Summer afternoons in the Colorado Rockies are heaven on earth. Pair them with a secluded mountaintop venue and one seriously-in-love couple and you have yourself a wedding that is filled with warmth and laid-back loveliness. Della Terra Mountain Chateau set the stage for this elegant, fun-filled celebration and this couple totally embraced the natural beauty it had to offer. Captured perfectly by June Cochran Photography, this wedding is soft, sophisticated and every bit as beautiful as the Rocky Mountain backdrop. Ready for a little I-do adventure? A trip to the gallery is in order.
From The Groom… We could start like David Copperfield, we were born… we grew up… But we’re sure even Mr.Copperfield would agree that the best place to start is the moment the real magic happened and the sparks flew. Brooke had been living with Shane’s best friend Ryan for quite some time. Shane had never been downtown to their place and hadn’t seen Brooke in well over eight years. One evening Shane decided to go spend some time with Ryan and when they arrived, Brooke and her girlfriends were finishing up getting ready to go out for the night. Dumbfounded by her beauty and tongue tied by her asking him if he thought her cowgirl boots were appropriate for her outfit. From that moment forward Shane spent a lot of time downtown at their place, but not to spend time with Ryan (sorry amigo), but to partake in the fairytale that has been Brooke and Shane’s life together.
From The Bride: 2 years later Shane proposed. It was the day before Christmas Eve and we were all packed up to go home and celebrate the holiday with our families. Shane was running extremely late getting home. When he got home he was grabbing a few quick items and making sure Brooke had everything ready to go. He was hanging out by the Christmas tree and kept asking me about gifts that had been left under the tree. Starting to wonder what he was up to I walked around the corner and Shane was on one knee in front of the Christmas tree. He asked “what about this present?” with the ring in his hand he delivered the sweetest, most touching proposal. I tackled him screaming in excitement saying yes over and over again! We were so excited to start planning our dream wedding and knew the first thing to get off the list was the wedding venue. While Shane thought a destination wedding was a fun idea we decided to keep it in Colorado since most of our friends and family live here. I did some serious online research before taking Shane out to meet any vendors or to see venues. Our first stop was Della Terra Mountain Chateau; the venue is breathtaking with majestic rocky mountain national park surroundings. The destination was perfect for a summer wedding!
We decided that we wanted our wedding to be vintage classic, personal and a ton of fun for our guests. The colors were blush pinks and champagne. We let the girls collectively pick out their dresses which were champagne and it looked beautiful against the abundance of blush pink flowers. We also added a little bit a French vineyard theme to reflect part of our story together. Shane and I met when we were in Freshman in high school and sat next to each other in French class. This story was also told by both our bridesmaid and best man during speeches in very different ways. So we decided to do a few diy projects and made a cork board out of wine corks to post the guest seating charts and made the name card holders out of them as well. For the wedding favors we did wine stoppers and decanters. The table numbers were also in the French.
Our “second” date took place at a Dave Matthews concert in Las Vegas. We are both huge fans so we added a few touches of Dave to our wedding day too. We did a diy project to make a stand that read “Eat Drink and be Married” that was next to the book signing table. Also, our first dance was also to “Steady as we go” and there was defiantly a line or two added in to the ceremony by our officient and best friend of ours Zachary. One other special touch that we added to the ceremony was that we used my family’s bible. The bible is from Germany and has hand written stories in it from our families weddings. Our best man carried which had our wedding bands tied around it in lace and pearls. We also decided to write our own wedding vows and made sure that the readings in the ceremony were very special to us. This defiantly made it personal to us and to our guests.
We decided that we wanted a band with presence to play at our reception to make sure everyone was on their toes dancing! We hired “That Eighties Band” and they were a huge highlight of our wedding. They created an amazing energy and excitement from their first song that lasted through the night. Our guests couldn’t stop raving about them being the most amazing wedding band they’ve ever seen. The dance floor was completely packed all night long with guests from all age ranges, including grandparents tapping their feet to Billy Idol.
One of my favorite highlights of the day was that we did a first look before the ceremony. Our photographer staged it in a beautiful setting and it was amazing to be able to spend some time with just him before the wedding. After the first look we went and met up with the rest of the wedding party for a champagne toast. These are some of my favorite photos from the wedding because you can tell just how excited everyone was for us. The wedding day was beyond what we had ever imagined and was defiantly my dream come true!
Photography: June Cochran Photography / Cinematography: Fenix Solutions / Flowers: Floral Design of Europe / Venue, Event Design + Planning: Della Terra Mountain Chateau / Invitations: Wedding Paper Divas / Makeup Artist: Leslie Snyder / Dress: La Sposa via Blue Bridal / Bridesmaid Dresses: Amsale via Bella Bridesmaids / Officiant: Zackary Lewis / Band: That Eighties Band / Cake Bakery: Indulge Bakery