Outdoor Colorado Weddings

October 31, 2011 6:39 PM

I'm posting this as anonymous as I have some friends and family who read this site, and they don't know we're this serious yet. My girlfriend and I are talking about getting married this summer if we can afford it and afford living together. We're looking at possibly Saint Malo off of Highway 7, Panorama Point or doing something in Rocky Mountain National Park. We're leaning more towards a summer wedding outdoors, June or July. Saint Malo is great, but expensive for what we want ($1000 for a few hours). Panorama Point in Golden Gate State park is more feasible. We're both really practical so we want our friends and family there but not at significant cost or debt. Other then Rocky Mountain National Park or Golden Gate State park, what are some good locations in Colorado for an outdoor wedding? In terms of cost, food for < 30 guests, location, photographer etc... what should we plan to spend? We're talking about doing it on a weekday.
posted by anonymous to human relations (6 answers total)

We did ours this past June, on a Sunday, at Flagstaff Ampitheatre, which would be easy enough to book on a weekday. IIRC it cost ~$300 to book the site for 4 hours.

We held the reception semi-indoors, semi-outdoors at the nearby Boulder History Museum. They were super flexible and happy to work with us.

I can't speak to any other sites, as we basically took the slackers' option of booking the first thing we thought of that was pretty cheap.
posted by lonefrontranger at 7:05 PM on October 31, 2011

Right off the bat I'd say that if you do it on a weekday, you can count on about 75% of your invitees not being able to come due to work. You'd save money, for sure!
posted by tristeza at 9:13 PM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]

I got married on a Monday in the lovely gardens of a local restaurant. We only had 27 guests and the whole wedding cost us less than $2000 ($1500 for the sit down lunch and $500 for everything else, including dress, suit, celebrant etc. The venue supplied the flowers from their own garden.) We didn't have to pay a venue-hire fee because our numbers filled their restaurant which was normally closed on a Monday. Getting married on a weekday was an excellent choice and all our guests said it was the most lovely wedding they had been to.

We didn't use a professional photographer, we just gave out 10 disposable cameras (this was pre-digital days) to our guests and collected them afterwards. We were going to have the ceremony in the restaurant gardens but, unseasonally, it began snowing so we all stepped inside and held the ceremony in front of the windows with a post-snow rainbow as backdrop. Afterwards my newly minted spouse and I walked home in our full wedding regalia, scoring lots of hoots and toots from passersby. Heaps of fun!

All the above is just to say that a lovely memorable wedding does not have to be expensive nor does it have to be formal or fancy.

Perhaps you too could find a nice small restaurant with some charming gardens and book that instead of a 'location'.
posted by the fish at 10:40 PM on October 31, 2011 [1 favorite]

A weekday will be cheaper for you, but it will inconvenience all of your guests as they will have to take off from work if they are to attend your wedding.
posted by crankylex at 6:54 AM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm just going to repeat this: A weekday will be cheaper for you, but it will inconvenience all of your guests as they will have to take off from work if they are to attend your wedding.
posted by Dolley at 10:15 AM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Denver Botanic Gardens mught be a nice location, but you'll have to call to get the rates.
posted by annsunny at 12:38 PM on November 1, 2011