stories

colleen & khoshal’s aspen lodge resort and spa wedding – estes park wedding photographer

Aug 27, 2013

Offbeat weddings are so much fun. When couples decide to really make their wedding something unique I get really excited to be a part of it. Colleen & Khoshal wanted to make sure that their wedding was laid-back, relaxed and that their guests had plenty of fun. They happy to see each other before the ceremony – no superstitions here. Their first look was in the great big reception hall room at Aspen Lodge Resort and Spa just outside of Estes Park on the Peak to Peak Highway. The resort has some absolutely amazing views and fabulous ceremony sites.

Guests rode up to the ceremony site in wagons pulled by draft horses. Such a fun way to enter a wedding! The bride and her parents, of course, were also taken to the site in a horse drawn carriage. There were light sprinkles while the couple was getting ready, like so many of my Colorado weddings this year. It cleared up just in time for the ceremony, although it did sprinkle for just a couple of minutes during the ceremony, everything turned out perfectly. The ceremony was so heartfelt and emotional, I love it when you can feel the emotion even behind the lens.

We did a few more wedding portraits up among the gorgeous, tall trees on the mountainside and then headed by carriage back down to cocktail hour under a tent. Guests were serenaded by a local folk band while they ate hors d’oeuvres and played lawn games from horseshoes to ladder ball and cornhole. They had a little break between cocktail hour and the reception where we took just a handful of more portraits in the beautiful evening light. The reception room was outfitted with a great cake decorated with amazing flowers from zinnias to dahlias and a beautiful mountain scene shaped out in frosting. The couple also set up a display of photos from all of their travels and adventures together. After the reception we headed down to the bonfire for some s’mores and to hang out by the fire.

Thanks so much to my second photographer Jonathan for second shooting and assisting throughout the day.