Lindsay & TJ’s wedding story started in downtown Denver, Colorado where I joined the party at the funky, elegant Hotel Monaco. The bride, her sister, friends and mothers, got adorned on blue velvet couches in a luxurious suite. When everyone was dressed the Mother of the Bride Facetimed her elderly mother, who was unable to attend the wedding due to COVID. This gift of technology was a constant at weddings held in the latter half of 2020.

The bride and I drove out of Denver and headed straight into some decisively grey clouds on our way to the top of Lookout Mountain in Golden. As we waited for the limo bus to arrive with the rest of the wedding party, I got Lindsay prepared for the First Look outside in a stone gazebo at Boettcher Mansion… and then the rain came blowing straight through on a crisp mountain wind. We roughed it out in the gazebo until things calmed down. TJ finally saw Lindsay for their First Look as the summer rain pattered softly down around them dripping off of the lodgepole pines.

Their ceremony and reception took place at Pines at Genesee in Golden. The location of the ceremony waited for the couple to decide if it would be “inside” or “outside”, and the clouds answered by letting some blue sky through. Their touching ceremony with family and friends was surrounded by a lush fold of trees that their altar’s floral arrangement complimented beautifully.

The rest of the night was full with many tears of joy, but also of sorrow, for the bride’s departed father who wasn’t there to dance the first dance with his newly wedded daughter. But the bride was swept up by her vivacious grandfather who danced her around the floor with sheer joy and a determination to make her smile… which everyone did. Finally the groom’s brothers and friends shared cigars and drinks on the back porch as it sprinkled lightly in a night cap to an epic Colorado wedding day.