Wedding Week Weather

I think it's safe to say that majority of brides imagine their wedding day with blue skies and the sun shining, a picture perfect weather day. I'm going to share the story of our wedding week weather with you because I was not in that weather camp and also because when I share our pictures with you in the recaps, I want you all to know how perfect the weather was for us.

We planned our outside winter wedding in anticipation of the weather being winter-y. We had outside heaters, we passed along wise words to dress warm, and my mom even bought 30 fleece blankets at After-Christmas sales. What we didn't plan on was unusually warm weather. By January 10th, Durango had not even a flake of snow since the first week in December, and the highs were nearing the mid-50's. When trees are dormant and all that remains from the last snow storm is brown ice and brown dirt, the landscape is far from pretty.

On January 11th, the day our 10-day forecast was available, it predicted sun, sun and more sun all the way through our wedding day. What is the problem you may wonder, with all the sunny predictions? Both Mr. Honey and I just wanted one damn snow storm. We wanted a fluffy white ground, a frozen lake, snow-tipped trees. Keeping in mind that a Colorado blue-bird day would not be that awful and that we cannot as brides control the weather, I tried my damndest to just accept it. I honestly did. But I prayed to Ullr anyway and requested everyone I know do the same to help this winter bride out. In case you aren't familiar with Ullr, he his believed by many mountain towns to be the God of Snow and he his summoned when the winter is looking rather bleak. I have no idea the authenticity of the legend, but I do know I had nothing to loose by requesting a little precipitation.

On January 16th, the Monday of our wedding week, we got snow. Whether it was Ullr or just a change in the forecast, the once brown ground was finally covered with the white stuff! We even got enough snow for our flower girls to build this giant snowman:

We got our one snow storm, and I'll admit half of me was content with whatever the weather presented come Saturday. The other half of me? I got greedy, I wanted more snow. Throughout the year and a half of us planning, the possibility of a snow storm was there but I didn't realize just how much I wanted that snow storm until the reality of it not being there was in front of me. Deep down I wanted a snow storm on our wedding day. There I said it. Call us crazy, it's okay, I realize how few people would actually say those words.

As the week wore on, the chance of snow on our Saturday grew more and more. It started with something like 10% chance after 10 pm and by Friday the chances were up around 60 or 70%. I didn't believe it though...Friday was a beautiful day with clear skies and warm weather. Saturday morning I woke up to pretty thin clouds, not typical snow clouds. The forecast had something else in mind though. 100% chance of snow accumulation of up to 10 inches. The flakes started falling around 10 am and did.not.stop. We had the most perfect Colorado snow storm: fluffy snowflakes, a mild temperature, no wind and a serenity that is only felt when a storm like that is happening.
My girls rocked their short dresses. Our photographer did have to run around with a pink fleece over his camera. Sure guests got a little wet. And yes it did cause a little bit of chaos. BUT it was the way our wedding weather turned out and it was amazing. We keep saying that if we could have in fact had control of the weather, a snow storm would have been our number one choice.

What started out as a less-than desired weather forecast turned into our weather wish. While no one can tell a bride to avoid looking at the forecast, it is safe to say that no matter how many times we do look at it, there's no telling how quickly that forecast will change. Whether it's my case of hoping for sun to change to snow or the normal situation of rain to shine, I hope you all have your version of perfect wedding weather.  I'll leave you with this one last teaser picture of the Honeys happily walking around in the perfect snow storm:

Photo by Zak Fleming Photography

Now, hopefully you are ready to see the snow filled goodness from our wedding because the Honey recaps are about to start!

Did anyone else have crazy weather on their wedding day? Any other brides hoping for something other than a sunny day?

These Boots Are Made For Walkin'

I used to have a spending problem; a spending-money-on-shoes-I-never-wear problem. I used to wear heels nearly every day and I loved buying heels. But I was a cheap shoe buyer. Like Ross and Target, cheap. I always wanted to drop a couple Benjamin's on a pair of shoes, but I just never could whip out the credit card for a pair. As a result, my closet was filled with cheap heels. A couple years back BM Hogan had a shoe intervention of sorts; she made me realize that the majority of my shoes had never.been.worn. Since then, I have slowly gotten rid of shoes and I'm down to a shoe rack with twelve pairs; okay this doesn't include my flip flops, tennis shoes and boots, but I did reduce my collection to about a quarter of it's original glory. My shoe habits have since changed pretty drastically.

Four out of the five days at work, I wear my stand by super small wedge and if it's not that wedge, it's a pair of kitten heels...and on the weekend? I'm either in flip flops or Ugg's, depending on the season. Now, when I wear a normal heel, it kills my feet. Like aching in five minutes, get these damn things off me now! It makes me beyond sad that the muscles that used to allow me to rock heels everyday, are gone. Why am I telling you all of this? Obviously it relates to my wedding day shoes and the fact that I will not be wearing these, or anything remotely similar:

Image via Weddingism

Le Sigh. They are so stunning and so wedding-y, but too much heel for me..oh, yes, and we are getting married in January in Colorado. Snow and heels isn't the most ideal combination. I had to begin thinking about other options that would work for our winter wedding. Ugg's were the first obvious choice, I loved seeing Mrs. Champagne sport the Ugg's for her snowy photo shoot. I even told my bridesmaid's early on in planning that I wanted us to all wear Ugg's, but this was all premature. (Although seeing Miss Sunhat's post on sparkly Ugg's made me want them again...what's with my indecisiveness?!) Sometime after we settled on our rustic venue, mismatched dresses and a final color palette, I came across this picture:

Image via Style Me Pretty/Photo by Watson Studios



I know, I know...I have already referenced this picture, but it is like this picture was meant for my inspiration file; it's perfect for the look I'm going after. That's right, the Honey 'maids and I will be showcasing cowboy boots for our wedding! They strike the perfect balance of warm and stylish. They fit so perfectly with our venue and majority of the girls already own a pair of cowboy boots. For the couple that don't, I'm searching high and low for just the right pair for them. As for me, I will share my story about boots next.

In case you need convincing that girls in dresses and cowboy boots is just pure awesome sauce, here you go:

Image via Once Wed/Photo by Steven Myers Photography

Image via Style Me Pretty/Photo by Jose Villa Photo 

The Sand Dollar Wedding!

Image via Weddingbee/Photo by Scott V

Did your wedding season have an influence on your wedding shoes? Who else had/has a cheap shoe obsession? Let's talk shoes (and boots), hive!

The Colors That Were

While I've already introduced you to the Honey venue, it should be known that I obsessed and panicked over this detail of our wedding: the colors.

For some reason out of my control, one of the first things I wanted to determine when we got engaged was the color palette. It was a good three months of being engaged before we found our venue, but that didn't stop me from deciding my color palette, then changing it, and changing it again...and maybe still having color envy of other delicious palettes. It's a problem, fo sho. I love color and it really sets the tone of the wedding.

When I first began searching 'winter weddings' two color palettes were very prominent:

Red, Black & Gold

Who Wants To Be My Venue? Part Three.

After we had narrowed the list down, decided that a cafe with restrictions, and a venue with alcohol limitations but an abundance of dead animals didn't quite meet our vision...we drove to Vallecito Lake to check out the Community Center. I'm going to go ahead and say, at the risk of sounding snobby, that I'm not too fond of the generic Community Center name. From here on out, the venue will be referred to as simply Vallecito Lake or Vallecito Lake Events Center. Don't judge.

While I'm being honest with you, Hive, I'm also going to show you the picture that I came across in our venue search that quickly deterred me from considering it:

 Image via Vallecito Lake Chamber

The decoration, in my opinion, doesn't do the room justice. However, being taught not to judge a book by it's cover, I wanted to check it out myself. The only other picture the website offers is the one below of the outside of the building, and while it still isn't the most flattering picture of a wedding venue, we saw potential. 

Image via Vallecito Lake Chamber

Vallecito Lake should sound familiar because it is where we got engaged on our sail boat. The lake is positioned 18 miles northeast from Durango and sits at 8,000 feet above sea level. Vallecito, meaning "little valley" in Spanish has a small community surrounding the shoreline, which has only about 400 to 500 residents year round (this number jumps to around 2,000 in the summer months). The lake and community represent Colorado to a perfect 'T', just what we were looking for.

We visited in early fall, so the colors were vibrant and the air was crisp but things were starting to hibernate for the winter. We were okay with that because we know that Aspens are bare in winter, so we had a better idea of what it would look like without the foilage. The outside of the building is really great in person...it fits the little rustic community of Vallecito. When we entered the space, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. Without the clustered tables, it is a blank slate. The most decoration they had was antler shaped chandeliers, which we can totally handle. This building is fairly new, being constructed after a devastating fire destroyed 70,000+ acres in 2002, much of it in the Vallecito Lake area.


Image via Colorado.gov/Photo by Shaun Stanley with the Denver Post

There is a fully covered wrap-around deck, an industrial self serve kitchen, plenty of parking, a couple potential OUTDOOR ceremony locations. It comes with tables (round or rectangle) and chairs. Plus, since we are getting married in the very-much off season, they are totally relaxed. And the price? Ridiculously affordable. Score, score and score.

The one downfall catch is that Vallecito is a good 30 minutes from Durango. And the roads are curvy mountain roads. And in January there is a good chance for blizzards. We want everyone to be safe heading to and from our wedding so we had to make sure we could offer some places to stay. In the summertime, the lake is speckled with RVers from all over the country...in the wintertime majority of the population close up shop and winterize their buildings.

While we were at Vallecito, we drove around the lake and stopped in many of the little 'resorts' they have. Most of them are a combo RV/Resort, with the resort portion offering charming mountain cabins. We confirmed that there would be about ten 1,2 & 3 bedroom cabins available in the winter months along with a few larger homes. We knew that not all 150ish guests would be staying the night at Vallecito so we felt that what was offered seemed to be plenty.

 Image via Lone Wolf Lodge

We were set on booking this venue. It has sentimental meaning. It fits our charming/rustic/whimsical vision. There's so much potential to make it our own. We signed on the dotted line and handed over the deposit check.


We drove back up to Vallecito Lake in early December to cut down our Christmas tree and so we made a pit stop at the venue and I snapped a few pictures:

Rustic Little Building

Showcasing the Covered Porch

Happy Honeys!

So hive, tell me, did you have to look past the first picture you saw of your venue to see potential?

Who Wants To Be My Venue? Part Two.

When I left off, I had narrowed down my list of potential venues to three, yes 3. I was very eager to take the next step and actually look at them. I will admit I was a tad jealous of other brides who had a lot longer list and I was a bit nervous that my venue list only included three, what would we do if those three weren't what we wanted...or too expensive...or ended up not wanting to accommodate our requests. The venues have a lot of power over the direction of a wedding.

My mom and I scheduled the first meeting and went together because Mr. H was unable to get off work at that time. My mom had spoke with the lady and outlined our thoughts: winter wedding, outside, 150ish guests, doggy in attendance. On the phone she said "Not a problem, we can work with this".

We drove 10 miles west of Durango to Kennebec Cafe, a charming cafe nestled at the base of the La Plata mountain range. I adore this cafe, their food and atmosphere. She had just added on and finished a full wrap-around patio outside: bonus. The inside was open and modern, with fireplaces scattered throughout.

Image via Kennebec Cafe's website

We arrived and sat in the entry area for 15 minutes waiting for the lady, apparently she forgot and went on a quick walk: strike one. We did a walk through of the building and she proceeded to ask us the exact same questions my mom had gone over with her on the phone: strike two. She then told us that only half of the restaurant would be available at the time of our wedding, making it only able to hold 50 people: strike three. You'd think after three strikes we'd be out like trout, but we stayed and filled out an 'application'. That's when strike four occurred, her menu prices. Being that this is a restaurant, she obviously does the catering herself, which was fine so we discussed our desire to have a casual dinner. And the casual menu cost per head? $20 to $30. I don't think we could have gotten out of there fast enough. On to venue number two.

We scheduled our next two visits the same day because they were in the same area. The first was a recommendation from a family member who had been to a birthday bash at this private home mansion, called the Retreat at Thunder Ridge. The couple was in the beginning process of offering their home as a wedding venue, but we would be the first to get married in the winter. This home is spectacular:

 Image via Thunder Ridge website

The couple actually provides this home as a retreat for ministries. Because of this I was actually a little hesitant; we are not a religious couple at all, and we didn't want someone else to have expectations of how we should be married. The couple was incredibly nice and accommodating and shared pure joy with our vision. They were okay with the pooch and were on board for the outdoor winter ceremony. Their home in winter? To die for:

Image via Thunder Ridge website

Then we started talking logistics. This is going to be a party, and we have friends (including us!) who like to celebrate with plenty of libations. We like loud, booty shaking music. They weren't really on board for Jager shots or hard alcohol period. Mr. H really enjoys Jager. They also wanted all of our guests to take their shoes off when in the mansion. I understand their concern, it being winter and potentially muddy out and they had beautiful wood floors from some far off land. It just wasn't going to fly because we like liquor and we would prefer our wedding photo album to not include our guests socks. The other kicker for me? This guy was a world traveling big game hunter and he liked to proudly display his 'kill's' on every.inch.of.wall space. Me in my prettiest on my wedding day, with a dead zebra/bear/big horn sheep in the background is not what I picture. Although it works for some couples who can rock the look of stuffed animals:

 

Image via Offbeat Bride/Photo by Donald Norris

Even though this mansion was incredibly beautiful and the couple were delightful, logistically it just wasn't going to work for us. Next up, we crossed our fingers hoping that the third venue would be a charm!

Was anyone else deterred from a venue because of the potential for off the wall photos, like guest's socks?

Who Wants To Be My Venue? Part One.

Somewhere in my bridal haze, I had imagined finding a venue to not be too difficult. Go ahead, you can laugh at me, I would laugh at me too. I did really assume that it would be like asking "Will You Be My Venue?", I mean you are paying to have a large event there, what could be so hard?

I think I assumed it would be fairly painless because we live in a small town. There isn't a large selection of venues. In fact the embarrassing truth is that according to Colorado Wedding Magazine, there are....drum roll please, NINE venues available in the Durango area. Granted these are the structures/locations that advertise themselves as a wedding venue. With a bit of creativity the options expand a tiny bit...unless you are like the Honeys and getting married with snow on the ground.

Sure a few of those nine venues are still available in the winter months, but we have to be a little more extreme because we want to have our wedding ceremony outside. You read that correctly, outside in January, in Colorado. I have always dreamed & envisioned myself getting married outside. There was no other way, even in winter. And luckily Mr. H was fully on board. Majority of the weddings in our area do take place outside, I've only been to one over the years that took place indoors and that's because Colorado scenery is just breathtaking:

Image via Custom Weddings of Colorado/Photo by Greg Harring

This was request number one: is there a way for us to say I Do outside. We had a second request for our potential venues because we want photo op's like this:

Image via Luster Studios/Photo by Luster Studios

That's right, Hive, our 100 pound handsome puppy dog will be rockin' a tie for our big day. Here's a refresher of our handsome dog:

Zeus likes to wear things; here is wearing beads and his back pack.

Before I even started contacting venues directly I spent time researching who was even open all year round, since we do get hefty amounts of snow here, many places are only open May through October. This narrowed down my list substantially, but it took even more work to try and uncover some hidden gems that may or may not be willing to get business in the oh-so-dead season. Armed with a contact list and my wedding requests requirements, I started at the top...and by the top I mean the venues that were most intriguing to us.

The list was narrowed down very quickly. Here is a short list of the No-Goers.

- Cascade Lodge was beautiful, but no winter access to their outdoor ceremony site.
- Purgatory/DMR was not available since, ahem, people are using the mountain for skiing
- Blue Lake Ranch was open in the winter, but only for a wedding with 40-50 guests
- Silverpick Lodge was willing to work with us on the outside request but NO dogs allowed
- Abbey Theatre didn't return any of our FOUR phone calls so we were not interested
- Avalon Acres did not allow pets whatsoever
- The Glacier Club also never returned emails or phone calls

On a side note, what gives with venues just straight up ignoring requests for information?!

After contacting the more obvious choices and having NO luck, we did start think more creatively. Private mansions via VRBO. Ranches in the countryside. I got frustrated after one email from a coordinator questioned my ability to comprehend winters in Durango. Yes, LADY, I do know it SNOWS here. I LIVE HERE. Sense my frustration?

After all but giving up, finally finally I had three venues who would meet with us and were willing to accommodate our two requests.

Who else has (or had) special requests that made it a little more difficult to find the venue? Was anyone else's venue list as teeny tiny as mine? Let's here it hive!

Decision One: Made

I'm hoping I was like all some newly engaged gals when I say that, even though I had only been engaged for a mere couple hours, my mind was instantly in wedding mode.

For me, setting the date the night we got engaged was priority one two three. I called my parents (priority one), and called my best friend (priority two), MOH Honey. After asking how Mr. H proposed, and then of course congratulating us, the first question my parents and MOH Honey asked us, was when...When will we get married?! The date is so important and everything revolves around the date. I know that is the first question I ask newly engaged peeps. I guess it's in attempt to know how soon (or far away) the date is. Are we talking next month or next year? The date is a pretty big deal.

So, we sat down after drinking our celebratory champagne and discussed the date, very very lightheartedly. I knew this: we already had four friends getting married in summer 2011.These four ladies were engaged before me and I did not feel comfortable tromping in and squeezing our wedding in between ones that had already been set. We wanted to be different, provide something different. And that's when decision one was made: we will have a winter wedding!

Lets indulge in some winter and snowy wedding goodness.

Our own Mrs. Champagne! Image via Weddingbee.com/Photo by  Design MB Fotografie

Another snowy bride, Mrs. Knitting! Image via Weddingbee.com/Photo by Josh Levinson

Photo by Elizabeth Vanderbij

Photo by Ian Johnson

Image via Wedding Splendor/Photo by Shandro Photo

Image via Snippet & Ink/Photo by Kristopher Orr

We instantly had our hearts set on the winter wedding in the Colorado mountains. Being that we got engaged in August we decided to take the long engagement route and rather than push ourselves to plan a wedding in 5 months, we would take 17 months. Picking the date in January 2011 involved nothing more than looking at what the dates were on Saturday's and picking my favorite. Super technical and special, heh? Since we didn't have our hearts set on any particular date, this worked the best for us, and even though there wasn't a lot of though process behind the decision, I love the way the dates look together. Easy peasy, on to the next step...

Did you just pick a date because the numbers looked good together or were you lucky enough to have sentiment behind the big date?! Who else is loving the off-beat season of winter weddings?