Step 4 - Decide what type of wedding you'd like to have. Destination beach wedding in the Caribbean? Mountain top wedding in the Rockies? Winter wonderland or bright warm sunny day?
Step 5 - Choose a wedding planner if you can afford it. This will be the best decision you make, and one of the most important.

Step 4 - Now that you have your budget, you can decide what you'd like your wedding to feel like. I always recommend looking at this from a guest's perspective. Think about what the guest expects versus what they get. Think about how they feel when they walk in, eat, drink, and be merry. That feeling is how they'll look back and describe the event. I would recommend finding something interesting and unique about your wedding. I also advise to stay away from 'themed' events, and look at the event as a whole. Make sure it's a cohesive experience. Find inspiration in something that you love, or something important to the two of you. A great example - my husband and I are SCUBA divers, so we wanted to do a tropical, Caribbean wedding. I recommend hiring a wedding planner who works in the area you are interested in having the wedding so you can make sure to make the best decisions about vendors, weather, and locations. We work in the mountains of Colorado and the Caribbean - Mexico, Belize, The Virgin Islands, The Caymans, etc. We can help with both mountain weddings and the islands, as we have knowledge of the teams you can put together and the pitfalls that we need to help you avoid. Some great ideas for mountain venues can be found by heading over to the blog post we wrote about some of Colorado's amazing options. You need to find out what is important to you and your partner before picking a venue, not after! We recommend sitting down over a glass of your favorite beverage and making a list. Pick the top 3 most important things to you, and have your fiancee pick three as well. Then merge those lists. See if you have conflicts in your favorite things, and work those out before you pick the location. This will also help you in budgeting, to make sure you allocate enough of the budget to the important things! 

Step 5 - Choose a wedding planner. We recommend finding a planner who is familiar with your venue and the bumps int he road you might encounter. Most planners have 3 levels of service. The most basic is wedding coordination. Wedding coordination is usually inclusive of the last month or so of the planning process, as well as the day of coordination. It typically includes the 30 day walk through and rehearsal. The second level is Partial Planning. It includes the planner helping you through the major decisions, but not attending all the meetings, doing all the communication. The third level is full planning. It includes the planner helping you through all of the decisions, attending vendor meetings, and often making decisions on your behalf. Some things to think about when you think about wedding planners - 
1. You will be spending a ton of time with this person. Make sure that you get along with them! You'll both hate the relationship if it's not a good personality fit. 
2. Make sure they're experienced, and go online and read reviews! See what other brides and grooms have said about those planners, and make sure they're going to be a fit for you! 
3. Make sure they understand not only what you want as far as guest experience, and what things are important to you... but also make sure they know your potential venues! This is really important to making sure they help you over any hurdles you're going to face. ​

 So you want to get married on a mountaintop? No problem! We can help. We work all over Colorado's Rocky Mountains, and there are some amazing venues all around us! We specialize in some of the most off-the-beaten-path venues such as Piney River Ranch in Vail (check out the gallery in full by clicking the image below!), and Beaver Creek's gorgeous wedding deck with a reception at the amazing Allie's Cabin or Beano's Cabin!

If you need a wedding planner in Vail, Beaver Creek, Apsen, or even Breckenridge - We can help. Here is a gallery of some of our favorite mountain wedding venues that we regularly work in. Donovan Pavilion in Vail has a gorgeous back patio, and lovely tall ceilings. If you click on the image below, you will get to see one of our favorite Donovan Pavilion weddings!  Allie's Cabin is halfway up Beaver Creek mountain, and has a killer log cabin feel. It has some of the best food in the area - if food is important to you and your guests, Allie's and Beanos are great options. Beano's Cabin has a gorgeous wedding deck attached for an intimate ceremony. You can also rent the gorgeous Vail wedding deck separately or the Beaver Creek Wedding Deck. In Breckenridge, Ten Mile Station is a gorgeous venue, with beautiful summer gardens, amazing views of the mountain, and great food! Click on the image below to see a full gallery of one of our Breckenridge Ten Mile Station weddings. 

​Another great area in Colorado to get married is Winter Park Resort's Sunspot! You get to ride the lift up to the top in your wedding dress! SO much fun! Devil's Thumb Ranch is another great option for the Grand County area. It has some amazing views of the continental divide! 

You got engaged! Congrats! You have posted your gorgeous engagement ring all over Facebook and Instagram, all of your friends have gushed about your new sparkles, and your mom has cried. Now what? Wedding planning can be stressful and difficult. This guide will help you with the best ways to navigate the world of weddings and make sure you make fewer mistakes that can be costly and cause undue stress. 

Step 1 - Figure out the financial contributors. Are you paying for the wedding? Are parents helping? How about your fiancee's parents? Are they doing just the rehearsal dinner, or will they help with the wedding as well? 
Step 2 - What do you have to spend? Get an idea of what you have in the way of funds so you can decide all the things! 
Step 3 - Get a beginning guest list going. You'll have different columns for guests - We'll explain in more detail in this section. 

 Click below to continue reading and get more detail!