“Matt and I met both as engineering students at the FSU/FAMU College of Engineering in our final semester. Since graduating, we’ve lived in four different states, settling in our favorite state, Colorado. We love nature and going on adventures which is why Colorado was our ultimate goal. We wanted to incorporate our love for adventure into our wedding day and make it a day about us, and what we love. We decided we wanted to have a mix of being able to celebrate ourselves being married and being able to celebrate with close friends and family. We stumbled on our photographer, Nate, who helped us organized our ideas into an actual executable wedding day. We eloped in the mountains for our ceremony and found a small venue in nearby Telluride to host a reception. Our elopement started the night before when my hair and makeup artist arrived at midnight to start wedding day activities. While Angie was doing my hair, both Matt and I were putting our final touches on our vows before heading for the trailhead at 2:30 am. We hiked up the Blue Lakes Trail in the pitch black with our headlamps and our wedding outfits packed in our Osprey backpacks with my bouquet sticking out the top. We started changing into our outfits at sunrise with the sun rays starting to hit the top of the mountain tops. We spent the morning with Nate being the only one to witness our most special moments of getting married and being able to celebrate between ourselves. To finish of our morning elopement, we hiked to the shore of Lower Blue Lake to meet up with a small portion of our wedding party that hiked up for some celebratory photos as well. We celebrated with popping champagne bottles and eventually jumping into the FREEZING cold alpine lake. Matt and I agree the best part of our wedding day was the elopement and having fun jumping into the lake. A memory we will truly never forget. After our morning adventures, the group headed back into Telluride to get ready for the reception. While the groomsmen, bridesmaids and family members got ready, Matt and I snuck away for another private photoshoot where Nate took us to a secret waterfall location in Telluride. At this point, it started to rain, but frankly, it fit the vibe of getting photos in front of a waterfall. Matt and I took off our sandals and climbed onto the rocks for some gorgeous moody photos. We then met the wedding party at a meadow that sits in front of the mountain tops as it continued to drizzle. We celebrated with the friends we gathered throughout our lives, and moving to different states. Truly the most supportive people in our lives. Unfortunately we both had people missing from our wedding party due to the uptick in COVID from July 4th. We were both supposed to have 12 friends on both sides! We then went to celebrate our reception with a few more guests at a cocktail lounge in Telluride with delicious appetizers, local pizza, rocking tunes and fun cocktails named after our cats. Looking back even 7 months after our wedding day, there is quite literally nothing we would have changed. We did not want a big traditional wedding and both would have been SO uncomfortable reading our personal in front of a large crowd to hear what our promises were to each other. One of the most satisfying parts of our day was that we did our absolute best to leverage small or individually owned businesses. Frankly, I invest a lot of energy researching in the planning process to make sure we were hiring inclusive and diverse vendors. A high school friend designed and made my wedding dress which I still want to cry over how wonderful of a job she did. Our vendors are totally inclusive of all people, support other local businesses and were friends now!”
– Grace, the bride
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