Elegant Wedding at the St Julien

Jess and Josh eloped to Rocky Mountain National Park, just the two of them. The next day, they planned an all-out celebration with their friends and family at the St Julien Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. The vows had been said, but the party was just getting started! Their celebration included a first look, outdoor cocktail hour, dining al fresco with toasts, a specialty tiramisu cake, and then enjoying a night of dancing in the ballroom.

The couple shares, “At our Celebration of Marriage, we were most looking forward to our first look and having that moment together before joining everyone else. It gave us a chance to slow down, be present with each other, and take in the fact that we were officially there as a married couple.”

The couple shares, “Our wedding originally started as an elopement, but as we continued planning, we realized we also wanted to celebrate our love with the people we love most. We decided to elope with our dog, Bagel, and then host an intimate Celebration of Marriage the following day with about 50 guests. Every person was intentionally chosen because they had impacted our lives, supported us, or watched our relationship grow, which made the celebration feel even more special.

The best weddings we have attended are the ones filled with small details that feel personal to the couple, so every part of ours was very intentional. We incorporated little Easter eggs throughout the celebration, including our wedding date, custom napkins featuring Bagel, and a newspaper that told our story. It also included fun games and details about where everyone had traveled from, which helped break the ice since we did not host a traditional welcome party.

Although the celebration was local to us and a few of our friends, it was a destination wedding for almost everyone else. We wanted it to feel elevated and beautiful, but still full of personality and the kinds of things we genuinely enjoy. We love activities and a little friendly competition, so even at a more formal venue, it felt important to include cornhole and bocce. I grew up playing bocce, and Josh and I always have so much fun playing cornhole together because we make a pretty great team. It created the perfect balance of elegance and fun while still feeling completely true to us.

Instead of having a traditional bridal party, we gave the people closest to us a color palette to wear. Our friends wore shades of green, while our families wore yellow, which tied into the vintage mountain garden party feeling we wanted for the celebration. Rather than asking everyone to wear one specific dress or style, we encouraged different textures, draping, and silhouettes so each person could still feel like themselves.

When everyone came together, their outfits blended beautifully with the florals, earth tones, and garden-inspired details throughout the space. It almost felt like they became part of the décor, creating one layered, colorful garden around us.

Our personal style is minimalist but functional, with lots of natural textures and earth tones, and that carried through the entire celebration. Our florals had a coastal-meets-mountain feeling, and we wanted everything to feel adventurous yet elegant. We love a little bit of everything, and the final design felt like the perfect blend of who we are.”

The couple continues, “Some of our favorite wedding details were the ones that carried pieces of our story. At the welcome table, we had a vinyl record featuring “Isn’t She Lovely” by Stevie Wonder, the first song we heard on our first date, for all of our guests to sign. We cannot wait to frame it and display it in our home as something we can keep forever.

We also created a custom wedding newspaper that shared our story, including fun games and details about where everyone had traveled from, and honored the loved ones who had passed away and could not physically be there with us. It felt like such a personal and unique way to bring everyone into our story while also making space for the people we were missing.

There were several meaningful details incorporated into my bouquet as well. My best friends gave me a brooch that was attached to my flowers when I said “I do” in the mountains with Josh and Bagel, and then I carried the same bouquet again at our Celebration of Marriage.

We also had a cake knife from my grandmother’s wedding in the 1940s to use when cutting our tiramisu. It became our something borrowed and connected another generation of love to the day.

Pearls were another special thread throughout the wedding. I wore pearls, which felt like a sweet connection to my years playing field hockey. Pearls were always part of our field hockey jewelry, and many of those same teammates and best friends were there celebrating with us. Having them there while wearing something that reminded me of that chapter of my life felt incredibly full circle.

Since Bagel joined us for the elopement but could not attend the celebration, we included her in other ways, including custom cocktail napkins with her face on them. It was important to us that she still felt like part of the celebration because she is such a big part of our family and our story.

Our invitations were filled with Easter eggs too. We worked with a local artist to create an illustration of Chautauqua Park for the envelope liner. That was the place that made us realize we wanted to move to Boulder after Josh brought me there for the first time. A month later, we sold nearly everything, packed our bags, and moved across the country with Bagel.

We also incorporated topographic contour lines from the area where we eloped into the invitation design. It was a subtle nod to our love of the outdoors and one of those details where, if you know, you know.

Because most of our guests were traveling from sea level and coming from all across the country, we created altitude bags to help everyone adjust to Colorado. We filled them with thoughtful essentials like local honey sticks, Liquid I.V., and other items to help guests stay hydrated and feel their best. Each bag also included a little note from us featuring Bagel, which made them feel even more personal.

Another one of our favorite details was the vintage bell placed at each guest’s seat with their name attached. Instead of twirling napkins during the celebration, everyone could ring their bells. It felt timeless, a little different, and gave each guest a small souvenir to take home.

Our place cards were also customized with each guest’s food allergies and dietary needs since we were having a plated dinner. We had never attended a wedding where this was handled so personally, and it meant so much to us. Navigating food allergies at a larger event can feel stressful, so knowing our guests felt comfortable, included, and safe made the celebration even more special.”

The couple shares, “Our favorite part of the day was really all of the little moments woven together. One of the most memorable was our first look and seeing each other again. Even though we were already married, it somehow felt almost even more special than the first time.

We also loved sitting together at our sweetheart table, eating dinner, and looking out at all of our friends and family. One fun detail was that we blended every table instead of creating separate friend or family tables, so people from different parts of our lives were all sitting together. Seeing everyone connect, laugh, and genuinely enjoy one another was so much fun.

We also chose one captain for each table and gave them a captain band to wear, along with a card explaining that they had been selected because of their elite vibes. Throughout the night, they were given little group tasks to keep the energy going and encourage everyone to interact. It was such a fun way to bring the tables together, but it also helped us delegate a few things as the hosts. We naturally felt responsible for making sure everyone was having a good time, so giving the captains a small role helped take a little stress off us and allowed us to be more present during the celebration.

There was so much love and good energy in the air, and being able to sit next to each other and take it all in was incredibly special. It’s one of those moments we know we will always look back on with the fullest hearts.”

Couple continues, “People are going to tell you to be present, and they are right because the day honestly does go by in a flash. But coming from the bride, if you are a perfectionist like me, you may even find yourself putting pressure on yourself to be perfectly present, which can make it harder to actually relax and take everything in.

I wish I had focused less on trying to experience every moment perfectly and more on finding ways to calm my nervous system throughout all of the chaos. That is what will set you up for success the most. Do your best, let yourself soften into the day, and remember that this only happens once. It may be the only time in your life when all of your people, including blended families and friends from different chapters, are together in one place. There is something incredibly magical about that.

I also wish more people talked about how much wedding planning asks you to shed, navigate, and grow through. There is a lot of emotional management, creative brainstorming, decision fatigue, and so many meaningful moments along the way. I wish I had journaled more throughout the process so I could look back on it all, because even when it felt overwhelming, it was also such a beautiful season. The most important thing is to keep moving through it as a team, stay connected to your partner, and make sure the choices you are making continue to feel true to both of you.

We would also recommend intentionally scheduling time to be alone together. On the wedding day, you are constantly moving between conversations, photos, and everything happening around you, so it is surprisingly easy to spend very little time together. Our first look and sweetheart table gave us space to slow down, reconnect, and take in the celebration as a married couple. As two introverts, those quiet moments together ended up being some of the most meaningful parts of the entire day.

The biggest surprise was how much time everything actually takes. However long you think something is going to take, add at least another 30 minutes.

Looking back, we probably could have started a little earlier, but because we had eloped the day before and done both a sunrise and sunset shoot, we were also exhausted and really needed the rest that morning. It all worked out well for us, but we would definitely recommend building in extra buffer time because there are so many moving parts on a wedding day, and something is almost always going to shift. You cannot control every little change, but how you adapt to it is what matters most.”

The bride shares, “We chose tiramisu instead of a traditional wedding cake because it is a dessert we both absolutely love. The pastry chef at the St Julien, who helped bring the entire dessert together, was incredible and created a version without almond liqueur so it would be safe for our allergies. It still tasted absolutely delicious and felt completely true to us.

One of the things we appreciated most about the venue was how allergy-conscious the entire team was. I have several food allergies, and quite a few of our guests also have nut allergies, so the dishes were thoughtfully customized to make the celebration feel safe and inclusive for everyone. Being able to enjoy our wedding meal and dessert without that added worry made the experience even more special.”

The bride adds, “For our honeymoon, we rented an adventure van and drove down the West Coast with our dog, Bagel. We both love to travel, and it was really important to us that she came along because she is such a big part of our family and our life together.

We traveled more than 4,200 miles and visited nine national parks, which felt incredibly on brand for us. We got engaged in Glacier National Park and then visited Yellowstone during our engagement trip. When we later eloped and shared our first look in Rocky Mountain National Park and Brainard lake, beginning married life by exploring even more national parks together felt like another little Easter egg woven into our story.

The trip was filled with nature, adventure, and so much time together, which is exactly how we wanted to celebrate. One of the sweetest moments was when Bagel became a B.A.R.K. Ranger at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The entire honeymoon felt completely true to who we are as a couple.

We had already built such a strong foundation before getting married. From moving across the country together and bringing Bagel into our lives to navigating all of the big and small moments along the way, we have built our life brick by brick. Every new chapter has shown us what an incredible team we are, and we are really proud of the way we continue to move through life together.

We are most looking forward to building on that foundation and seeing where the next milestones take us. We both believe that when something matters to you, it deserves your effort, your time, and the courage to take the chance. We have approached our relationship and our life that way, and continuing to choose each other while creating a life that feels true to us is what we are most excited about.”