A Stunning Fall Wedding on Durango Mountain

From the bride, Amanda:
I really wanted to be married in Durango as it was my hometown and I miss Colorado desperately (I’ve been living in Seattle for the past six years). My husband, Jesse, was onboard with one condition: he wanted to be married against a backdrop of mountains and at a location that could accommodate lodging for our out-of-town guests. Durango seemed the perfect location. From there, we wanted to have a casual style that would work effortlessly with the venue so we wouldn’t be forcing anything to match, and having a rustic design and look seemed to work perfectly with the outdoors and the wood and stone palettes found in Purgy’s. I used Durango Weddings Magazine for ideas and the vendor list. I loved tearing out the pictures and storing them in my wedding binder. I regularly checked Durango Weddings Magazine website as well.

Since we were getting married at the end of September, I wanted to embrace the fall season and use fall colors as my main inspiration in the flowers and décor – reds, golds and ambers. My invite suite was completely themed around aspens and their golden fall color. I also chose a deep plum color to act as a subdued contrast to the fall colors, and it complemented everything perfectly.

Our ceremony took place outside at DMR’s Engineer site among the aspens with Engineer as a backdrop, and it was close to perfect. Despite having snowed the night before during the rehearsal dinner (which was a treat in itself for many of our out-of-town guests), the day was sunny and the wind died down right before the ceremony at 4:30. We had minimal décor details at the ceremony site by choice, as we really just wanted the forest and mountains to be the main attractions. We had a violist and violinist to supply the music before and after the ceremony, as well as the processional/recessional. The string musicians were a great touch that added to the ‘rustic nature’ aspect.

The ceremony itself kicked off with the song “You and Me” by Dave Matthews, and it was sung by my cousin who was accompanied by a family friend on the guitar. Our officiant told the story of how Jesse and I came to fall in love, and it was very personal and heartwarming with some jokes weaved in. We lit a unity candle, during which my cousin sang another Dave Matthews song, “Steady as we Go.”  Jesse and I are both big Dave Matthews Band fans, and the songs made the ceremony that much more special as we also got engaged at a Dave Matthews Band concert. We wrote our own vows and barely kept it together while we were reading them. Overall, the ceremony was very beautiful, personal and heartfelt.

I loved the aspen tree painting that my bridesmaid did for us as our guest welcome book. While I’ve seen the idea at many weddings, the fact that my best friend painted it for us made it very special and will be something we can hang in our house forever. That it was aspens also carried with our wedding theme and location.

Amanda & Jesse’s
RECOMMENDED VENDORS

VENUE, CATERER & LODGING: Purgatory Resort.  The food and service was great and our wedding was truly everything we hoped it would be and the staff at DMR had a large role in that.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Illuminarts.  I loved working with Illuminarts. They were very detail-oriented, made sure that I got all the images I wanted and were very thorough. They were completely unobtrusive during the ceremony and reception and we got along with them great!

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