A Whimsical Dream Wedding at Ridgewood

Annie & Nick  |  September 2nd

From the bride: Nick and I love Durango, it is our go-to vacation spot because it’s so laid back and beautiful! We love the scenery, the people, the activities, the breweries, and of course, the food! If we didn’t pick a September date, I would have gone for a winter wonderland wedding! Durango anytime of the year is amazing!!

THE STYLE

Whimsical – elegant – creative – romantic. Nick and I are very social people, we love to entertain and be around friends and family. We wanted our wedding to be fun and involved but have a romantic feel, impressive yet intimate. This was my time to let my creative energies flow!

THE CEREMONY

We held the ceremony facing the field with the mountains as our backdrop. Picture perfect! Our floral arch was draped in oversized garden roses, peonies, lilies and eucalyptus garland – it was everything I dreamed of. We had Nick’s Grandmas, both over 80 years old, walked down as our flower girls. They were so honored to be asked and loved being a part of the ceremony. I loved the vows we wrote to one another. They were so heartfelt. For me, the most memorable moments were walking down the aisle with my parents by my side, seeing Nick for the first time, and seeing all of our friends and family there to support our love. I will cherish those memories forever.

THE RECEPTION

The reception was filled with eating, drinking, dancing, and laughing. Dinner was held outside under a massive tent. The dessert tables and band were located a few feet away in the event center. I loved how everyone enjoyed the entire venue and garden.

THE DÉCOR

Our color palette was midnight blue with copper and gold accents. We threw in some burgundy to give the tables some contrast and dimension. We had fresh flowers in gold vases and garland hung everywhere. Our place settings were small geometric gold terrariums with a potted succulent, each has the guest’s name calligraphed on a palm sized blue agate slice that hung from the terrarium. They were beautiful decoration pieces that also served as our gifts, everyone loved them.

FOR THE KIDS

We had over 20 kids attend the wedding so I had two ‘Kid only’ tables put together in the middle of the dinner tables. The centers of the tables were filled with candy, games and fidget spinners. The place settings were customized ‘Annie & Nick’s Wedding’ coloring books.

LOOKING BACK

The day flew by, I wish I had taken time to stop by each table and say hi to everyone. I know there were guests who attended the wedding that I didn’t get to thank personally for coming. I also wish we had video of the entire wedding. No one recorded the entire ceremony or the speeches and it makes me sad that we’ll never get to watch it again.

ADVICE

Enjoy the engagement time, it goes by so quickly. You only have a few months for all the excitement and attention to be on your blossoming relationship.

THE WEDDING TEAM

Planning Resource: I found Durango Weddings Magazine very helpful when doing research on vendors and venues in the Durango area. I also love all the diverse types of weddings featured. The website is very user-friendly. I really liked how you could go back through older issues and look at weddings that were held at Ridgewood Events Center to get ideas and see how each couple utilized the space. I snagged several ideas from Durango Weddings Magazine!

Venue, Planning, Flowers: Ridgewood Event Center. It was important to us to have the ceremony and reception at the same venue. Ridgewood is perfect for this because it has so much space. You can truly separate both the ceremony and reception. The gardens are extremely well maintained. The staff is very nice. You can rent a lot of décor and linens directly from them, this was a huge advantage for a destination wedding. Joan was our event planner and she is a doll. She listened to all my wild and extravagant ideas and did everything in her power to try and pull it off. I ended up using her as our florist and she did a great job.

Lodging: Blue Lake Ranch Bed & Breakfast. We rented out the entire bed and breakfast for our family and wedding party. It houses 70 guests and each room is different and eclectic. It is so magical like little fairies should live there. It is located right across the highway from the venue, ideal for running back and forth.

Photographer: Elizabeth Wells