A Grand Lake, Colorado Elopement
An intimate wedding on the shores of Grand Lake
what the couple said:
“Caleb shot our wedding on August 27, 2021 and our engagement photos as well! He is extremely professional, down to earth, and one hell of a photographer to say the least. Our friends still cannot stop telling us how stunning our photos are! Comments like "these look they are out of a magazine" and "Are you two models?" I am hardly a model...haha. Caleb also was very wiling to work with us on pricing when we cancelled our large wedding and shrunk down from 165 to 25 people. All in all, he is fantastic and you should hire him for your wedding!!!”
B + TJ
Like many couples who were engaged at the turn of the new decade, Brittany and TJ were forced to change their original wedding plans: location, venue, date, and size due to unforeseen circumstances. Originally slated to be married right outside Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, the surging pandemic shut down their original venue, and they were forced to get creative, which is exactly what they did!
While traditional wedding venues can provide lots of benefits to the couples getting married there - from offering catering right on property, to different spaces for events like the ceremony, bridesmaids and groomsmen suites for preparation, and enough space to fit all your friends and family - opting to go a different, more intimate route has its touches as well.
Once their large wedding and venue had no longer become an option, instead of endlessly postponing their wedding day, they opted to go for a smaller, more personal and intimate day with just their closest family and friends there at a location of their choosing.
Brittany and TJ found and rented out a cabin on the shores of Grand Lake late in the Colorado summer to make the magic happen. While it wasn’t able to hold their original guest list of 100+, it did provide a quiet, peaceful, beautiful, and serene spot for this sweet couple to commit their love.
Brittany and TJ had booked me for their love story photography journey - as we will call it - way back in 2018 when they first got engaged. We started with just a meeting at a local brewery and quickly hit it off talking about our love of travels and Colorado. We then planned an epic engagement session that ended up taking place in Rocky Mountain National Park which held incredible mountain views and an amazing sunset picnic.
After their engagement session, we went our separate ways to then prepare for their upcoming wedding that would be held the very next year. However, as I’ve already stated (and as you know if you remember anything that happened in 2020), the original timeline went out the window. We finally got to make the magic culmination of their love story happen on the shores overlooking Grand Lake, Colorado in August of 2021.
The large cabin that is used for events and small weddings was a perfect change of pace for Brittany and TJ and gave the whole day a touch of simplicity and intimacy that would have been absent in a larger venue.
Brittany dressed and prepared in her master bedroom with her mother and her soon to be mother-in-law helping put on her stunning dress that she had anxiously been waiting to wear.
TJ was helped by his dad in the main cabin with vaulted ceilings, overlooks of the lake, and large wooden sculptures of woodland animals. They then shared their first look out on the cabin’s personal dock (that was under construction until literally the morning of when the crew finished it! But that’s another story!).
You could tell by the looks in their eyes to each other that this moment had been excitedly anticipated for years before. Brittany exchanged a thoughtful gift of a custom carved vintage compass to TJ on the dock, and they shared some stunning moments with each other and the surrounding lake and mountain scenery.
The ceremony was held out on the veranda of the cabin with golden views of the mountains in the backdrop. The couple’s nieces and nephews provided ring bearing and flower girl assistance, while only their closest family and friends looked on from the cobblestone deck in wooden chairs on the back patio.
Sealed with touching vows and the final kiss, Brittany and TJ were finally married after all their waiting. Directly after the ceremony, we took advantage of the variety of landscape on the cabin property for portraits of the couple. There was dense green Colorado trees for moody and intimate shots, and then the expansive, still, and serene view of sunset from out on the dock. Grand Lake provided endless views and a wide variety of different photography opportunities for the couple.
The reception was held up on the back balcony. Brittany and TJ shared their first dance with the alpine glow illuminating the scenery behind them. Champagne was popped. Toasts were had. Music was played, and the celebration began.
It was truly an honor to get to be a part of this couple’s story - from years before where they were recently engaged, to finally getting to the day where they committed their love for one another.
Check out their Grand Lake, Colorado Wedding Gallery below to see their story!
