Our Intimate Fall Colorado Mountain Elopement in Guanella Pass

Finally, after 13.5 years of partnership and 8 years of working in the wedding industry it was my turn to get married! My husband Grant and I had an intimate elopement out in Guanella Pass on September 24, 2024. As I write this today, we are officially 4 months into being married which I can hardly believe! I chose to keep our engagement and elopement planning private as we navigated both but now I am ready to share everything we did so buckle up, this is going to be a long one!

Why We Chose to Elope

Over my 8 years of photographing weddings myself, I have seen a lot of different celebrations of love. My career in the Washington DC Metropolitan area up until the pandemic consisted of primarily larger and very formal weddings. When the pandemic hit, there was a major shift to micro-weddings and elopements which was something that at the time I had not ever witnessed as a photographer or as a guest. And when we moved out to Colorado in August 2022, I started photographing even more elopements.

Throughout this time I started to resonate with smaller celebrations (elopements specifically) more and more. If I am being so honest, something I saw time and time again was how my couples who did smaller celebrations seemed so much less stressed and enjoyed their day so much more than my couples who did larger celebrations. They were much more present on their wedding day and able to take everything in. There was little to no stress about catering to the wishes or opinions of family and friends on a day that was ultimately not about them. They all were so simple, stress-free and dare I say way more romantic and intentional feeling. I of course would tell Grant about them. Both Grant and I had always been pretty dead set on never getting married (even though we have always been thoroughly committed to one another) but had a change of heart in early 2023 just because when it comes down to it being legally married makes some things easier. When we got engaged, we decided that we wanted to elope somewhere beautiful in the mountains.

The Location / Date

Grant and I chose to elope on Tuesday, September 24 in Guanella Pass. When we were discussing locations at the time, I had never heard of and/or been to Guanella Pass. My husband who is an avid camper and hiker had done both around the area and when we were discussing the time of year we wanted to elope (fall when the aspens were at peak colors) he was emphatic about Guanella Pass. After taking a drive there in winter 2023 and doing some research on my own I was easily sold! And our photographer Alyssa had shot elopements there quite a bit and knew all the best spots for photos. Ultimately we chose the date of the week we did because it was in the peak of when the aspen leaves would look best. We chose to elope on a Tuesday because during leaf peeping season Guanella Pass and other popular spots are flooded with traffic and tourists which we wanted to avoid. 

Getting Ready

What surprised Grant and I the most about our elopement was how calm we both felt before it happened. After I woke up, I showered and did my makeup, went to my hair done at my salon, and got my hair done for the day, got myself up a coffee and picked up our flowers. When I got home, I made Grant and I some lunch and then we organized everything we needed to take with us to the elopement. Once everything was ready to go we had some time to just relax together and take our final moments before we were officially married. Both of us could not stop saying how calm and relaxed we felt which honestly was more than we could ever ask for. We then packed the car and left for Guanella Pass. 

First Look

This may come as a surprise to some of you who have had me your wedding photographer but I was not planning on doing a first look. The reason being that originally we thought Grant and I would be driving to Guanella Pass in our suit and dress so we didn’t see the point. I also showed Grant a pic of my dress beforehand and I went with him when he custom-ordered his suit. Our photographer Alyssa thankfully pushed us to get changed into our outfits at our first photo location which was a beautiful aspen grove so we could do a proper first look. Grant went one way to put on his suit and Alyssa took me in another direction to help put on my dress. Once we were in our outfits, Alyssa set us up for our first look. To both of our surprise, Grant and I were very genuinely emotional seeing each other in our complete outfits for the first time! Our first look pics were some of our favorite photos from the first day. I highly recommend to anyone eloping to figure out a way to squeeze in a first look because you won’t regret it!

Ceremony

A fun fact about the state of Colorado is you and your partner can do self-solemnization which means you can marry yourselves without witnesses or an officiant. I have only had a handful of couples do this but I always thought it was such a cool idea and so did Grant! We decided to do a self-solemnizing ceremony. Both of us wrote our ceremony together. For anyone interested in doing what we did, there are a lot of resources online that can help you with writing the perfect ceremony for you and your partner. We broke it into 6 parts (an introduction, a walk down memory lane of our favorite moments as a couple so far, a reading of our personal vows, a crystal exchange (more on this later), a ring exchange and a declaration of marriage). Our ceremony was about 10 minutes long. 

First Dance

Even though Alyssa and the mountains were our only witnesses, Grant and I wanted to do a first dance. Choosing a song that we both agreed on was for sure the hardest part of the whole ordeal! Both Grant and I are big music lovers and in some case cases our music taste really aligns with one another and in other cases, it does not. As a couple, both Grant and I have enjoyed going to EDM shows together the most and ultimately decided our first dance needed to be an EDM song. Our first EDM show was seeing one of our favorite artists Deadmau5 in 2017 at Merriweather Post Pavillion. We ending up choosing his song The Veldt. It was a VERY nontraditional first dance song to say the least but Grant and I had so much fun dancing to it. Some of photos Alyssa captured of the first dance are our favorites because they are so silly!

Portraits

Our photographer Alyssa took us to 4 of her favorite spots in Guanella Pass for portraits. Thankfully since we picked a Tuesday as our date in the middle of leaf peeping season it felt like for the most part we had Guanella Pass all to ourselves. Like I mentioned earlier, for our first look we did photos in an Aspen Grove. We then drove to another wooded area with a creek for some more portraits. For our ceremony, Alyssa took us to another one of her favorite spots with some mountain views. After our ceremony we did portraits with Mt. Bierstadt in the background. And to finish things up, we got pictures signing our marriage license on Grant’s Subaru Crosstrek decked out with mountain decals (the “real” star of the show). We booked Alyssa for 2 hours which was the perfect amount of time for us to get all the photos we wanted and have everything we needed captured.

Celebration / Minimoon and Honeymoon 

After we wrapped up our photos with Alyssa, we joined 4 of our close friends in Denver for a celebratory dinner at our favorite vegan restaurant Somebody People! The six of us shared lots of yummy drinks, appetizers, pasta dishes and desserts. It was so nice and relaxing to have a small intimate dinner with our friends after our elopement.

For the remainder of our week, we did a little bit of an unconventional “minimoon” since we are planning to do our big honeymoon trip later this year. Between Wednesday and Sunday, we saw 2 concerts (Tycho at Mission Ballroom and STS9 at Red Rocks) and did a short 3 day trip to Moab, Utah where we explored Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park. We had such a fun couple days following the wedding and are SO excited we still have our honeymoon to look forward to!

Details / Vendors

Something about me is I LOVE researching wedding vendors and I also really enjoyed planning our elopement! I relied heavily on my knowledge as a wedding vendor and the knowledge of other vendor friends in the industry. I also love shopping! Finding great deals and unique finds brings me so much joy so I am going to take a moment to spill the tea on everything we bought for our elopement and what working with our vendors with like. 

Our Outfits

I ultimately went dress shopping in early June (yes you heard me right about 4 months prior to our elopement so very last minute). Ultimately I had 1 dress trying on appointment at David’s Bridal. If I am being honest, the dress was the least of my concerns since I wanted something pretty simple. I had picked out 2 dresses I saw online that I loved. On my wishlist for a dress, I wanted something very simple with sleeves that was very easy to move around in since ultimately we would be eloping outside. Originally, I was not intending to buy the dress I bought. If I am being honest I saw it last minute online and thought it would be fun to try on. To my surprise, I did not like the dress in person I was intending to buy and instead fell in love with the other dress. I loved the way it was cut, how easy it was to move around in and how unique the sleeves were. And because I love bragging when I find a good deal, I got the dress for under $200! Surprisingly, the alteration cost more than the dress. With alterations, I paid a little less than $400. To my surprise, my dress with the alterations was ready to go by the middle of August so luckily me waiting until last minute panned out (although I don’t recommend waiting last minute haha!)

Over the years, my grooms who have worn Indochino suits always looked the best and I insisted that Grant got his suit from there. Grant and I went into the Indochino store in Cherry Creek in July and they custom-made his suit. He had never got a custom-made suit prior to then and neither of us never what the experience of doing so would be like but man they REALLY customized every part of the suit! All the customizations were free and the salesperson who helped us walked us through every step of the way and educated us on everything. Burnt orange and forest green were two primary colors in our elopement color palette and we decided his suit was going to be one of those colors. A black, grey or blue suit would of been the more “traditional” choice but we did not want to go that route. Choosing burnt orange was the correct choice and wow my husband looked incredible! You also get as a customization something engraved on the inside of the suit and because both of us are obsessed with UFOs and aliens Grant chose to get “Abducted Together”.  Even though we waited to get Grant’s suit even more last minute than my dress it came in around the same time as my dress. Price wise it was SO affordable for something that was customized. Both of us were shocked when we saw the cost. In the end, Grant got two suits (another one for his work) and a dress shirt since Indochino was having a sale and spent $900 for all 3 items total.

Jewelry, Shoes & Accessories

As for accessories and jewelry, we got the majority of those things off Etsy starting with my engagement ring! I am VERY picky when it comes to what jewelry I will wear so I wanted a role in picking my ring since its something I wear all the time. When Grant and I started talking about getting engaged, I started researching rings. If you know me, I am anything but a “traditional” girl when it comes to most things and that includes engagement rings. After a lot of research and looking around, I ultimately decided I wanted a salt and pepper diamond engagement ring. I found my top 3 choices all on Etsy and sent them to Grant. I also ended up getting my wedding band and necklace from there as well. Grant decided he wanted to wear a bolo tie with his suit and we found a cool UFO abduction-themed one that he ended up choosing. 

We got a couple of our accessories at different places from Etsy. I ended up wearing a pair of black vegan Chelsea boots from Blundstone that I already owned and Grant bought a pair of black Chelsea boots from Nordstrom Rack. Grant bought his wedding band ( a simple meteorite band) from one of our favorite crystal stores Nature’s Own in Breckenridge, Colorado when we took a day trip there earlier last year. For the remainder of my wedding day jewelry, I got my earrings from Gabi the Labi and wore 2 bracelets I previously owned. 

Crystals

Both Grant and I are very into crystals and gemstones (especially since living in Colorado). I have seen couples incorporate SO many unique things into their wedding ceremonies throughout the years and I wanted to do something special for ours. Randomly one night, I came up with the idea of Grant and I picking out crystals to give to each other and set our intentions for our marriage during our ceremony. Denver has a HUGE gem and mineral show and it was happening the month of our wedding. We went one of the days together and picked out crystals. He chose Emerald to give me and I chose Vanadinite to give to him. Grant chose to give me Emerald because it symbolizes marital bliss along with patience and emotional balance (which he wishes to have in our marriage) and renewal / rebirth which he believes plays a strong role in continuing to develop our relationship through new experiences. I chose to give Grant Vanadinite because it symbolizes discipline and stamina which are needed to maintain a healthy marriage and work through any issues that arise and it also encourages playfulness and adventure which I believe are needed to keep a marriage exciting.

Florals

My all time favorite detail of any wedding or elopement day is ALWAYS the flowers! I ended up choosing to work with The Ruffly Rose. My husband and I are huge fans of the Pearl Street Farmers Market and to be honest we were first influenced by their shop which is right near the entrance of the market. After further research and seeing the wonderful reviews and creations from past clients who worked with them I knew they were who I wanted to work with. When designing our florals, I told them I wanted a bouquet that had soft pinks, oranges, yellows and whites that had a romantic and eclectic feel with limited greenary and a boutinere to match that for Grant. I cried when I picked up our flowers because they totally nailed exactly what I was looking for. The florists at The Ruffley Rose listened to exactly what I wanted and were so easy to work with. I would recommend them to anyone in Denver looking for a florist!

Photography

Picking a photographer was both the hardest and easiest vendor for us to pick. Hard because I am a wedding photographer myself and to be honest I am very particular (rightfully so) about the final product. Easy because once I nailed everything down I wanted in a elopement photographer, Alyssa Carpenter Photo was the perfect choice for us! Alyssa is someone who I had personally worked with in the photography world prior to hiring her for our wedding, I had second shot along side her for a couple of her previous weddings. From working with her in those settings, I saw first hand how she captured the day and interacted with her clients. She brings such a laidback vibe and she is so good at stirring her clients in the right direction when it comes to getting the best photos which were two aspects I knew I needed in our photographer. Stylistically, I wanted to work with a photographer who captured classic and timeless imagery. It was also very important to both Grant and me to have someone who did a good job capturing and incorporating nature in photos. She also had a lot of experience shooting elopements in Guanella Pass and when we used her for our engagement photos she also had a lot of experience shooting in Loveland Pass. Alyssa checked all the boxes for these things. We absolutely adored working with her and are beyond obsessed with our gallery!

Final Thoughts

Grant and I could not have been happier with how our elopement turned out. Both of us truly have zero regrets about the way we planned to do things. I am so grateful for all of our vendors and friends who helped make our day so special. For anyone reading this who is thinking about eloping, I highly recommend it! 

Our Vendors

Photography: Alyssa Carpenter Photo

Hair: Bella Bartos Article and Co

Florist: The Ruffly Rose

Dress: David’s Bridal

Suit: Indochino 

Celebratory Dinner: Somebody People

Nails: Olga NashlyNails Studio