An Elopement Amidst a Pandemic | The Bridal Collection Real Bride

A special thank you to our bride, Marci, who wrote this beautiful love story.

Michael and I met on Bumble (a dating app).  It was pretty obvious after just three dates we were going to be pretty serious.  We both enjoyed the same things like running, hiking, music, art, camping, skiing, and we only lived a few miles apart.  We both worked downtown, too.  Michael and I dated for 1 year and 8 months before getting engaged in May 2019.  We moved in together one week after our first year anniversary.  He asked me to marry him while making dinner for me (sushi) at our home on a Friday night over wine – it was a total surprise!  He had the ring designed himself and it is the most beautiful ring ever!  We planned to get married in the spring due to the weather, we like snow and sun.  March worked with our venue perfectly.

Prior to our engagement (which we discussed just a few months before), many friends called us out.  “You two are the perfect couple, I see it in your eyes! Invite me to the wedding when it comes along!”

THE ORIGINAL WEDDING PLAN

We planned to get married March 21, 2020 (3-2-1 as we call our date) at the Grant-Humphreys Mansion, a historic venue in the Governor’s Park area.  Our wedding was going to be a mix of elegance, romantic, and rustic.  The venue’s outdoor space allowed for us to get married on rustic bricks while overlooking a historical columned terrace.  My dress was a Justin Alexander ball gown and perfectly complemented the venue.  Michael had a black tux with a bowtie, classic style.  Our color scheme included splashes of purple (lilac) and rose pink, with shades of white throughout ceremony decorations.  The vision for an indoor/outdoor cocktail hour included custom rustic signs, suspended lanterns, wine bottle lights, and purple accents.  We then planned to move our first dance downstairs into the ballroom.  My family called my bridal style very “Grace Kelly.”

THE NEW ELOPEMENT PLAN

The restrictions with Coronavirus (COVID-19) were released six days before our wedding day.  That Monday morning, I rushed to call our family and message friends – over the prior weekend, many cancelled with the ever-changing landscape.  We were going to postpone, but still get married.  Our back up plan took us five minutes to decide – it was like it was meant to be.  We decided to have an outdoor elopement.  We wanted elements that were important to us like mountains and water, and we wanted a peaceful setting and the smooth white noise of nature.  Due to restrictions placed in the mountain communities, we knew Golden, Colorado would be best.  We shared our first trail run as a couple out there.  Our photographer, Allison Dobbs, gave me a list of elopement ideas.  Michael and I decided almost instantly on Lions Park by the river.

We spent the last nine months planning our wedding!  We wanted to get dressed like usual, only this time we would be getting dressed in our own bathroom (not a venue) and driving in our car for an elopement.  Our style stayed the same – romantic elegance, ballroom gown, and black bowtie tux.  For a split second, I thought about changing my dress – I also purchased a mermaid gown for reception dancing.  At first, I felt funny getting out of our car in Golden—20 miles west of our home—having two people hold up my gown as I walked on an outdoor trail, but then it felt so natural.  We remembered why we wanted our attire in the first place – comfort, style, the elegance of dressing up for our celebration of love!

I wanted to include some basic elements and personal touches.  We already had an order of 100 purple-pink roses.  I bloomed them in our bathtub two nights before and had them sitting in water.  We brought the roses and laid them out in our space.  The other element we added was water.  For us, water symbolizes life, it lifts, refreshes, quenches and is something outside of the symbol we both thrive being around.  Besides eloping next to a river, we used our glass blowing containers to pour water to symbolize our commitment to each other. 

Our officiant, Hannah from Making Relationship Thrive, made us feel comfortable.  During our ceremony, we shared several passages from literary novels and poetry to embrace our feelings in an artistic form.  We kept the elegance and romantic theme as planned for our outdoor elopement.  We did our ceremony as planned, exchanged rings and vows, poured water as our commitment, and the first kiss and presentation as a couple.  It felt amazing.  All we wanted was to celebrate our love in the amazing outdoors in Colorado!

After our ceremony, I knew I wanted cake and champagne (as planned), so we drove to Red Rocks for a little photoshoot.  We got pictures kissing in the middle of one of the red arches.  Strangers cheered for us!  I got so many honks from passersby with my dress!  Our photographer had found some amazing spots to photograph.  We laughed, posed, took pictures, and celebrated – we even had a champagne toast with a small grocery store cake.

Looking at our pictures, all I felt was love that day!  Our elopement still happened on our special day!  Our relationship was now a marriage, we were coming home husband and wife!  Family and friends were excited for us.  But at the moment, all we could think about was the magic of marriage between two people, regardless of the venue.

LOVE ISN’T CANCELLED

COVID-19 had nothing to do with our relationship; our relationship had built up to marriage, and we wanted to celebrate that new life of two people becoming one.  We didn’t want to delay our marriage, our love, or our day. We were at a point where this was the time for us to go along with our celebration of love.  It the end, marriage is about two people.  We wanted to have the experience deeply.  Upon notifying our invitees about our alternate plan, they understood and gave their best wishes.  Going into this, I thought marriage would be more of a “show and tell” or a game.  I could have married in my living room and still felt great.  There are so many emotions leading up to the big day.  We were emotionally there, and we are so lucky to have had a successful and meaningful elopement.

We plan to have a one year celebration of our love, closely resembling our original ceremony/party.  It will symbolize our love and our journey into marriage.  We honestly feel like family and friends will love it even more now!

ADVICE FOR FUTURE BRIDES

The world is changing every day.  This is beyond your control and something that no one can 100% control or predict.  Think about your relationship and how you came to the passage of marriage.  At the end of the day, it’s about love.  There are many days and years to come to work on celebrations, have parties, host vow renewals, travel, etc.  For us, marriage was so personal and the journey we had waited on for months.  We didn’t want to delay it, and we did the best to carry out something special for us!  There are so many emotions that come with being a bride, and none of us were dealt the fact of COVID-19 playing a part in that.  Do what is best that your heart desires.  People will understand and will still express excitement.

Love is the most beautiful part of life.  It’s something I’ll always cherish, forever.

CEREMONIAL QUOTES

“This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world.  It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot.  The person you love sits across from you, and you want to do everything in your power to make it possible, endlessly possible.  And when it’s just the two of you, alone in a room, you can pretend that this is how it is, this is how it will be.”
– David Levithan

“When he looked into her eyes, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke — the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart.  It was love.”
– The Alchemist, Paulo Coehlo

Our hearts go out to all who have been impacted by COVID-19.

The Bridal Collection is committed to protecting the health and safety of our customers, employees, and local community.  In accordance with Arapahoe County directives, The Bridal Collection re-opened on Saturday, May 9th.  Please take a moment to review our new policies and response to COVID-19.