A Summit County Colorado Mountain Farm Wedding
A Colorado Mountain Farm Wedding North of Silverthorne
There was definitely no horsing around for this one.
I’m digging wayyyy back into the archives for this 2018 wedding just north of Silverthorne, Colorado, and honestly, it was too much fun not to bring back. A horse-drawn carriage, an incredible mountain backdrop, a canoe full of beverages, plenty of questionable balance and all the little unscripted moments that make photographing weddings so much fun.
And because this was a wedding on a farm in the Colorado mountains, somehow all of that just made sense.
A Pretty Memorable Entrance and Getaway Vehicle
There are plenty of ways to arrive at your wedding ceremony, but showing up by horse-drawn carriage is going to be pretty hard to forget.
The bride rode to the ceremony with her dad, surrounded by wide-open mountain scenery just north of Silverthorne. After the ceremony, the carriage became the getaway vehicle for the newlyweds.
Not a bad way to start married life.
One of the things I love about photographing weddings around Silverthorne and Summit County is how much the landscape can become part of the day. You don’t necessarily need a traditional Colorado wedding venue to have an incredible setting. Sometimes a backyard, a farm and a ridiculous mountain view are all you need.
The Moments Between the Big Moments
Looking back through this gallery, some of my favorite photos aren’t necessarily the ones you’d ever put on a wedding-day checklist.
There were all the big moments, of course. The ceremony, family photos, portraits and first dance are all here. But then there’s everything else.
One of my favorites is a photo of the bride and groom completely caught up dancing together while, right beside them, the groom’s parents are doing essentially the exact same thing. Nobody was posed or told where to stand. It was just one of those little parallels that happened for a few seconds and then was gone.
There was also a kid taking a tumble, an adult demonstrating some equally questionable balance, plenty of laughter and whatever other shenanigans unfolded along the way.
Those are the photographs I’m always watching for.
My background in photojournalism has a big influence on how I photograph weddings. I’ll absolutely step in and give direction when it’s time for portraits, but I don’t want the entire day to feel like one long photoshoot. A lot of the story happens when everyone forgets about the camera.
Sometimes the photos you never planned for end up saying the most about what the day actually felt like.
Why So Much Black and White?
Going back through this wedding, I found myself drawn to black and white for quite a few of the images.
I don’t think every emotional photograph automatically needs to lose its color. Sometimes color is a huge part of what makes an image work, especially at a Colorado mountain wedding with scenery like this.
But there are other moments where taking the color away lets everything else come forward.
For this gallery, certain expressions, interactions and little moments just felt stronger in black and white. There’s less competing for your attention, and your eye goes straight to the people and what’s happening between them.
That’s ultimately what matters to me.
The First Dance
Fast, slow or somewhere in between, I’ve always loved photographing a good first dance.
Their song was “Please Be with Me” by Eric Clapton, and I did something I’ve always enjoyed doing with first-dance photographs — overlaying the lyrics from the song across one of my favorite frames.
There’s something I love about connecting the photograph back to the music that was playing when it was taken. A photo can bring back what something looked like, but sometimes hearing the song again brings back an entirely different piece of the memory.
And, of course, the dancing didn’t stop once the first dance was over. Some of my favorite images from the reception came once everyone was simply having a good time and I could wander around looking for those little moments happening within the bigger celebration.
Nothing Quite Like a Backyard Wedding in Colorado
Traditional Colorado wedding venues can be incredible, but there’s something about a backyard or private-property wedding that has its own personality.
This one certainly did.
It felt relaxed, personal and completely at home in the mountains. The horses, open space, mountains and all the little farm details gave the photographs a sense of place that would have been impossible to manufacture somewhere else.
That’s one of the reasons I still love photographing weddings throughout Silverthorne, Summit County and the surrounding Colorado mountains. Every location and every couple brings something different, and I don’t want to force every wedding into the same collection of photographs.
Give me the beautiful mountain portraits, absolutely. But give me the kid falling over, parents dancing beside their son, a canoe full of beverages and whatever else happens when nobody is paying attention to the photographer.
Looking for a Silverthorne or Summit County Wedding Photographer?
I’m based here in Summit County and photograph weddings, elopements and engagements throughout Silverthorne, Dillon, Frisco, Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper Mountain and beyond.
After years of living and working in the Colorado mountains, I’m very familiar with what comes along with getting married up here. From thhe changing weather, rapidly disappearing light, mountain roads, high elevation and the occasional plan that needs to change on the fly, this is where I thrive.
My approach is a mix of documentary wedding photography and naturally directed portraits. I want you to have the beautiful mountain photographs you came to Colorado for, but I also want to capture all the weird, funny, emotional and completely unplanned stuff happening around you.
Because years from now, those might be the photos that bring you right back.
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