Believe it or not, Jim and Jade met by total chance on New Year’s Eve. On a crowded dance floor in New York City, no less. Fate worked its wonderful magic and these two soon knew they’d found something pretty special. When it came time to plan their wedding they decided to escape the city and head to Boulder for a destination event all their guests would love. They made a point to embrace the Rocky Mountain’s natural beauty and we have a complete look at their big day captured by Tamara Gruner.
From the couple… We met by chance, bumping into each other on a crowded Lower East Side dance floor in New York City on New Year’s Eve. Jim gave me a harmless compliment as he made his way through the crowd, and I returned the favor by tracking him down and pinching his cheeks in front of his friends (to his great embarrassment). After some dancing and an ill-advised round of shots at the bar, we exchanged numbers. I’d never dated somebody that I had no mutual friends with, especially in NYC, so I made sure my friend took a photo of us and did what all millennials do – looked him up online the next morning. Lucky for him, he passed the test and we made plans to meet at a wine bar the following Sunday. One Sunday date led to another, and the rest is history. As an homage to those initial Sunday dates, we chose “Sunday Kind of Love” as the song for our first dance.
After considering a few different locations, we settled on Boulder, Colorado, which is where Jim attended college. It was important for us that the location have a wide range of activities for guests to enjoy outside of our wedding, and that the city itself wasn’t too hard to get to for those traveling long distances. Fortunately, Boulder is perfectly situated along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, providing guests with an abundance of fun activities – hiking in Chautauqua Park, biking along Boulder Creek, dining, and drinking at various local brewpubs and restaurants, and shopping on Pearl Street.
As for the wedding itself, I knew I wanted to highlight the stunning natural beauty of Colorado and incorporate one of our passions (travel) with a vintage twist. Our décor choices and color palette emphasized lush greenery, natural wood, and shades of blues and green. The “vintage travel” theme was further stylized with vintage suitcases and cameras, even vintage stamps that held a special meeting for us as a couple. We customized our seating chart by using a world map that tied in cities we’ve visited together for the table seating and beautiful watercolor calligraphy that matched our palette. Then, we used vintage books, globes, travel postcards, and luggage tag favors as our finishing touches. One of my favorite parts was our photo booth, which was a vintage VW van. It was so much fun and added a unique feature for our guests.
Photography: Tamara Gruner Photography | Floral Design: Painted Primrose | Wedding Dress: Pronovias | Cake: La Momo Maes Bakery | Invitations: Violet Press | Shoes: Steve Madden | Hair + Makeup: Amy DaCosta | Calligraphy: test | Venue: Wedgewood Wedding And Banquet Center | Musical Performance: Amy Vachal | Photo Booth: Shutter Bus
