we wanted our wedding in the mountains. The area is home to Rocky Mountain National Park; the entrance was 1/4 mile from the venue. Everything in the natural environment of the Park was continued in our venue (natural landscape, massive rock faces, 200 year old pines, lots and lots of snow and bluebird days). Naturally, we fell in love with it.
As Sally was walking down the aisle, she was ready to cry. I could see that, and knew that my duty as the groom was to say the perfect thing to her. Unfortunately, I had no idea what that was, so I just told her, “Hold it together.” Luckily for me, it worked, she had no second thoughts and I got to make her my bride a few minutes later.
We got married on one of the coldest days of the year, so it was very much an indoor affair. The ceremony presided over by an Air Force chaplain. We used parts of the lyrics to Neil Young’s “Down by the River” in our vows because (a) Neil Young is awesome and (b) “Be on my side, I’ll be on your side” and “Take My Hand, I’ll take yours” are actions of love and commitment. The song also includes the lyrics “Down by the River/ I shot my baby,” so we had to be a little selective about which parts to use.
Our décor was earthy. We used flagstones with wine bottles, aspen branches, and some glass icicles on the centerpieces.
We used a cake topper that is 3rd generation. It was on my grandparents’ wedding cake, my parents, and now mine.
Looking Back: Starting with a big decision by picking the venue first was the most helpful to our planning. Once we had a room in which we could picture getting married, we were able to build every other decision around that. Also, working with the look of the room helped us eliminate a lot of different ideas and options that were appealing, but just wouldn’t fit. We kind of shot from the hip in terms of a budget. I would recommend doing a little research beforehand, setting a reasonable budget for your means and what you want, then sticking to it.
TJ & Sally’s
RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Venue: Della Terra Mountain Chateau. Unforgettable location, and the amenities of staying there are really incredible. It was also nice to have the place to ourselves and to know that the venue specializes in weddings. That meant that they helped us avoid some common pitfalls and had a number of tools (like tableware and linens) that we didn’t have to seek out from another spot.
Photographer: Stacey M Photography. Stacey took incredible photos and she was quick on her turn-around so we could see them. Couldn’t have asked for more from her.
Band/Musicians: Trout Steak Revival. They rocked our socks off! And learned a couple songs just for us.
Cake: Sweet Daphne Confections. Amazing cupcakes and variety.
Honeymoon Location: We hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru. We booked through Inca Trail Reservations and found them to be very easy to work with.
A Winter Destination Wedding at Lake Tahoe
From the bride, Tara:
My husband, Wesley and I created our wedding vision as a team. We came to agreements, stayed up late working on projects, and traveled a lot to meet people and to make purchases, all while walking hand-in-hand.We chose to have our wedding at Lake Tahoe as we have created fond memories amongst most of Lake Tahoe’s shorelines and on the captivating water.
Being that our wedding was in November, we decided to go with fall tones of orange, plum, and lime green. Orange is my favorite color, so the color scheme was very fitting!
We had personalized escort card coasters. Each coaster had a picture of the specific guest with either Wesley or I by their side and our wedding date printed on the bottom corner it was a great conversation starter for guests.
Our decor consisted of mercury candle holders and vases, delicate crystal beads hanging off the branches that made up the centerpieces, crushed white tablecloths with burnt orange napkins, up-lighting on the walls, chocolate suede couches and benches to make the lounge areas.
Tara’s RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Photographer: Heidi Huber Photography // Venue: Hyatt Lake Tahoe // Floral Designer: Art in Bloom // Dress Store: Celebrations Bridal // Mens Attire: Men’s Warehouse // DJ: The DJ Mobile Entertainment // Jewelry: Tiffany & Co.
A Winter Wedding in Beaver Creek, Colorado
From the bride, Kristin:
My wedding day felt magical- it snowed! And since I’m from Alabama (and had a destination wedding at Beaver Creek)- that made it so special. Christmas time is my favorite time of year- it has always been magical for me- so I couldn’t imagine getting married at any other time. All our guests were greeted with a gift bag that included: a CD with our favorite Christmas music, gourmet hot chocolate, peppermint swizzlers, salted caramels, and a Christmas ornament. I wore a Jenny Packham bolero and red Valentino pumps with my white dress and I had a piece of lace from my mom’s wedding dress wrapped around my bouquet. Jonathan & I snowboarded down the mountain in our wedding attire.
We had a champagne bar with fresh strawberries, raspberries and chocolate.
We did the quickstep to a Deadmau5 song, “Alone with You”.
Kristin & Jonathan’s RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Photographer: Britney Kay Photography // Event Design, Planning & Floras: Alexan Events // Ceremony: Beaver Creek Chapel // Reception Venue: The Osprey Hotel // Cake: Kelley Kakes