Our Colorado Wedding: An Intimate and Affordable Elopement in the Mountains

We eloped in the mountains of Colorado! Here’s how we planned the entire wedding in about one month and had the perfect day on a budget!

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I’m not a girl who dreamed a lot about what my wedding day would be like. So when Nick proposed, we started talking about when and how we wanted to get married.

Nick and I met in the backcountry during a solar eclipse in 2017.

At the end of September 2024, Nick proposed during a backpacking trip in Nevada. We got married on October 6th, 2024 – about 1 month later!

If you prefer to watch, I break down the entire wedding in this video below:

Why We Decided to Elope

Nick and I had no money saved for a wedding. We also wanted to avoid a long engagement. So we started discussing elopements.

Elopement photos I saw on various blogs inspired me. They were simple and beautiful, just what I wanted.

Although my Dad later offered to help pay for the wedding, I still didn’t want to do anything too expensive.

I knew that with a big guest list, I would start to worry about what everyone else wanted and needed. A small elopement was an easy decision for us.

But even elopements can be expensive. The main expense is the photographer.

Many great elopement photographers help with planning too. But, it would be impossible to book one on such short notice.

Also, Nick is a photographer himself. We knew it would be hard to hand over the photos of such a special day to a stranger.

Nick had an idea. He would ask one of our friends who’s interested in photography to use his gear and take photos at the wedding.

This worked out so well! It was a lot of fun for Nick to take his own wedding photos with the help of our friend, Presley.

We love how they turned out! We saved thousands of dollars and got to edit the photos ourselves, just the way we like. It was also fun to have her there instead of a stranger.

We paid for all of Presley’s travel expenses and got her a gift for helping us.

Once we got the photography figured out, we knew we could pull this off in a month. The next thing was figuring out where we wanted to elope!

Figuring Out Where to Elope

We considered Utah and Montana, but ultimately chose the town of Ouray – our favorite place in Colorado.

Nick and I love the mountains and how relaxing and beautiful the town of Ouray is. We knew everyone coming would love it too, even though it was harder to get there than some of the other options we considered.

The thing that made this all come together was The Western Hotel in Ouray.

They built the Western in 1891 and recently renovated it. I saw photos of the renovation before I even thought about a wedding here.

It was the photos of this renovation that sparked the Ouray wedding idea in the first place!

I knew it would be the perfect place to come back to after the wedding ceremony.

I didn’t want to elope in the mountains and then come back to a boring hotel room. I wanted something that felt a little more special.

After weeks of debating wedding options, we finally booked a suite at The Western. They were running a special, so we got a little discount on the room rate.

While this was still expensive, it was perfect for the wedding in every way and one of our only big expenses.

After we had a wedding date and our room booked, we organized everyone else who was coming. We had Presley for photos, our friend Hope who was going to officiate the wedding, my dad, and Nick’s parents.

Next, we booked hotel rooms. At this point, my dad offered to help pay for the wedding expenses, which was so helpful. I’m my dad’s only daughter, and he really wanted to help us have our dream wedding.

Since our friends Presley and Hope know each other, we booked them the same room. They drove down to the wedding together and we paid for all their expenses.

Ouray is a small town. Everyone stayed at the Ouray Inn, one block from our suite. It was perfect. Everyone could walk to and from our room easily.

Flowers, The Dress, and Other Things to Plan

The Flowers

I called a local flower shop in Ouray called Little Bucket of Flowers. I ordered a wedding bouquet and a boutonniere.

She did such a great job on the bouquet! I love the way it turned out. It was the perfect size and colors for Fall.

The Dress and Accessories

While we were deciding on all the wedding location stuff, I also started looking for a dress. Finding myself a wedding dress on such short notice was the hardest part of the planning process.

I frantically went to so many bridal shops in Salt Lake City. It took me a couple of shops to realize that I wanted something simple.

I was going for romantic, elegant, and classic with a touch of vintage. (I think I nailed it btw!)

Turns out, this is hard to find because that’s definitely not “on trend.” Since I needed to shop off the rack and I knew I wanted an A-line dress, I had limited options.

Apparently, fitted dresses are are a lot more popular right now.

But A-line dresses are more comfortable and easy to hike in. A tight, fitted dress wouldn’t work for our hike to the ceremony. I also didn’t feel like myself in it.

I ended up finding my dress at Lady Love Bridal in Draper, Utah. They sell designer sample dresses. Everything is off the rack and discounted. The condition varies by dress.

My dress was in near-perfect condition by the designer Scout. It cost $1,000 (which was WAY more than I wanted to spend on a dress) but I was on a time crunch.

I found other, cheaper options online, but none would arrive in time. The dress was my biggest expense on the day, but I really loved it.

I found a wonderful local seamstress (The Tailoring Room in Millcreek) and she was able to alter it in just a few days for a great price.

The dress was so comfortable, the material was high quality, and I felt beautiful wearing it. I didn’t have any regrets about the price.

I bought this pearl necklace from Brilliant Earth to go with the dress and it was perfect! I borrowed pearl earrings from Nick’s mom.

I saved a ton of money by making my own wedding veil. I followed this YouTube video and bought the materials at Joann’s for about $20. It turned out great!

The Rings

We got my engagement ring locally here in Salt Lake City. For the wedding rings, we bought them from Blue Nile. They had the best prices and shipped quickly.

I chose a very simple white gold band and Nick got a matte gold band which he’s obsessed with! We ordered a nice wooden ring box off of Amazon to hold them.

The Welcome Bags

Since everyone was traveling to get to the wedding, I wanted to make little welcome bags with water and snacks. They turned out so cute!

I designed the tags in Canva and printed them on cardstock. Then I used dried eucalyptus from Trader Joes and dried oranges with twine to tie them together.

On the inside I included natural spring water and a bunch of our favorite snacks. I put most of the snacks in these Bumpkin bags that everyone could reuse. I love these bags for all sorts of things from toiletries to charging cords. They’re great for travel!

Once we had everything booked and our outfits and rings ready to go, it was time to leave for the wedding!

It’s Wedding Time!!

The wedding was on a Sunday. Nick and I left Salt Lake City on Thursday. We needed to have time to pick up the marriage license at the courthouse and find a spot for the ceremony.

Scouting the location was a lot of fun. Nick did a ton of research on the computer at home, so we had an idea of where we wanted to start.

We spent 2.5 hours hiking and taking test photos at various spots.

We settled on a beautiful location that was not too long of a hike for everyone and gave us a good variety of photos.

Before the wedding, we stayed in the town of Montrose. Ouray was too expensive and booked for the weekend.

Everyone arrived in Colorado on Saturday night. Then we met for breakfast on Sunday before driving to Ouray for the wedding.

Getting Ready

Luckily, we could check into our rooms in Ouray early. I’m so grateful to the hotel staff for that. I barely had enough time to get ready, but it all worked out.

Hope, Presley, and Nick’s mom came over to the suite to help me get ready and take photos.

Nick got ready in his Dad’s hotel room at the Ouray Inn.

I immediately started working on assembling my wedding cake. Oh, I didn’t tell you yet… I planned to make my own wedding cake!

While I never dreamed much about my wedding day, I did think about the cake. Since I love to bake, I always thought I would bake my own wedding cake.

I didn’t think it was possible with the travel for the elopement, but I did some research on making cakes ahead of time and figured I would give it a try!

I baked the cakes at home and froze the individual layers. I also made the frosting at home and kept it in the fridge/cooler while we were traveling.

When we got into the wedding suite, I immediately started to assemble the cake and get a crumb coat on it.

Then I quickly did my makeup and hair. I watched YouTube videos prior to the wedding to learn and practice my hair and makeup since I don’t normally wear a lot of makeup. It turned out great and it was a huge money saver!

The foundation I already had, but everything else I bought just for the wedding and I really liked the way my makeup looked in photos and how it stayed on the entire day.

Here’s what I used for my makeup and hair:

• Bridal Hair Pins
• the half-up, half-down hairdo I did (this was so easy!)
• evanhealy Tinted Oil Serum Foundation
• Milani Baked Powder Blush – Dolce Pink
• Milani Silky Matte Bronzing Powder – Sun Light
• Essence Pure Nude Highlighter
• Neutrogena Hydro Boost Waterproof Mascara
• Milani Make It Last Setting Spray
• ColourPop Fresh Lips Glossy Lip Stain – Ice Pop

Hope helped me get the dress on and tape my boobs with Nood tape. I discovered Nood tape for the wedding and I loved it. I just would recommend practicing first because it’s a little tricky to get the hang of. Here are the products I ended up using:

• Game Changer Lift and Shape Bra
• Shape Tape
• Boob Savior (for removal)

While we were doing that, Nick’s mom put together a charcuterie board for everyone. I packed a bunch of cheeses, crackers, and other items along with the boards. I found great Fall plates and napkins at Home Goods and packed those too.

Once I was ready, everyone left the room, and I hid in the bathroom while Nick came up with Presley, and we did the “first look” in the suite.

Then everyone else came up, and we had some lunch before heading out to the mountains. During this time, I hurried to finish frosting the cake. I dehydrated blood orange slices at home and used them as decoration.

The cake looked a little messy, but it tasted great and I loved that I got to make it!

We left to drive into the mountains for the ceremony at 3:30pm, about 30 minutes later than we planned… not bad!

The Ceremony and Photos

The 50-minute drive through the mountains was incredible. The San Juan Mountains are beautiful, and no one in the group other than Nick and I had ever been there.

The hike to the ceremony location was a lot of fun. At this point, it finally hit me that we were actually getting married!

I was so thankful that we had perfect weather for the day. The wind was mild, and the temperature was unseasonably warm, so even at 10,000 ft in the mountains, I felt comfortable.

The ceremony was only about 10 minutes, and Hope did an amazing job officiating it. We took a bunch of photos with our parents, and then they left to drive back to Ouray.

The rest of us stayed for another 1.5 hours to walk around and take photos. I had so much fun doing this! Nick and I had a shot list of the photos that we wanted, and Nick had fun being involved and taking photos of his bride :)

After the photos, we drove back to town. We had our parents pick up takeout BBQ from a local restaurant, and we all met up in our suite for dinner and cake.

We got BBQ from The Smokehouse at Riverside Resort and it was excellent. I enjoyed spending time in the room, which felt relaxed compared to going out for a formal dinner. It was plenty big enough for everyone to hang out.

The cake turned out delicious too. It was a lemon poppy seed cake with lemon curd and lemon cream cheese frosting! I got the wooden cake stand from Home Goods along with some pretty plates and napkins.

The day was perfect in every way. I loved how intimate it was and how true to us it felt. I got to wear my Bedrock sandals on my wedding day in the mountains. How cool it that?!

The next day, the girls left in the morning, and we spent the day with our parents before they left the following day.

I hope it was helpful to see what we did and how we planned our own elopement. It was perfect and not too expensive. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below!