“Joel and I met completely randomly at a Colorado Rockies game at the age of 13. We grew up in completely different towns – I in Fort Collins, and Joel in Breckenridge – but both of our middle schools just so happened to be there for a school trip. My best friend and I ran into Joel and his best friend, and we did the classic awkward middle-schooler thing: we followed each other around, worked up the nerve to talk, and exchanged Snapchats. Snapchats turned into Instagram, and for ten years we followed each other on social media, and that was our soul contact. Despite reaching out to one another at different times and it not working out, being at the same concerts throughout the years, him moving to Fort Collins, and us being in the same town for college, we never ran into one another. Finally, at the age of 23, in the spring of 2020, I slid into Joel’s DMs (which we had both done before), but this time was different. He responded, and we have talked every day since. The universe definitely had an invisible string between us; we were always each other’s right person, but we just needed the right time. After a couple of weeks, we had our first date and quickly fell in love with one another. We did long-distance that summer as he had moved back to Frisco and I was still in Fort Collins. Joel moved to Fort Collins for us in the fall of 2020, and we haven’t been apart since. In the spring of 2023, Joel took our two dogs and me camping up the Poudre Canyon. We found a secluded spot, set up camp, and hiked to the top of a mountain behind us. There he proposed to me, just the two of us, and it couldn’t have been more perfect. We got married on Friday, September 20th, 2024, at the Rist Canyon Inn. We knew we wanted a fall wedding, as it’s our favorite time of year, and we wanted time to plan in a stress-free way. Our main goal for the planning process and the wedding day itself was not to stress about anything, but to focus on each other and do things that felt good and genuine to us. This was all achieved and then some. We picked Rist Canyon Inn because it was absolutely stunning. We wanted everything to be at one location, an intimate, small feel, and we wanted the venue to be the main focal point – let it speak for itself and have minimal decor. The people at the Rist Canyon Inn were all so amazing and helpful; it made the entire process so easy and enjoyable. From there, our priorities were the photos/videography, food/drink, and overall flow of the day. We wanted everything to feel natural, welcoming, and warm. Joel and I really just wanted all our guests and us to really feel like the day just flowed together and felt effortless – no hard structure, no leaving the party more than we had to, really just being present and spending time with each other and our guests. We enhanced all of this with muted, warm sunset colors in the florals, a food truck, Wandering Wagon Bar, and an indoor/outdoor reception so people could come and go as they pleased. We couldn’t have done any of it without our amazing family and friends, but also our amazing team. Everyone we worked with and hired was pure sunshine and did nothing but support us throughout our experience. That’s our biggest advice for anyone planning their wedding day: truly make it about the two of you and your love; the rest will fall into place. And be sure to hire and work with people who respect and help your vision come true, rather than trying to change it!”
– Savannah, the bride
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