MarriedX2: Colorado Adventure Elopement Shoot

January 11, 2018

Adventure Wedding Elopement | Colorado Mountain Wedding | Mountain Elopement Wedding

If you've been following along on Everyday Chiffon for the past 2+ years, you would already know that Kirby and I are married. We tied the knot September 2015 and are still living the happiest of married life (I shared photo's from our special day here on our first anniversary). We have been together for over 7 years, but everything changed when we got married and in the best way possible. When we were approached to be apart of this Colorado adventure wedding elopement shoot we knew we couldn't pass up the opportunity and we are beyond happy we did. Not only do we now have a second set of completely different and stunning wedding shots, but we also got to snowmobile through the Rocky Mountains together! Yeah... We're not mad about this life we live.

The day started early with a 1.5 hour drive into the mountains and to be honest... I was already shivering thinking about the day ahead haha. Sadly, the mountains hadn't really gotten much snow yet so the drive up there was very brown, which is totally not normal for mid-December in Colorado. Luckily we were able to snowmobile into gorgeous spots covered in white that made the prettiest of backdrops. We started at Sticky Fingers Cafe and Bakery in Minturn, CO were we ate delicious breakfast sandwiches and prepped for the big day!

Ellie - my soul sister, right-hand girl and most amazing hair stylist around came along for the ride and I am forever grateful! She has been doing my hair for over 4 years and was even there for our big day not only as my hairstylist, but as a friend at our wedding too. Ellie moved to CO from South Dakota (I swear not all of the people in my life are from there lol!) and I actually was introduced to her in college from my then roommate. Boy am I happy I was! The morning of my wedding day looked very different (I did a post here), but for an elopement this was the perfect way to do it! I mean, who doesn't want a giant cinnamon roll before saying "I Do" to the man of their dreams?!

The beautiful two piece dress from The Bridal Collection was the perfect piece for this shoot. Since it was freezing I was able to layer the bodysuit with light grey leggings that could't be seen through the skirt. The skirt itself was packed away in a large backpack so when we got to the spot I just had to strip from my winter gear and get the skirt over my leggings (sneaky, sneaky!). Now to be fair, although that was easy please remember I had to stand in the dress on top of a freezing mountain for a couple hours to make it work... But I didn't get sick, so totally worth it! If I was an adventure seeker this would have been the most fun way ever to tie the knot.

I want to give a huge thank you to Colorado Back Country Rentals for letting us use their snowmobiles for the day... The shoot wouldn't have been possible with out and we had so much fun! Poor Kirby was the only guy with 5 women so the couple times we got stuck he had to put the most work in to getting us out. What can I say, I have a pretty neat hubby!

To be real, I am in shock the beautiful bouquet survived the ride up and down the mountain, but want to make it clear to any women planning an adventure wedding elopement shoot that you can TOTALLY do it! To get it up the mountain we wrapped a big plastic trash bag around the stems going up around the flowers without totally shutting it so they could breathe. With that, I simply sat on the back of Kirby's snowmobile and held them the entire way up. Yes, that part was a bit hard while trying to keep my hair from getting destroyed and also trying to obviously stay warm, but we did it and it is definitely possible!

Although Kirby and I have only been married for over 2 years, we used this shoot as a moment to reconnect in a really romantic setting. Okay, freezing on top of the mountain with photographers, a stylist + hair stylists doesn't seem super romantic, but Emmy did a really good job of creating a moment. She asked us funny questions and made us answer in hilarious ways that had us laughing through the entire shoot. She also had a list off things we were thankful for in the other person which obviously is so nice to hear. It truly was a special moment in time for Kirby and I that we will never forget. It's crazy looking back at the post I did after hitting our first anniversary and seeing where life & love have taken us since then. It totally sounds cheesy, but I love him more and more each day and it's crazy to think how much I thought I loved him then compared to now. Kirby continues to make me the person I have always wanted to be and for that I am forever grateful. I love, love and I love being in love with him. Cheers to many years of happiness... I'll just keep getting married to the man of my dreams.

Reason Behind the Shoot

Emmy from Celebrate Again was actually our engagement and wedding photographer 2+ years ago and I feel honored to have been able to work with her again. Emmy was first diagnosed with an immune disease in February 2017 and then a second time in August. She first got sick in February 2016 (just 5 shorts months after she shot our big day!) and after realizing it was more than she could handle she had to close her business in May 2016. I remember being in shock and feeling helpless as I can only image she felt the same + SO much more. If you look back at Emmy's work, she is truly amazing and captures peoples love stories in a way that is so pure and true you can feel the emotions through her images. She was meant to do this. After many prayers, treatment and picking up the piece of her life around her she has now reopened her business, but with a few slight changes. She can no longer make it through a full wedding day which leads her to focusing more on the elopement, vow renewal and engagement side of things which is where Kirby and I come in. Emmy reached out to me in August/September explain the new situation and was curious if I wanted to help in building her book back up. Um, have you seen her work... YES PLEASE! So with that the adventure elopement shoot began forming.

God works in very mysteries ways, but I know that Emmy and I were met to work together again (and hopefully even more this year) and I feel honored she even ask. Yes, having a wedding shoot in the middle of my Fashion, Travel and Lifestyle blog many not fit as cohesively as I would want, but God pushed me to do this shoot and am forever thankful I could help with spreading her amazing work.