Private Residence Colorado Mountain WeddingWedding Details:

We believe the wedding day should reflect your personality and focus on what you value.  For James and Jessica the wedding was kept simple and beautiful.  They utilized the ideas of Pinterest to pull the day today in an efficient but country classy kind of way. The wedding was at a home that had been rented out in Parachute, CO.  It overlooked some gorgeous mountains, had trees, and fields.

The ceremony was held out back and the reception out front under the trees.  For the ceremony they took freshly cut bails of hay for the seating.  They added a custom made arbor to the backyard and used hay for the table.  Thankfully the hay didn’t go up with flames with the unity candle.  We felt a little nervous at that point but overall I think things would have been okay since they weren’t signing the marriage license at that point.  The overall attitude was chill and laid back.  There were a lot of details that everyone helped setup like the flowers, lights, tents, kegs, and the food.

We took a lot of couples photos after the ceremony.  We were trying to get a variety of settings in using the old truck, the fields, horses, tractor, fencing, and mountains.  You know you have an adventurous bride when she climbs fences in her dress and hops on a horse.  In the reception they had string lights throughout the trees and candles with jars nailed into the trees.  We love the romantic feel of the landscape.

Lighting wise for a photographer it allowed for full creativity because outside of those lights all you had where the stars.  We utilized a mixture of flashes, halogen lamps, and LEDs for supplemental lighting.  If your reading this and planning for a similar idea know that understanding lighting and having the right equipment will be essential to being able to get photos in that level of light.  Some type of constant fill light was the only way to be able to focus on a subject.  It was the kind of darkness where a photographer couldn’t be seen 6 feet away from you unless there was some fill lighting.

We love being able to shoot in non standard locations as they normally have crazy awesome views and more relaxed settings.  If your wanting to get married but have a tighter budget consider one of the Colorado mountain hillsides over the expensive venue.  Focus the wedding day in on what you value, add a little DIY for the stuff that makes the wedding day special but isn’t critical, and just enjoy the day!

We love wedding days with horses.  Here are some other shoots that incorporated some horses.  If you are thinking of doing the private property / family home kind of wedding here are the other backyard weddings on the blog.