A Spruce Mountain Ranch wedding – Samantha & Alex’s fall wedding at Spruce Mountain Ranch was full of beautiful emotion and people. The day and timeline were flawless, and it was evident that everyone in attendance, guests and vendors alike, had the most wonderful time. We were the chosen photography team.
Spruce Mountain Ranch is Colorado’s premier ranch style venue for weddings.
A perfect blend of rustic elegance, Spruce Mountain Ranch is a 450-acre premier mountain venue conveniently located just outside of Denver. Spruce Mountain Ranch features two separate properties located over a mile apart, each offering magnificent hand-crafted detail and state of the art conveniences.
Samantha & Alex told me from the get-go that they wanted their images to not only help them remember the day, but also the emotion. We met at the very prestigious wedding show, Wine & Nosh, hosted at Spruce Mountain Ranch, and it was evident that they hired most if not all their wedding team at that show (who says wedding shows don’t work?).
They met in college and have a strong mutual friend group, and they were a blast to work with! There were a lot of people involved with a large bridal party and family, but our biggest challenge going into it was that we hadn’t had the chance to work together on a shoot yet. Sam and Alex chose not to do an engagement session with us, so the wedding was the first time they had been in front of my camera.
One of my many talents is remembering people’s names, in fact I study it the night before the wedding so all I have to do is assign a face to the name upon arrival. It makes it a more personal experience for everyone involved. This is always more challenging when there is a large bridal party!
Spruce Mountain Ranch is the most beautiful sprawling ranch
…and this past October wedding caught the golden aspen trees at the perfect time. Just before it got too cold, but warm enough to not need a jacket outside.
One of our favorite parts was the beverage burros they brought in for happy hour! These two furry friends were a hit! We also appreciated that the couple chose to enter the reception before the bridal party. It was important they got to see their friend’s silly skits they came up with upon announcement. They also chose to enjoy their meal on the balcony overlooking the reception space so they could have that uninterrupted time together. This was something we hadn’t seen before!
We let the events unfold naturally and used a long lens in most cases so that we could remain unobtrusive but also capture those intimate and emotional moments. I like to compare it to “hunting”…where I’m somewhat lurking and scanning the room for moments and smiles. When you can capture someone when they don’t know their photo is being taken, that’s when you get the true person and that authenticity.
When Samantha & Alex came to our studio to pick up their images, we prepared a special slide show of 100 of our favorites to help them relive that day. Samantha had tears in her eyes the entire time (and why we keep tissues handy). It is such a compliment when my couples find themselves overcome with that from their images and why we do this.
Venue : Spruce Mountain Ranch
Planner : A Touch of Bliss
Beauty : LoLa Beauty TX | CO | CA
Dress : Casa Bianca Bridal
Florists : 100 West Floral Design + Compass Rose Floral
Catering : Picnic Basket Catering
Sweets + Cake : Sugarplum Cake Shoppe
DJ : Colorado Wedding Productions
Videographer : Sound & Shutter
Rentals : Event Rents
Lighting + Draping : Colorado Lighting & Events Services
Other : Rocky Mountain Beverage Burro
