For their Colorado mountain wedding, Sierra and Merina, along with their 10 wedding guests, hiked to a lake in Buena Vista, Colorado. The ceremony included a glass ritual and guitar playing. Later, the brides took a pack raft ride on the lake and paddled to an island, where they shared a private first dance. On the morning of their wedding, they got ready together, kicking it off with breakfast in matching buffalo check pajamas.
MOUNTAIN WEDDING LOCATION
Buena Vista, Colorado (with a reception in Salida, Colorado)
THE LOVE STORY
We met online. We matched with each other and then I was the first to message. We messaged back and forth for about two months, some better than others, before Sierra got up the courage to ask me out to coffee. Speaking for myself, I was very nervous. We met for coffee around 2 and were still talking when 6 o’clock rolled around. We still didn’t want it to end so we went two doors down and got dinner. Then we went to see a movie that we were both looking forward to. Sierra was really nervous to hold Merina’s hand during the movie, but finally plucked up the courage. I was thrilled. I was nervous that my squeaky windshield wipers would put Sierra off and not want to go on a second date. Sierra still thinks this is hilarious.
THE DOUBLE PROPOSALS
Merina: Before there were proposals, we had had discussions about marriage. We knew down the line that we did want to get married eventually, but we didn’t put a deadline on it. We found my ring together and bought it, but Sierra wasn’t quite ready yet. When she was and she proposed on one of our favorite hikes, I was completely surprised. Unbeknownst to me, Sierra was panicking for most of our camping trip and on the hike, especially when a gaggle of children were at the spot she had been planning on.
Luckily they left and the proposal could continue as planned. After a quick snack break, I went to try to get some good pictures of all the butterflies that were around and Sierra sneakily put a special tag on Riley’s collar. She asked me to check Riley’s collar, but I, thinking that it wasn’t a pressing issue, continued to take pictures of butterflies.
Finally, she called Riley over to me. I was super confused by the new tag, because no one could have put it there. Then I flipped it over and it said “Will you marry me?” and I turned and Sierra was there with the ring, already crying before she had even said anything.
I, of course, said yes, and tried to take my promise ring off, but it was stuck. I finally got it off after shoving my hand in the freezing creek and put on my new ring. As we were hugging and celebrating, Riley started to do some zoomies around us, almost face-planting in the creek at one point. After we got back from our camping trip, we went ring shopping for Sierra’s ring and I started thinking about what I wanted to do because Sierra deserved a proposal too.
I had a cute mug saved on Etsy for a couple years that says “I love you to the mountains and back” on one side, and “Will you marry me?” on the other side. I also got a pretty wooden ring box with mountains on it, because the ones we got from the jeweler were stupid.
Once I got all the pieces together, I got Sierra’s ring back and waited for a good moment. One of our favorite times together is tea time. We make tea, Sierra usually curls up with a book, and we just wind down at the end of the day. I made tea that night in the new mug and had the ring in my pocket. I knelt down in front of her and showed her one side of the mug and then the other, then pulled out the ring. She was very surprised and started crying again. We were smiling so much our cheeks hurt.
MOUNTAIN WEDDING CEREMONY DETAILS
Our first ceremony was at Lost Lake, near Buena Vista, Colorado. Us and our 10 guests hiked up to the lake and had the ceremony at the lakeside. Two of our guests were musicians, so they sang a song to start off our ceremony, followed by a glass ceremony where each guest had a cup of glass pieces that were all poured into one jar, that would then be sent off to be made into an ornament! We wrote our own vows and shared them before engaging in a handfasting ceremony with my parents wrapping our hands in a rainbow ribbon while Merina’s mom read beautiful vows from her own wedding. Unfortunately, it started raining halfway through our ceremony at the lake and did not stop, forcing us to change plans. We ended up hiking down and coming back up at sunrise for the rest of our portraits and adventure. We instead ended up having our ceremony again at our reception venue two days later with our small gathering of guests there.
WEDDING VIBE
Intentional: only including things that were meaningful to the couple and reminded them of why they wanted to get married. Laid-back: No stress about the timeline and getting to enjoy all the small moments of the day with their dog and family. Natural: Get married in the outdoors and in a way that felt authentic to who the couple was. Adventurous: hiking to the destination and trying something new and pack rafting on a mountain lake.
MOUNTAIN WEDDING COLORS
Sage green, burgundy, dark blue, dusty blue
WEDDING FLOWERS
Sierra had a bouquet that had burgundy, sage green, white, light pink flowers with a white ribbon, and Merina wore a matching boutonniere. The reception had flowers that were dusty blue, burgundy, green, pink and white.
FIRST DANCE SONG
Our first dance was out on the island in the middle of the lake that we paddled to in a pack raft. We danced to “Marry Me” composed by Hans Zimmer and “Head Over Boots” by Jon Pardi.
PERSONAL WEDDING DETAILS
Our whole wedding experience was very personalized. I don’t think anyone has ever had a wedding exactly like ours. We tried to make everything as personal as we could. We did all the planning ourselves, so we were able to choose what felt like us. We were able to personalize our attire, especially with Merina’s custom suit, but also with added lace and things to make Sierra’s dress more comfortable.
We attempted to plan our whole wedding day, even though those ended up changing. We both very much wanted our wedding to be about us and for us and we tried to make decisions to be exactly how we wanted it and nobody else. Both of us feel most comfortable around smaller groups of people and love spending time with just each other so we decided that we wanted to do an adventure elopement! We both love the mountains and wanted to be able to have the chance to spend the day together somewhere beautiful.
We decided what parts we wanted our friends and family to witness, but also planned time for just us, from writing our vows at a beautiful mountain pass before the ceremony to rafting out to an island for our first dance with a drone flying around. We were even able to have our dog sign our marriage license as our witness. A definite perk to getting married in Colorado! We were even able to personalize our reception with a custom menu, signature drinks, and a rainbow/mountain cake. We were lucky enough to find the right people to help us plan and execute (to the best of their ability) all of these unique plans and the people there to enjoy something that was truly ours with us.
ADVICE FOR ENGAGED LGBTQ+ COUPLES AND MARRIERS
Do exactly what YOU want and don’t let others push you into doing something you don’t want to. We had to hold some pretty firm boundaries to make sure that the guest list included who we wanted and that everything was for us and not for others, but it was so worth it in the end when we were surrounded by those we felt most comfortable and loved around.
ADVICE FOR VENDORS AND VENUES WORKING WITH LGBTQ+ COUPLES AND MARRIERS
Take a hard look at your forms, language used, and policies to ensure that they are gender neutral and inclusive. We encountered a lot of businesses that were very open and accepting with us, but still had forms that were very traditional.
CHALLENGES FACED AS AN LGBTQ+ COUPLE PLANNING A WEDDING
The biggest challenge was trying to figure out if a vendor or business was going to be inclusive and supportive of us before going in for an appointment. Many of the lists on the internet for LGBTQ+ friendly vendors were located in larger cities, not in Salt Lake City, where we live, or in Salida, Colorado, where we got married. We did a lot of pre-research before contacting a vendor or visiting a location through social media and websites, but most of the time, there were no indicators and we had to take a chance. Thankfully, everyone that we worked with was amazing and supportive.
ANY PLEASANT SURPRISES?
How much support we got from vendors. Even if they had forms that were not gender-inclusive, we were never made to feel different by those helping us. 
Search the Equally Wed directory of LGBTQ+ inclusive wedding vendors.
FEATURED WEDDING VENDORS
Wedding photographer: We, The Light Photography, a preferred Equally Wed vendor
Wedding venue: Independence Pass
Wedding lodging: Creekside Chalets
Wedding florist: Boulder Blooms
Wedding attire: Morilee; Tailor Cooperative (Caitlin Andrew)
Wedding hair and makeup artist: A Vow to Artistry
