Ok friends, I am so excited to be writing and posting this! As some, or many, of you know, we got married in June 2023 in the Rocky Mountain National Park. This has been my dream wedding for many years and today I get to tell you all about how we did it!!!
The Location
Pinterest was my best friend for a long time when it came to planning my future wedding. I spent a lot of time looking at different locations then researching them extensively. For a long time I was torn between another area in CO and the RMNP. After many hours of research, I decided on RMNP. Here are the steps I took for getting married out of state and in RMNP:
- Choose your location – they have a list here (https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/wedding_locations.htm#11/40.3416/-105.7386) for locations. They only allow so many permits within a day and only one for each location per day. Different locations allow for different sized ceremonies.
- Complete the permit application (https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/upload/2022_Wedding-SUP-Application-1.pdf) up to one year in advance of the date.
- Apply for your marriage license in the county of the ceremony location (ours was in Larimer county).
- Schedule with that county to go in and pick up your license. The county office wasn’t too far away from Estes and it was a quick process of signing the documents and she explained how to fill out the marriage license.
- Have your ceremony!
We chose 3M Curve for multiple reasons. A big one was it doesn’t require any hiking to get to the spot. It is just off the road about 10 minutes from the Este’s Park entrance. There is a small walk to the lookout but very easy to get to. My dream was to have the mountains in the background and for it to appear we were more at the top of another mountain. This location provided exactly that!
Another pro of getting married in Colorado is an officiant is not required and neither are witnesses. We had our parents be the witnesses and sign the marriage license. You can also have your dog as a witness!
We stayed in a cabin style AirBnB that was on the edge of Estes. I purposely chose one that had very large windows and an open area in the living space for getting ready photos. It was also right by a roaring river. Each morning Ross and I walked by the river up a trail to get coffee and talked about the wedding and our plans. It was such an amazing way to feel connected.
Getting Pretty for the Day
Here are all of the links to the items that we bought for the ceremony:
- My Dress was $200 on Etsy, sadly the shop no longer is open
- My Shoes
- His Suit – At the time it was $75, here is the full video review of it
- The Flowers
I should just point out that all parts of a wedding require research. So much like the other parts, this required research as well. But it was my favorite kind, the kind where you spend hours online shopping. My dress for the ceremony was from Etsy and was only $200!!! I actually bought it before he even proposed (LOL yes he knew that I did this and knew what he was getting into marrying me!). The shoes I got were from Amazon. We got Ross’s suit from Shein for $75 and his tie from Amazon for $10. We bought the tie the week before because he hadn’t originally planned to wear one and we got lucky that it matched! We did get the dress and suit altered, my dress was a little bit big and the suit had really big shoulder pads. So in the end we paid a little bit more for our outfits. My bouquet was also from Etsy and they had hair pieces and a boutonniere that matched it. I chose to get the bridesmaid size because A. it was literally $100 less than the bridal one and B. the actual bridal bouquet they offered was waaay too big for me.
I chose to do my own make-up for the ceremony. I have some really great friends that helped me practice ahead of time. My hair…that was a whole situation. I ended up cancelling the appointment I had scheduled and short notice switched to another salon that was closer. The pros of this were it was super close to our AirBnB. The cons of this was that she spent TWO hours doing my hair just for it to look awful and not at all like I wanted. This led to absolute panic of rushing back to where we were staying to do my own hair.
For jewelry, I ordered a necklace and earrings from Etsy. I really wanted layered necklaces so I went to our local shop and bought some chain and clasps and made two more necklaces for about $6.
The Extras
So you know I couldn’t have a wedding and not be extra. Here are the things I did to make the day extra special.
- Got matching bracelets for my mom and mother-in-law as a day of gift. The links symbolizing our families joining.
- Bought monogrammed handkerchiefs for Ross, my dad, and my father-in-law as a day of gift.
- Made a goodies bag for Ross that included chapstick, mints, a note in case he forgot his lines, a shot of whiskey for his nerves, and foot warmers (you know, in case he got cold feet).
- Monogramed vow books and cute ring boxes (that I bought on Shein for like $1 a piece).
- A map of the national park for the bits photos.
- Clear umbrellas in case it rained during our photos (if you want the funny story about these, please feel free to ask).
The Ceremony
After we met our photographer at the AirBnB for getting ready photos, we headed to the location. Ross rode with his parents and I rode with mine so the first look was at the mountain top. Wearing heels while walking to the lookout was a bit rough with a big dress but totally worth it. Before we exchanged our vows we did a ring warming ceremony. This was a super special moment as we passed around both of our rings to our parents for them to put their love and positive energy into. After exchanging vows we had a beautiful moment of celebration.
The Photos
Ok, let me tell you, I am OBSESSED. I have looked through our photos more times than I can count which says a lot because there were over 800! We hired Nick (https://www.nicksparksweddings.com/) as a photographer and he absolutely made my dreams come true. After exchanging vows we drove around to different areas of the park to take photos. He sent them back within less than a week and gave us way more than we expected (in the best way possible). We used Shutterfly to create a photo album afterwards. During our reception at home, we used a projector with a slideshow of the photos to play throughout the evening. Here are a few of my favorites! If you’d like to see more, all you have to do is ask as I am happy to look and gush about them all over again!
Recommendations
Looking back, here is what I would have done differently.
- Do my own hair from the start. This was quite the disaster that led to not eating lunch, a lot of tears, and not having a relaxed time getting ready because then I was rushed.
- Plan ahead in terms of dinner. We weren’t done until 9 and didn’t realize most places were closed. We ended up at a random bar that had a kitchen that was literally about to close and they let us order (thankfully). We were so hungry we didn’t even talk or celebrate, just inhaled some burgers.
The things I would 10000% do again.
- Elope. We had a reception back home with everyone but this was my dream ceremony and I have no regrets.
- Pack an extra pair of shoes. I refused to switch during the photos no matter how much my feet were hurting but for food and the drive back, I was so happy to switch to sandals.
- Spend the money on a good photographer. This was something we had been very unsure about. I am so happy that we went with someone who specializes in CO elopements. He knew the best spots for photos, was able to provide an accurate timeline, and it took away some stress since he was very qualified.
- Have a slow start to the day. We spent the morning walking by the river at the AirBnB then went for breakfast with our parents at a diner. None of it felt rushed which really helped with the stress.
- Marry Ross. I’d do it all over again. The good and the bad of the wedding planning. He is my person and I couldn’t be happier.
More Photos (I couldn’t resist)
