Estes Park Wedding at Black Canyon Inn and YMCAWedding Details:

Finally – Sun for their Black Canyon Inn and YMCA of the Rockies wedding!  With wedding days you do not get to pick and choose the weather.  We always hope for sun and that is what Ryan and Brianna got for their Colorado mountain wedding.  It had been 28 months or I believe 853 days since we first got looped into their wedding plans.  As you might guess there is not a good weather forecast that far out so rather than do a fully outdoor wedding they did a bit of a hybrid one.

We started over at Black Canyon Inn for the getting ready, some photos and the ceremony in the pavilion.  This was so they could have some cover incase it rained.  There was plan for using the Overlook Chapel at the YMCA of the Rockies but ended up going for the weather safe route.  They still had the reception at the YMCA in the Assembly Hall.  As you might guess booking two venues can be a bit challenging so we would recommend doing it far in advance unless you are doing Tuesday through Thursday or different days.

We love it when your dad officiates the ceremony.  It is always more real and heartfelt.  They had a log that was hallowed out and engraved that the parents appeared to fill with letters.  It was then locked up which I believe only to be opened in a really hard time.  From the ceremony we took some photos in a field nearby that has longs peak in the background.  We then made our way over to the Overlook Chapel at the YMCA.  They had finished up the wedding ceremony up there so we were not intruding.

Ironically we can across a videographer friend popping out of the woods with a bride and groom.  The videographer for their wedding was MIA at this point and since there is no cell reception the show went on.  The mountains are big and gorgeous up there so they certainly missed out.  We went on down from there to the Assembly Hall for the wedding reception.  Thankfully, they had some wifi in there so we were able to text the videographer and do some location sharing so he could follow the dot on Find my Friends.

For all those women who are concerned that they need to wear some really awesome heels under their wedding dress know that you will likely not see them.  Her shoes surely ranked in the top of the awesome bride shoes but yet even before the ceremony they were changed out for something more personal.  I guess we would describe them as highly colorful running shoes.  What made these so unique was that he had bought her the pair of shoes when they were engaged as the ring was in the box.  As you might guess we love a unique story for the proposal and this certainly was one of those.

Some other unique things were a mom and daughter dance to ‘Because you Loved Me’ and the groom having a 3 dance quota for the night.  I believe when you factor in the first dance with the mother – son dance it was more like 5.  The wedding cake had a couple hikers at the top of a mountain shaped cake.  The cake was surrounded by cupcakes.  Sugar to keep the dancing going was at a snack bar with some salty nuts.

Black Canyon Inn / YMCA of the Rockies Review:

We have shot 5 weddings at Black Canyon Inn and this was the first time we were blessed with sun.  We find it a bit ironic since you rarely have full cloudy days in Colorado with on an off rain.  We will take it though – more sun the better.  Everything was rather consistent and normal to us shooting there.  Things seem to work well for getting ready and the ceremony pavilion has a good view.

If you are thinking of using the venue Twin Owls may not seem like it can fit a huge crowd but it works well for the reception.  We were over though at the YMCA of the Rockies for the reception.  The last time we were there about 10 years ago things were not as refined as today.  Getting around in there can be a bit confusing without good labels, hilly winding roads, and no cell reception.  We loved having a spacious room that easily fit everything.