Telluride | Colorado Adventure Elopement | Lauren + Cooper

I clearly can’t even start this blog post without acknowledging the Pandemic of COVID-19. Half of March and now all of April weddings have been canceled and I’m not going to lie, I think we are looking at more of the same for May as well. This is so damn heartbreaking for all the couples who are losing their dreams for their days. I do see a lot of couples still going on with an elopement. I’ve been asked to quietly do elopements during the Colorado’s Stay at Home Orders and I’ve had to turn them down to keep my family safe. I’m not going to lie, when I’ve refunded endless money it’s extra painful to have to turn down income. Let’s please come together by staying apart to stay safe. We are all in this together and the more we stay home, hopefully the quicker we can get back to moving on with our dreams and plans.

Now on to Lauren and Cooper who last year intentionally decided last year that big wedding wasn't for them.  They wanted to get married up in the Colorado mountains, where they had spent a ton of time hiking, camping, and exploring Colorado.  The San Juan Mountains were a perfect place for them to elope, just them.  They knew just the place they wanted to be.  In between two waterfalls, they had discovered where they would say their vows and be married.  It was perfectly them and perfectly what they wanted.  I know it didn't come without a little understanding heartache from their family, but Lauren and Cooper stuck with what was true to them as a couple and their day was pure magic.

As their mid-June elopement crept closer Lauren and I exchanged many texts as it proved to be the snowiest spring in ages and the San Juan Mountain range was at 600% capacity.  Avalanches were at a record high for the region as well. Lauren just laughed it off and even though I had offered to reschedule, like a true adventurer she kept the date and we brought our snowshoes just in case. (Awe, the good old days, when Avalanches were our biggest worry.) We had no idea what to expect but were ready for anything.

The day of their elopement did not disappoint.  The morning was glorious with clear skies and sunshine, as we went over to the pass for some epic shots, we drove to their secret spot.  Lauren in her gorgeous wedding dress and Cooper in his Tux, they put on their backpacks, threw on their microspikes, hiked over and through avalanche debris and married on an avalanche field, the smell of freshly shredded pine trees, cold snow and the roaring twin waterfalls in the background it couldn’t be more perfect.  I couldn’t even hear their vows, but their faces said it all.  They took it all in and then we had to hike back down the mountain as the weather was turning fast, but not before each of them choose a piece of “Wedding Wood” they would bring back down the mountain and have an epic battle by the car, as the legend would have it.  Okay, that legend started that day but it will be now required for generations to come that you must hike up the mountain to get married and bring down your wedding wood for all to see.

This epic elopement was perfect, and not because it was in an epic location, but because the spot chosen wasn’t from National Geographic, it was a spot that meant a lot to them, that they had found because they were natural explorers and that’s genuinely how they were. It wasn’t about photos, and truth be told, they almost didn’t even have a photographer.  It was epic because it honored Lauren and Cooper’s relationship as a couple and what they wanted and they chose how they wanted their day.