Lauren + Alexander’s Intimate Winter Wedding

Winter is usually a super slow time for Colorado wedding photographers but this year I’m bucking the trend and photographing a BUNCH of winter weddings … and I couldn’t be more excited about it! When Lauren and Alexander told me they were looking for an Estes Park wedding photographer to capture their intimate wedding outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, I was all in!

A funny story about these guys! When we met up for drinks several months ago to talk about their wedding Alexander and I discovered that we both use the same camera systems (Team Fuji! I’ve got a blog post coming up about why I made the switch to mirrorless!). We ended up nerding out for a few minutes about lenses and I discovered that he had a couple that I had been wanting to try. He offered to let me borrow them for a little while and after our meeting I drove over to their house and picked them up! I joked that I was going to hold the lenses hostage until they booked me for their wedding. Fortunately I didn’t have to wait long!

And if you’re wondering, after returning the lenses to him a few weeks later I ordered them myself. I’m so obsessed with these little Fuji cameras and the glass that comes with them!

Anyway, back to the wedding!

Lauren and Alexander rented a beautiful house in Estes Park that had huge windows overlooking Longs Peak and the rest of Rocky Mountain National Park. It was dumping snow when I left Boulder that morning but by the time I made the quick drive up to Estes the snow had cleared and the sun was shining bright! It was a PERFECT day for a winter wedding!

As you scroll through these photos you may notice that the ceremony venue changes after Lauren walked down the aisle! A last minute (VERY last minute!) decision was made to make use of the “warm”, sunny winter weather and move the ceremony outside onto the deck. The beauty of these intimate weddings (I believe they had 14 guests) is that you can make these super last minute changes! Despite making for some tricky mid-day light,  the move to the deck was TOTALLY worth it. Snow glittered down as they said their vows and it couldn’t have been anymore perfect!

Following the ceremony they had a toast, celebrated with their guests for a bit, took family photos, and then we headed out for a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park!

We spent about two and a half hours hiking and taking photos and it was an absolutely perfect way to end the day. I always try to make sure my couples have some time at the end of the day to just breathe (ok, this time we were breathing hard from the steep hike!) for a bit and take it all in and this hike did just that. We also got some killer photos. 😉

When we got back to the house I said goodbye and they spend the rest of the evening celebrating with their family and friends.

Here are some photos from their day. Enjoy!