“Cole and I met eight years ago on the first night of our study abroad program in Seville, Spain. Three years later, we moved from Pennsylvania, where we were born and raised, to Laramie, Wyoming, where Cole is working on his PhD in geology. We fell in love with the beautiful mountain west and started spending all our free time outside, exploring, hiking, camping, mountain biking, and fishing. When Cole proposed in February of 2021, while on a hike in the Snowy Range outside of Laramie, we both knew we wanted to get married in a place that encompassed what we love so much about the west. We stumbled upon the Snowy Range Lodge while driving up in the mountains that fall, and we knew it would be the perfect place. The only challenge was getting all our family and friends out to Wyoming from the east coast! It was important to us that our wedding felt authentically us, and we were able to incorporate a lot of personal detail that helped bring that to life. Our reception tables were named after places where we love spending time outside, such as the Teton Range, and included personal photos, postcards, and travel books from our time in that place. Cole hand tied boutonnières for the groomsmen, styled after traditional fishing flies, to incorporate his love of fly fishing. When I decided on the color palette for the wedding, a mixture of natural, fall tones with dusty blue accents, I decided to give each of my six bridesmaids a specific color that fit them and then let them choose whatever dress they wanted in that color. It was important to me that they felt comfortable in whatever they wore. Everything from our incredible florist to our delicious cake and desserts, and our amazing dinner all came from local businesses in Laramie, the town we have come to call home. To show our connection to geology, we collected rocks from Wyoming and surrounding states to use as the base of the table nametags for our guests. Our vow books and guest book were Write-in-the-Rain notebooks, a waterproof notepad frequently used by geologists while in the field. We even made sure that all the beer served at the reception came from Wyoming craft breweries in an effort to showcase our state’s impressive selection of beer. To further celebrate Wyoming and the culture of the American West, we surprised everyone by choreographing our very own western swing dance routine for our “first dance”, which we performed to Tyler Childers’ Feathered Indians, a feat even we weren’t sure we were going to be able to achieve. Finally, our photographer, Jessa, did an incredible job of capturing not only beautiful portraits, but also many candids and in-between photos of the real-life moments that were happening throughout the whole day. All in all, the day felt like a perfect representation of us, and a celebration of our love and those we love. Although it was over in the blink of an eye, it was the best day of our lives, even considering the rolling thunderstorms throughout the afternoon. Thunderclaps were even heard mid-ceremony. Still, the storms left us with the most out-of-this-world double rainbow to dance under when the clouds finally cleared!”
– Rachel, the bride
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