Shupe Homestead Summer Wedding

Rebekah and Ryan planned a beautiful, colorful, wildflower garden party to celebrate their wedding at Shupe Homestead in Boulder, Colorado.

Rebekah shares her most anticipated moment of the day, “Wearing my dress! I have a difficult time keeping things from Ryan, so waiting a year and a half to show him my dress was torture. To keep the dress a surprise, I had to keep it at Ryan’s parents’ house until the wedding day, so I really didn’t see it much through the wedding process. Being able to wear it, show it to Ryan, and wear a ballroom gown of my childhood dreams are moments I will cherish forever.

I also got the opportunity to wear a redesigned version of my mom’s wedding dress from the 80’s. My sister is an artist and does a lot of outfit design. When my mom offered her dress to my sister and I as a gift, I knew I wanted to include it in my special day. I wore it to our welcome party on Friday and as my “getaway” dress at the end of the night. This was so special and held so much meaning not only for me, but for many members of my family.”

The couple shared a first look and private vows before the ceremony.

Rebekah continues, “There were so many favorite parts, but I think saying our private vows is one of my favorites from the wedding day. When we were reading our vows to one another, it came out that we both started writing our vows in April of 2024. It wasn’t a surprise that either of us had this forethought, but that we both started writing them at the same time unknowingly. This was also one of the few moments Ryan and I had with just the two of us throughout the day and while I later learned a lot of people were watching this moment through the venue windows, it really felt like it was just the two of us.”

Rebekah shares, “The official theme for the wedding was “wildflower, garden party cocktail.” When I moved to Colorado in the summertime three years ago I remember driving along I-70 and being captivated by the wildflowers along the side of the road. One of our favorite memories is a visit to Crested Butte for a wedding and running through fields of wildflowers while a rainbow was overhead. I knew I wanted the natural beauty of Colorado to really shine through in all of our decor and design. Our venue, Shupe Homestead, was already in a perfect location for my vision (overgrown field behind the venue, views of Longs Peak, beautiful landscaping by the owner). Additionally, all tableware was included with our venue, with one of the options being mismatched floral chinaware. I embraced the colors in the dishes and chose napkins to match the plates and the wedding color scheme. This was one of my most complimented designs from the wedding day.

My bridesmaids’ dresses became the focal point of my color scheme and inspiration. When I was choosing the color scheme, I knew I didn’t want just one. I chose pastel rainbow colors for each of my bridesmaids to match the colors I saw in summertime wildflowers. One of my first tasks in wedding planning was creating an inspo board with my colors. This proved to be very helpful to share with guests, vendors, and the wedding party. Going along with the wildflower theme, I wanted lots of texture and movement throughout the day so I was very intentional when choosing decor items to make sure this vision came to life.

Like many a DIY bride, the internet (specifically TikTok and Pinterest) were my main hubs for inspo and DIY ideas. One current DIY trend is to use a large photo frame and a paint called “gallery glass” to create your own stained glass wedding sign. After buying a couple templates and not liking them, I ended up making my own template and creating a piece that now hangs on our living room wall.”

Ryan shares, “I was most excited to see Bekah walk down the aisle. I knew I would remember that moment forever so I wanted to mentally capture it as best as I could. Thankfully we had an amazing photographer because I have the memory of half a goldfish.”

Ryan shares, “One of my favorite details about the night was our table markers. We didn’t include our two cats, PopTart and Potato, in the wedding but we still wanted their presence to be felt. Bekah reached out to one of her friends and commissioned these really neat table number markers that were made based off of a few photos we sent to her friend. They turned out great!”

Ryan shares, “My favorite part of the day ended up being our first dance. This was by far something I had been the most apprehensive and nervous about. Dancing scares me, especially when everyone is watching. But Bekah made it easy for me, as she does most things. I found that I was able to completely shut everyone else out and get lost in the moment. I just held her close and found myself at peace. Nothing else mattered and I won’t forget that feeling.”

Rebekah adds, “I love Noah Kahan as an artist. As a mental health professional his music and passion for mental health care resonates deeply with me. His album “Stick Season” came at a point in my life when I was experiencing some depression and a lot of life changes. Noah released three iterations of his Stick Season album with the song “Forever” coming out in February of 2024, right at the beginning stages of dating. I knew I didn’t want a “traditional” song to walk down the aisle to and I wanted something that held a lot of meaning for us.”

“When forever was a sentence, a sentence to death. Oh when you were a running tear, I was a drop of sweat. And the edges of your soul, I haven’t seen yet. And I’m glad I get forever to see where you end. I won’t be alone for the rest of my life… But I won’t ever let her go, I won’t ever let her go.”

His music was also woven into the reception.

Rebekah continues, “On our second date, we created a Spotify playlist that blended our music tastes. I remember texting him that his music reminded me of what you would hear when walking through a mall and he described mine as crying in your car while driving on a rainy day. Ryan was a bit reluctant to jump on the Noah Kahan bandwagon, but after going to see him live in concert, Ryan changed his pace and even listened to Noah when I was not around. Ryan knows how important Noah’s music is to my story and selected “Everywhere, Everything” as our first dance song, which I could not have been happier about.

“Everywhere, everything. I wanna love you ’til we’re food for the worms to eat. ‘Til our fingers decompose, keep my hand in yours.”

After the toasts we went outside to enjoy the amazing sunset.

Ryan was a professional meteorologist and has strong feelings about the weather that even extended to wishing for a tornado on his wedding day! He shares, “The biggest surprise in my opinion was the sunset at the end of the day! Every sunset is good, but ours was truly something special. We had some light smoke in the area from some nearby wildfires, which is obviously devastating and I wish they hadn’t happened at all. However, the extra particulates and aerosols from the smoke allowed for some intense light scattering as the sun dipped behind the mountains. Additionally, we had some smaller cumulonimbus thunderstorm clouds nearby too. Did I want a tornado that day? Yes. A small non-damaging one would have been perfect, but I’m very happy with the luck that we had.”

When the sun had set, the dance floor really got going!

Ryan shares, “When I was getting ready with my groomsmen before the wedding, I had off-handedly asked them to ‘make a scene’ at some point during the night. Just something that would stick out in my memory for years to come. I had forgotten, no surprise, that I had asked them to do that. They did not forget. Towards the end of the night my best man Nathan and groomsman Logan came up to me and hoisted me onto their shoulders and carried me around the dance floor. I was grabbing their faces to make sure I didn’t fall while bopping around to the music – it was electric!”

I asked them what they are most excited about being married. Ryan shares, “That one is easy: having a best friend for every function. It’s so nice knowing that Bekah will always be there with me and I’ll have someone to lean on. We get so darn competitive with board game night, which is awesome, but I think it’s also healthy for us to be on the same team every now and then, ha! Additionally, I am so thankful for her amazing cooking skills. Before I met her, it was hot dogs and mac every night for dinner. With Bekah though, we now throw in some occasional vegetables!”

Rebekah shares, “Continuing to create our life together. We knew very early on that this was it for us and that we wanted to get married. From the first date to the wedding day was only two and a half years. While it feels like we’ve known each other for a lifetime, we have so many hopes, dreams, and goals for our future that we want to accomplish; raising a family, buying a house, graduating with our doctorate degrees, starting a business, etc. I am just so excited to continue creating this life with Ryan by my side.”

The couple has planned their honeymoon for this winter.

Ryan shares, “Bekah and I are both in our doctorate programs right now so school is a bit hectic. Therefore, we decided to wait on our big honeymoon until winter break this winter when we’ll both have some extended time off. We’re planning on going on a cruise! Something we both have learned about each other is our favorite way to vacation, and thankfully we have the same preferences. Cruises take a lot of the planning stress out of things and I think we both love that. The captain takes us where we need to be each day and food is ready for us as we need it. Activities, events, and shows are laid out for us to choose from. The only thing that Bekah and I have to do is ROT.”