Katie and Clay are just such a joy to be around. I felt so lucky to be part of their special day and to hang out with them and witness all their adorable and goofy moments. I just love how silly and joyful these two are! Their love for each other and those around them is intoxicating. They are so thoughtful and kind and just fun beautiful people.
They really made me feel like more than just a photographer. They cared so much about everyone at their wedding, taking all the precautions to keep everyone safe and make everyone feel like an important part of their day.
They even planned a place for me to sit during dinner! Not only that but they put me on the decorative seating chart! I automatically assumed they had a guest named Kara when I saw my name on the board under table 7, but no they had just created a space for me! They really just wanted to make sure everyone felt safe and cared for and loved!
They had everything at the Silverpick Lodge out near Purgatory. They chose the location partly because they could rent out all the rooms for their guests and nobody would have to get in a car all day, it also doesn't hurt that it is such a gorgeous location!
Katie and her girls got ready in the spa area, full of beautiful light and a view of the mountains. Clay and the guys got ready in one of the rooms, and were just having a blast being goofy and hanging out.
The atmosphere all through the lodge was just excitement and joy, even when we found out the dinner time might have to be drastically moved up, (which ended up being resolved and fine), there was never a feeling of stress in the air.
Their ceremony was socially distanced, they had a seating chart and all the chairs of different pods were placed a good distance from each other. So everyone could sit and safely enjoy their ceremony. The ceremony was absolutely beautiful, with a fall forest backdrop and light streaming through the trees! The colors Katie and Clay picked went beautifully with their surroundings, complementing the natural colors around them with pops of purple. Their flowers by Lulu's Petals looked like beautiful waterfalls of color.
Katie and Clay's officiant Megan did such a great job, she brought meaning, laughter, joy, and love to their ceremony. Clay's wedding ring is made out of dinosaur bone and meteorite, and right off the bat Megan says something along the lines of "let's talk about dinosaurs" and weaves humor and meaning in based off Clay's wedding ring. She did also point out the irony of the fact that meteors took out the dinosaurs haha.
After their ceremony they put on their bride and groom masks to safely mingle with their guests before we jumped into formal portraits. Katie looked so good in her bridal mask, something about the lace peeking over the top made her eyes pop even more! But I was still excited when we went off to do portraits and she could show her beautiful smile and contagious laugh again.
Their bride and groom portraits were so much fun, because they just had so much fun with them. I would give them little directions, leaving room for their personalities to come through. One of my favorite moments was when I asked them to walk down a beautiful path of fall leaves and I gave them the direction to hip check each other every once in a while. The hip checking got intense and eventually Katie just pushed Clay into a bush, both laughing the whole time. Then later we did a little switch up and had Katie dip Clay in the traditional dip pose, and it was both hilarious and awesome, but also the photo just looks so good! Really shows off their personalities and their relationship together.
Every part of the day had their unique goofiness somewhere embedded in the moment, and they could swing from a goofy social distanced first dance to a meaningful teary dance 5 minutes later and it all just fit. It was all just them, silliness and deep heart string pulling love all wrapped up in one.
I can't express enough how much I loved shooting Katie and Clay's wedding and how much I have loved getting to know them through this whole process, from their first inquiry, to their engagement portraits adventuring out in the desert, to working with them through all the date changes, and then of course their beautiful wedding day!
Congratulations Katie and Clay, I know you will have such a beautiful life together full of love and laughter! Keep being silly, keep loving hard!
