A destination wedding … in Colorado

I’ve written quite a bit about destination weddings in the past, mainly because Groomasaurus Gal and I had one in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. But a friend of mine brought up a good point the other day in that you don’t have to travel outside the U.S. to have a destination wedding. We’ve got lots of wonderful destinations right here in the good ol’ US of A, and plus with the economy still in pretty poor shape, I’m sure U.S. vendors would appreciate the business.

So I’m making a shameless pitch for having a wedding right here in my home state, Colorado. I live in Denver, and it truly is the best of both worlds. We have a great and thriving city (which also has a surprisingly number of excellent restaurants … only a notch below SF or NY, in my opinion, and those are world-class dining cities) and we are merely footsteps away from America’s playground … the Rocky Mountains. The sky is blue here over 300 days a year (and for a transplanted Midwesterner, that’s a better drug than you can get in any pharmacy or on any streetcorner) and the people are amazingly friendly. You see, Denver is a city of transplants and everyone who is here knows what it’s like to be new. So we’re always willing to bring new friends into our circle and reach out to new arrivals to make them feel welcome.

Anyways, there are so many places in Colorado to get married that I don’t know where to start. And you can either have a ski-slope wintertime wedding or a warm and sunny summer mountain wedding (I actually prefer Colorado in the summer, where there are so many things to do … hike, bike, camp, etc.). The ski towns like Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs, Vail and Crested Butte in the summer are great places for a wedding, as they have the venues and services to accommodate lots of guests and dining. And there are many quieter but just as beautiful towns like Salida or Glenwood Springs (which has a huge historic hot springs and a few classic hotels) that would serve you very well for a wedding. And then there’s destination hotels like the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, which is an entire little city unto itself.

But enough of my talking … here are some photos taken by my friend (and excellent wedding photographer) Katie Girtman from Studio Kiva of some breathtaking Colorado weddings. Katie shoots both wedding as well as commercially (I run a marketing/branding firm, and she’s done several shoots for us, all with great results). She’s the consummate professional, and if you’re looking for a wedding photographer who knows her stuff and will go above and beyond for you, she’s the one to hire. If you want more information on getting married in the mountains here, you should contact Katie or our friends over at Petal & Bean, who are both wedding planners and florists (I don’t see how they do it all, but everything they touch looks magical and ends up wonderful).

All photography courtesy of Katie Girtman of Studio Kiva.