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Images by Kyla Jackson Photography

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From the bride:
Our wedding was very “home-made.”  It was a great effort of family and friends.  It was not fancy or formal and things were very relaxed, just the way we wanted it.That particular weekend in September happened to be an extremely rainy one.  I thought for sure that we would be getting married under our tent in the mud instead of by the Florida River, which as “retired” raft guides was extremely important to my husband and me.  It had rained so much that the ground under our tent had turned to mud after hosting the rehearsal BBQ there the night before.  Kevin spent our wedding morning getting plywood to lay down a make-shift floor in the tent.About an hour before the ceremony I was in my cabin and we opened the door to get a little more light and for the first time in two days we saw blue sky.  Within 10 minutes of the scheduled ceremony time the skies completely cleared and the sun came out.  Our ceremony was officiated by a friend, spoke of rivers and mountains, we wrote our own vows, My favorite part: After Kevin said his vows, I took the microphone and simply said, “And I you.” That is a quote from his favorite movie, Braveheart.  We had joked all year that he couldn’t just use the speech from Braveheart as his vows.  We all laughed and then I said my vows. The most memorable moment was spending time with Kevin down by the river after the ceremony.  We just talked, took it all in, and enjoyed the sunshine!We collected all of the guests’ response cards and had them write some advice on them the night of the wedding.  These were collected and put in an old wooden box with a bottle of wine for Kevin and I to open either on our 10th anniversary or if we ever run into trouble. For favors, I collected recipes from all of our family and friends and compiled them into a cookbook to give away as gift at the wedding.  I love to cook so this was a very sentimental gift to me.  I included recipes from my Grandmothers since both of them have passed on.  We used the aspen image from our invite as the cover for the cook book. All of our plates were collected from thrift stores by my mother and I (which took almost a year!).  We had a lot of fun collecting them.  We also collected mason jars for beer mugs.  A month before the wedding my mom visited and helped me paint chalk board paint on all of the mugs so that people could write their names on their cups to keep track of them.  I even made mason jar luminaries, but because of the rain never ended up putting them out! I made a small cake for Kevin and I to cut and our cake topper was a set of antique owl salt and pepper shakers.  Many friends and family from the area stepped up and brought a dessert of their choice to serve instead of cake. My advice is to take your time, don’t stress about every little detail.  When the day comes, you won’t care about them anyway!RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Photographer: IlluminArts Photography  //  Tent & Rentals: Durango Party Rental  //  Hair & Makeup: Hair Fusion  //  Liquor:  Star Liquors  // Invitations: Minted // Venue & Lodging: O-Bar-O Cabins

We look forward to our next show in 2013!

From the bride:
I wanted our wedding to be fun without the formality and I loved the idea of a whimsical ‘Alice in Wonderland’ tea party.

Photography by Cedar House Photography

During our ceremony, the weather was cloudy with a strong possibility of heavy rain. As our officiant began reciting an Apache wedding verse, she said “and there will be no more rain” the sun broke through the clouds for a moment and our guests all gasped and then laughed. Shortly after the ceremony, it rained, it poured and then it hailed.I spent six months collecting mismatched china from second hand stores.RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Photographer: Cedar House Photography // Caterer & Cake:  Pagosa Baking Company  //  Flowers:  Angela’s Flowers //  Tent: Durango Party Rental

From the bride:
We had decided early on that we were having a Colorado wedding in my home area of Southwest Colorado. We also wanted a black and white color palette – mainly for the b/w photos and because I was going for a retro look.

Photography by Allison Ragsdale Photography

I wore my moms pearls.I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED my wedding dress, veil and pink shoes!The yellow roses I carried in my bouquet were in remembrance of my grandma. Our preacher had also married my parents 30 years ago.The arch that we were married under was made by my brother.  The mountains still had snow on them and the rustic look of the aspen arch perfectly framed them. I messed up my wedding vows.  I thought I was finished repeating after the preacher but he wasn’t finished! I guess it gave everybody a good laugh. The evening was perfect – perfect weather, perfect setting, deer were even wandering through the meadow as the reception was going on!Our first dance – literally was our FIRST dance. Chad doesn’t like to dance at all and refused to practice with me.  It also happened to be the first time I had ever danced with my dad – my dress ended up tangled and we were laughing through the entire dance.

RECOMMENDED VENDORS
Photographer: Allison Ragsdale Photography  //  Venue: Ridgewood Event Center at Blue Lake Ranch

Honeymoon Location: Jamaica!

Photo by Kyla Jackson Photography

We are totally smitten with this adorable apple orchard engagement shoot.  It’s fun, it’s colorful and the couple is so obviously in love…aww.

Image by IlluminArts Photography