How the Most Important Decision Was Also the Easiest

The venue is actually the first wedding decision we made (I'm having a terrible time going chronologically here.) I have always known that I would get married outside. There weren't really two ways about it. The closest I ever came to considering a church was driving past a cute, white, one room, clapboard church with wooden doors and a green lawn and thinking a small afternoon lunch reception under the cottonwood trees would be amazing. Of course, even then I knew that if we did go that route I'd still want to get married outside, maybe in front of the beautiful wooden doors.

Moonlight Cocktail Photography

Ever since I was little and first thought of weddings in a distant abstract way, I thought I would get married in Breckenridge, CO. My family has a history there. It was a second home when I was growing up. Perhaps it's the reason I have always felt at home in the mountains.

My aunt was married there before I was born and then my cousin got married on Boreas Pass. It's still one of my favorite weddings.

mharoldsewell on flickr

Of course, I'm not the only one getting married here. My groom had also known for a very long time exactly where he wanted to get married as well. Welcome to Nowhere Ranch:

(Oh, and this was taken on a cellphone.)

It's his best friend's ranch outside of Steamboat Springs, CO. It is breathtaking. How could I not jump on board? We started fanatsizing about what an amazing wedding it would be. Then we realized it's 20 miles of dirt road to get there and it really would be a logistical (and expensive) nightmare to pull off. We decided to look a little closer to town, at Fish Creek Falls specifically.

(If it looks familiar go check out your beer bottles. It's on the Coors Original can. And yes, Golden and Steamboat are hours apart from each other, but that's apparently besides the point.)

The Mr. and his best friend used to run this trail until they puked. On a regular basis no less, but they're crazy like that. It is absolutely gorgeous and easily accessible. However, besides marrying each other the location was the most important element. We really wanted a close connection to the land on which we would be standing. So we moved closer to home, all the way back to childhood in my case. Welcome to Rancho Durazno:

(Also taken on the FI's cell phone. It makes me sick that it sometimes takes better pictures than my camera.)

My dad is an organic fruit grower in Palisade, CO. I grew up climbing on the rocks and trees, tearing around and raising hell on my sorrel mare. It's home. Fortunately, the Mr. is also very fond of the place even though he hasn't gotten so spend much time there. Then I wondered what my poor dad would think of his farm being overrun by 200 people. I was nervous to even ask, but we were excited. To our absolute delight, so was he! My dad was absolutely touched that I would want to get married on the farm and jumped right on board. We didn't need any other encouragement. We had found our venue.

(Of course because I'm slightly neurotic and logical like that, I had already made up a spreadsheet that generated a score for each location so I knew it made sense from that angle as well.)