Two Brides, 14 Guests and a Colorado Mansion Wedding 

The guest list for Vanessa Crain and Lakeyn Schultz’s October wedding at the Orman Mansion in Pueblo, Colorado, fit inside a single Airbnb. Fourteen people, counting the two brides. Every chair in the mansion’s landscaped garden was filled. The fountain burbled. The flowers, grown in a local Colorado gardener’s backyard, were already in bloom. Guests were given one instruction for what to wear: something colorful. They delivered.

How They Got Here

Vanessa and Lakeyn were together five-and-a-half years before the proposals, plural, began. Lakeyn went first. She took Vanessa to Centennial Park in Nashville, where the couple lived at the time, for a sunset picnic with wine, charcuterie and her guitar. She played covers. She played originals. Then she sang a rewritten version of “Paper Rings” by Taylor Swift, one of Vanessa’s favorites, and proposed. They celebrated with tequila shots at Southside, the bar where they were regulars.

Five days later, in Banff, Canada, Vanessa proposed to Lakeyn after a short hike at Lake Minnewanka. A hired photographer had planted a message in a bottle on the rocks at the water’s edge. Lakeyn, believing it was litter, had no interest in picking it up. Vanessa insisted it was for her. The bottle contained an original poem and a formal proposal letter. Vanessa had also brought mini tequila bottles for a toast. They celebrated both proposals over dinner at Chuck’s Steakhouse in Banff that evening.

Sixteen months of engagement followed. Not the uncomplicated kind.

Finding Colorado

The couple had moved from Nashville to Lafayette, Louisiana, to save money and plan a wedding surrounded by family and community. The plan unraveled quickly. A mentor of Lakeyn’s who had offered their home as a venue began adding conditions the couple couldn’t meet, each agreement producing a new non-negotiable demand. The final conversation ended with the mentor telling Lakeyn he did not believe she should marry Vanessa at all. “In the 6 years we were together, he had never voiced this opposition to her before,” Vanessa says.

They moved on and began inquiring at venues. More than 40 of them, across Acadiana and greater New Orleans. Some never responded after learning the wedding was for a same-sex couple. Others replied that it wasn’t within their values. The ones that were affirming were mostly out of budget range. They considered eloping, but as the first children in both of their immediate families to be publicly engaged and planning a wedding, that didn’t sit well with their parents. They landed on a microwedding: parents, siblings and Lakeyn’s living grandparents only.

Then they started thinking about where. Italy was beautiful but the travel would be hard on the elders. California didn’t feel like them. Banff, where one of the proposals had happened, would already be cold and the Airbnbs were over budget. “Colorado,” Vanessa says. “Perfect.”

They found the Orman Mansion. The Airbnb was booked the same day. Invitations went out. Flights were confirmed. An elder with cancer declined due to health, and a cousin took his place. Everyone agreed to Vanessa’s color coordination request for wedding attire. “It felt like a miracle after everything that had already transpired,” Vanessa says.

A Betrayal Before the Wedding

Less than a month before the wedding, Lakeyn’s sibling rescinded their attendance. They had joined an evangelical church that practices conversion therapy and told the couple they no longer supported the marriage. “A person who was once our biggest champion, called our engagement the biggest blessing, and begged for us to get married,” Vanessa says.

“The biggest betrayal you can have as a queer person is a parent or sibling using religion to discredit your relationship and demean you as a person,” she says. “To this day, this betrayal has impacted us almost every day and it is still the darkest cloud over such a bright moment in our lives.”

They went to Colorado anyway. With the fourteen people who showed up.

Two Friends Who Showed Up Anyway

Two close friends and their spouses had told Vanessa and Lakeyn early on that no invitation was necessary. “We are showing up even uninvited and we will stand outside the gate if we have to,” both said, in nearly the same words. They were the only people outside immediate family invited to the wedding. They made it to Pueblo.

Getting Ready

The brides got ready separately. Hair and makeup for both was done by Estefania Valencia. Vanessa wore a gown from Bridal Boutique in Baton Rouge, finished with a vibrant cape from lamnhi studio that she had embroidered with hand-sewn florals and then added butterflies to, each one representing a loved one she has lost. Flowers were also embroidered onto her veil. Lakeyn wore an ivory chiffon cape maxi jumpsuit from JJ’s House with her Vans, which had been custom painted with flowers by Vanessa’s friend Haley Haggerty of Handwritten by Hales. Vanessa’s shoes were painted to match. Both brides carried wildflower bouquets, grown in the personal garden of Daisy Chain Flower Farm, in pink, orange, peach, yellow and white. Their vow books, ordered from Luna Paper Company, matched the floral aesthetic.

Vanessa’s ring was designed with Felice Gals. Lakeyn’s was made at Peacock Jewelers in Nashville.

Ceremony at the Orman Mansion

The Orman Mansion’s rooms are painted in bold, saturated colors, and Vanessa and Lakeyn built their entire wedding palette around that. Guests arrived in a full spectrum of color, a collective decision that made the outdoor ceremony feel like a garden party where everyone had been let in on something. The wildflower bouquets, the hand-painted shoes, the embroidered cape, all of it extended the same visual logic: color as intention rather than accident.

Lakeyn walked down the aisle first, escorted by her parents. Vanessa followed, escorted by her parents. Lakeyn carried a family rosary heirloom woven into her bouquet. The processional played as an instrumental version of the couple’s own song, which Vanessa had commissioned specifically for the ceremony.

Both brides wrote their own vows.

The Details They Made Themselves

The reception space held a memorial table with photographs of loved ones who had died, framed and arranged for guests to see. There was an oversized printed crossword puzzle filled with specifics from Vanessa and Lakeyn’s relationship for guests to work through together. Printed relationship photos were laid out across the space. Champagne glasses sported personalized drink tags with the couple’s initials. Instead of a wedding cake, the couple chose a plated private dinner at Twenty One Steak in Pueblo.

The dessert came from Sweet Petals by Summer. The meal was covered by Vanessa’s parents, who also contributed to the dress and a handful of other things over the course of planning. “Shout out to Peggy,” Vanessa says of her mom.

The Bach Day on Frenchmen Street

Before Colorado, there was New Orleans. The couple’s last-minute joint bachelorette was a bar hop down Frenchmen Street that ended at a karaoke bar late into the night. “It was full of the pure joy of girlhood,” Vanessa says.

Photographers Who Stayed Late

Run Wild With Me Photography’s Meg and Kevin shot the wedding. They picked up the bouquets for the couple and stayed past their contracted time to create additional photo opportunities. “They not only provided so much guidance and resources, but also offered little things like picking up bouquets and staying past time booked for creative photo opportunities,” Vanessa says.

What They Want Other Couples to Know

“Do not feel obligated to invite ANYONE that you have to question where their support and love for you stands,” Vanessa says. “If they are not actively and openly excited for you, it takes away from the memory of your day.”

On budget: “It does not hurt to reach out and explain your situation if you have a tight budget. Figure out what your MUSTS are, create a set budget, and join budget groups for recommendations. Many vendors specifically in the queer wedding industry truly are in it for the love and are willing to work with a sliding scale, but be realistic as it is their business as well.”

Vanessa and Lakeyn came to Colorado after being turned away from more than 40 venues, after a mentor’s betrayal, after a sibling’s withdrawal, after every version of their original plan collapsed. Fourteen people sat in those garden chairs. The fountain ran. The wildflowers held. The tequila, as ever, was ready. ❤️

FEATURED LGBTQ+ INCLUSIVE AND QUEER AFFIRMING WEDDING VENDORS

Photographer: Run Wild With Me Photography
Wedding Ceremony and Reception Venue: The Orman Mansion
Florist: Daisy Chain Flower Farm
Vow Books: Luna Paper Company
Attire for Vanessa (Cape): lamnhi studio
Attire for Lakeyn: JJ’s House
Ring for Vanessa: Felice Gals
Ring for Lakeyn: Peacock Jewelers
Dessert: Sweet Petals by Summer
Custom Painted Shoes: Handwritten by Hales
Hair and Makeup: Estefania Valencia

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