Trenadee and Mason chose a micro wedding because they were “disinterested in having a whole thing.” They wanted something intimate. The vibe was a little bit of magic, a lot of nature, but mostly something that felt true to them and didn’t require a performance.
While some couples choose to elope to save money, they chose instead to invest their $15k budget into a destination weekend in Colorado. Their wedding was somewhere between fully hired and DIY – no florist, makeup artist, or officiant, but full wedding outfits, full day photography coverage, and a private restaurant booking for dinner. All but three of their sixteen guests, plus the couple, flew out to Colorado from Indiana to celebrate them in Crested Butte. They invited strictly parents, siblings, and a few hand-picked friends to help them keep their guest count down.
We began their day with getting ready in separate suites in Crested Butte’s Elevation Hotel and Spa. Trenadee got ready with just her mom, while Mason’s room was filled with various family and friends floating in and out. Once they were dressed, Mason and the guests went ahead to the ceremony site at Peanut Lake. Trenadee and her dad followed behind.
Two of the traditions Trenadee and Mason chose to keep were to have Trenadee’s dad walk her down the aisle and to wait to see each other until the ceremony began. Mason’s smile when he sees her for the first time proves how meaningful of a decision that was to them. One of Trenadee’s favorite moments from the wedding day was arriving to the ceremony site and seeing everyone gathered there, having traveled so far to celebrate with them.
They had one of their friends officiate their wedding for them (Colorado does not require ordination for someone to officiate your ceremony!), and chose to forgo personal vows. The earliest of the season’s thunderstorms brought a little bit of rain for good luck, and birds ducked and swooped behind them. By their first kiss, it was fully raining! We broke out a stack of clear umbrellas and luckily didn’t get too wet.
Couples Portraits - Gothic Pass
After a few group portraits at the ceremony site, Trenadee, Mason, and I drove up Gothic Pass for couples portraits. “The most fun we had was going up the pass for photos. We got to frolic around and see the mountains.” June in the mountains means snow still on the highest peaks, with the earliest wildflowers and the aspens fully leafed out. It was truly picturesque. Mason wore a bright green bejeweled frog brooch that perfectly matched the greenery around them.
Trenadee and Mason booked a private room at The Wooden Nickel for dinner. Everyone ordered apps, drinks, and entrees, and sank into jovial conversation under the warm chandelier lights. The restaurant customized their menus with a note of congratulations, which was an unexpected touch. The couple chose not to do any dances, speeches, or cake cutting and to keep things more natural and casual. After dinner, they signed their marriage license. Instead of making it a formal ceremony, Trenadee and Mason plugged everyone’s names into an online generator, which randomly decided who got to sign.
Planning a destination micro wedding was tricky, and the travel aspect was something that surprised the couple.
“Planning in a whole different state was kind of a lot. You’re trying to find vendors, but you don’t know anything; you’re just on their website. Navigating hotel bookings when you’re not familiar with the area, you hope that things fit together and that online reviews are true. Something else that was tricky was having to travel with all of our wedding stuff. I was stressing putting my dress in the overhead bin. It’s a whole different level, and something we didn’t think about.”
“It really does goes so fast. It’s so cliche; everyone says it. I feel like I blacked out during the ceremony. We were standing there and then we were not anymore.”
“If I had to give advice, I’d say to start sooner. We were engaged for three years, and I feel like we waited too long to get the ball rolling. I wasn’t spending enough time on it to investigate; I was hoping for the best. Suddenly I needed to figure out everything. So, give yourself more time to do things, especially with travel and lodging. That goes for the day of the wedding as well. I felt like I had so much time, and then the time came and I needed another hour.”
“Just because you’re eloping doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that go into it.”
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