I met Jessie and James in a beautiful Denver park full of cherry blossoms. Their love and joy was infectious and we had so much fun!
Jessie shares, “James and I met through a total coincidence of mutual people we knew. Our first conversation was on the night of his sister’s wedding and we stayed up and talked for seven hours!
He makes everything in my life better and I never understood “better half” until I met this man who completely complements me.
We went to Telluride for our seventh anniversary and he proposed in the morning with our dog Pretzel. The seven year anniversary gift is copper and around pretzels neck he was wearing a copper dog tag that said “Will you marry my dad?” to which my response was, “This isn’t happening.” and I turn around and James was down on one knee in our beautiful hotel room.”
The couple is getting married in the backyard of Jessie’s childhood home, along the waterfront in New York.
She adds, “James asked me to be his girlfriend on October 11, 2013, asked me to be his wife on October 11, 2020, and we are going to both say I do on October 11, 2021, surrounded by everyone we love.”
Happy engagement Jessie and James!
Special thanks to Rachel Wise of Wise Artistry for Jessie’s gorgeous hair and makeup.
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As part of a special styled wedding shoot I took Hannah and Taylor downtown for some wedding portraits at Denver’s Union Station.
I began my wedding photography business in Washington D.C. and N.Y.C. and it was so fun to be back in an urban setting. I love mountain weddings, but there is something special and electric about being in the city.
SPACE Gallery is an art gallery and premiere event venue located in the Santa Fe Arts District of Denver, Colorado–the perfect place for a modern bride and groom.
Alison Amy of A Bride’s Best Mate, Chuck Hutson of Hutson Floral Design and I dreamed up this art gallery wedding inspiration. We were inspired by the space, the artwork and a chic city style with pops of color. Along with the creative talents of Chirp’s and Cricket Paper Design, Sweet Ride Bakeshop, Vow’d Wedding Dress, Skin Works Studio and Allwell Rents, the style came together so beautifully. Â
Special thanks to SPACE Gallery and the artists currently on exhibit: Rebecca Rutstein, Ramón Bonilla, Frank T. Martinez and Joshua Enck. A big thank you also goes to our couple, recently married Hannah and Taylor. Congratulations on your wedding this past summer!
I have loved visiting art galleries since I was a little girl going to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. with my mom. It was such a joy to shoot in this beautiful gallery filled with interesting pieces.
It was pretty amazing to see how Chuck pulled the colors out of the artwork to create this gorgeous bouquet.
More photos of this couple and a trip to downtown Denver and Union Station coming soon!
Courtney and Erik just recently moved to Colorado. We had a wonderful time walking around Mt Falcon and celebrating their engagement.
Courtney shares, “Erik and I first met while we were attending college at West Virginia University. Erik and my older brother Ryan were fast friends, and luckily that led to Erik and I having a great friendship as well. The three of us all shared a love for online computer games and spent countless hours together online during our college years. Even after college when we all went our separate directions to start our post-college lives, we stayed connected.
Erik and I both admit to having short lived crushes on each other during our college years together, but timing was never in our favor. It wasn’t until nearly 10 years after we first met that Erik made a move, and our time had finally come. One of Erik’s favorite bands, Brand New, was having a concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I happened to be living in Milwaukee at the time, so he took the opportunity for us to meet up. That concert ended up being our first date of many more to come, and when my career led me to Charlotte, North Carolina, Erik moved with me so that we could end our long-distance dating and be together again.
Erik proposed to me over Memorial Day weekend in 2019. He planned an amazing trip to Sausalito, California just outside of San Francisco. The morning after we arrived, Erik was up bright and early at 6am ready to start the day. This should have been my first clue something was going on because neither of us would ever choose to wake up that early on a weekend. Turns out his phone didn’t update from EST to PST, so he thought it was already 9am and he had big plans for the day. Erik and I got breakfast at a local diner overlooking the bay and then headed up to the Redwood Forest for a mid-morning hike. On our hike, Erik found a quiet area overlooking the park and after getting down on one knee, he asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes. We spent the rest of the weekend celebrating. I still can’t help but smile thinking back on that day one year ago.”
Courtney continues, “We were all set to be married at a neighborhood yacht club on Lake Norman in North Carolina on March 21, 2020 when covid-19 changed the world around us in a matter of 24 hours. It was the Friday before our wedding weekend when the U.S. officially closed the borders to tourists, and governors leapt into action implementing various restrictions on public gatherings. That weekend, with the health and safety of our family and friends in mind, we made the decision to post-pone our wedding to September of this year. We truly hope our friends and family will be able to gather and celebrate our marriage in September, but even if it ends up being a bit smaller than we had planned, it will be perfect. Â
My career brought us to Colorado at the very beginning of March 2020, and even though we couldn’t get married at the end of March as originally planned, I wanted to do something special to celebrate us and our new life in Colorado. I am so glad I found Jessica to shoot our engagement session re-take! Being new to the area, trying to pick a location for a photo shoot was a bit overwhelming, but Jessica suggested so many beautiful locations to choose from. I was drawn towards Mt. Falcon Park because it reminded me of our proposal weekend and the hike where it all began. With our one-year engagement anniversary right around the corner, it was the perfect setting to bring back all those memories of a truly joyous time in our lives.
Courtney and Erik were so natural in front of the camera and you could tell they were so happy together.
Courtney adds, “My favorite moments from our photo session were when our poses left us laughing until we cried. Jessica assured us our laughing fits would make for the best pictures, and from our sneak peak I’d say she was right. Erik and I left the session feeling so light hearted and excited for wedding day to finally come.”
Happy engagement Courtney and Erik!
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Julie and Justin planed a special elopement in the Colorado foothills after their travel plans changed due to COVID. They found a wonderful way to celebrate their marriage by reading their vows to each other, popping champagne and watching the sunset over the mountains.
Julie shares, “We went back and forth for awhile over whether to have a wedding or elope in Italy. Our families supported both options, but encouraged us to make sure we were doing this for us. So we settled on both – we had a trip booked to Italy leaving May 7th. We were planning to elope at a castle winery in Tuscany, where we would stay for two days and have the ceremony, photos, wine tasting, cooking class, fancy dinner, etc. We were also planning to hit Rome, Florence, and Venice as part of our honeymoon.
We were so bummed to cancel, but plan to still do our honeymoon in Italy at some point later this year (hopefully!). We were equally looking forward to the 50-person park party we had planned for family and close friends in June to celebrate our marriage.
When we realized that COVID was likely going to create issues for our plans, we went to the courthouse on March 10th and got legally married. This was right before the world basically shut down and days before quarantine started.
We are so happy we made things official before everything closed down. After our events subsequently got cancelled, we wanted to do something to celebrate our marriage and read our vows. One of our friends suggested we get a photographer to document the occasion, and the rest is history! We ended up having such a special day and even though it was low key, it ended up being much more special and meaningful than we could’ve imagined.”
Julie continues, “Our highlights from the day included reading our vows to each other, making funny faces and whispering funny things to make each other laugh during the photos (can’t wait to see these!), and then having a picnic and watching the sunset in such a beautiful location.
Some touches that made it feel more like an actual wedding were having a bouquet, flower crown, and boutonniere from Amore Fiori and getting a mini cake and champagne glasses to toast with.
To celebrate with some of our friends, we ended up decorating our bikes with “just married” decorations and streamers, and doing a bike crawl visiting all of our friends in Denver and sharing a beverage with them outside at a social distance.”
Julie shares the story of their proposal, “It was December 8th, one of the last nice, sunny days of the year. We had just had our holiday party the night before so we were a bit groggy in the morning. Justin suggested we go for a walk to get some fresh air (luckily my hair and nails were done because of the party, as I definitely was not expecting a proposal that day).
We ended up at the botanic gardens and did an impromptu visit since we hadn’t been all year. While I was in the restroom, Justin told a stranger what he was about to do and asked if she could film it. We started walking into the gardens and before I knew it, he was down on one knee, reading the most beautiful letter he wrote and we got the whole thing on video! Afterwards we FaceTimed all of our family and friends and then went to dinner at Acorn.”
