Matrimony in Vail: An Old Fulford Wedding

Welcome to Part 2 of our marriage series featuring our Old Fulford wedding. This piece is all things day-of. Some of the brands/businesses mentioned in this article were kind enough to gift me services or products to help make my day extra special. I want to thank Ashley Johnson (@balaygedbyash), Kambri (@BringMeBronze,) Nari Ro (@skinbynari,) Redstone Meadery (@readstonemeadery,) and Weatherford 1814 (@weatherford1814) for their contributions! Without these businesses, our Old Fulford wedding would not have been as magical.

7:00am – Gotta be Fresh

It was not Friday, but the feeling was all the same – I woke up at 7:00 am and fought with the Chateau’s ridiculous master shower with a ton of butterflies in my stomach. The dogs were antsy and I was so ready to get the show on the road. When I told the girls the night before I was going to shower at 7 am they were all surprised, but I knew I wanted to have ample time to get ready. Relaxed.

9:00 am – Breakfast of Champions

It wasn’t long before the smell of breakfast empanadas from Rincon Argentine in Boulder, CO filled the air. I grabbed 3, assuming a big breakfast was going to be carrying me through the day (boy, was I right). Shortly after, my bridesmaids and I headed upstairs to begin the incredible task of blow drying my ridiculous head of hair. Emboldened by a sugar-free Red Bull, we made it work.

11:30 am – Calling in Reinforcements

It wouldn’t be a wedding without someone being late, am I right? In our case, it was our hair & make-up gal. I am not sure if it was the joint we smoked that morning or just some weird state of acceptance I managed to slip into, but I did not freak out. I remember thinking about my wedding day as a teen and thinking the whole “bridezilla” trope was silly – but then I lived it. And y’all, there’s something about people messing with your day that is incredibly unnerving, that being said, we pushed forward.

In the end, my hair looked incredible, almost exactly what I had envisioned and delivering total princess vibes. The styling was great, but have to give props to Ashley Johnson and Samira Jackson for creating a stunning palette. Ashley corrected my very grown out COVID Color from when I was all-over blonde and my extensions were custom-colored and installed by Samira Jackson. I was absolutely in love with how romantic it looked and felt. The addition of these gorgeous hairpins I snagged at Emma and Grace Bridal made the whole look magical.

After our stylist was done with me, she rushed down the hill to where Drew was staying to knock out his hairstyle. I think it’s hilarious, everyone I mentioned to that we were doing his hair too couldn’t understand why. Well, 1.) I can’t braid for shit. 2.) We wanted to do something fun with his long hair and given our love of all things Tolkien we thought “why not?” Personally, we really like it in the end. So much so I can’t get him to stop trying to braid his hair at home. haha!

2:45 pm – Thank God for Pam

At 2:45 pm I come running down the stairs trying to wrangle my Mom and a bunch of other things so we aren’t late for the photographer. We make it out the door at 2:50 pm, but my Mom just…I don’t even know y’all, she just doesn’t know how to drive. I’ll give her that the driveway to the Chateau was alarmingly difficult to navigate but what should’ve been maybe a slow 5-minute delay turned into 10ish GRUELING minutes of us getting stuck in the driveway.

Then, suddenly, like an angel – my mother in law, Pam, appeared.

“Need some help?” she said. I am sure she could see my face screaming “SAVE US!!!”

Not too long after we were turned around and on our way down the hill, but not before my Mom pulled over to try to say “Hi” to Drew….the ONE PERSON not supposed to see me. haha! She would chalk it up to a brain fart but I call it sabotage. After this attack, we finally made our way to the highway and began our hour-long journey to Old Fulford and Yeoman Park. It was then that my Mom tells me she has a special gift for me and in my mind I immediately think, “couldn’t be anything crazy as we’re about to get photos taken.” Oh was I wrong or what.

My Mom pulls out a small bag, inside there’s a locket with what I could immediately tell was ashes – my Dad’s ashes. Immediate tears. It is a gorgeous piece and I was honestly not expecting it at all, so it really was a great surprise. We had discussed several times ways to have him “walk me” down the aisle and this was a great approach. First thing I said, “Why would you give this to me right before pictures?!” as I try to keep tears from running down. Just imagine yourself opening the most beautiful gift you’ve ever received while feeling your best, driving through a sea of aspens to go marry the love of your life. You’d cry too.

If you’ve been following along, you know we chose an Old Fulford wedding because it was a spot my Dad had visited in his 20s. The area gave us a lot of sentimental value plus a ton of aspens! My mother’s gift tied the whole thing together!

4:30 pm – First Look

When we arrived at the parking lot of Fulford Cave Campground I very casually tried to hide behind the sun visor because my Mom, again, just didn’t understand the concept of not seeing each other until a specific moment. I kid you not. Drew heads off into the trees with our photographer, Kimberly Crist, while I try to figure out the best way to bunch up my dress and walk up a trail in boots. Really thought that one out.

I start to make my way up and ask my Mom for some help, only to look down and realize the dark thing bunched up inside my dress in my hand wasn’t a leaf but a GRASSHOPPER. A big meaty grasshopper, and of course I start freaking out. Luckily my Mom is calm and gets it out before helping me get up the rest of the trail. And there he was, standing on this really cool rock surrounded by aspens. Everything I envisioned.

We met again. He couldn’t get over my boobs. It was so very us and natural, we were just so glad to be back in each other’s presence. Yes, we are entirely co-dependent and 16 hours without each other is a lot. 😉 We got some great shots with Kimberly who was one of my first friends here in Colorado. Look at this fall-themed snow globe she put us in!

 

5:20 pm – It’s 4:20 Somewhere

We missed 4:20 cause we were all running late, but we found a moment for a quick toke before we wrapped up our pre-ceremony photos. It was ridiculously awesome timing that Select gifted me this Bordello cart + battery the day we left for Vail. I wasn’t expecting it to look so good with our vibe, but it did – so we asked Kimberly to snap a few and y’all, this is a whole lewk.

5:40 pm – Our Love Goes Ever On

Ahhh!! Finally ceremony time. We were supposed to start 40 minutes prior but 75% of our guests were late so we switched things up. Instead of the traditional aisle stuff, we greeted all of our guests and then basically put on the performance that was our ceremony. Our dogs, of course, immediately start freaking out as we try to get started. Courage will not stop barking and eventually begins chasing Ollie like he’s out for blood. Big thanks to my brother Eric for dragging (kinda literally) Courage to the car.

First off, I wanna give myself mad props because everyone loved the playlist I made for our 15-minute ceremony. Secondly, we also have to shout it out to Brady, Drew’s childhood best friend, for accepting our request to officiate the wedding like 3 weeks before. Gotta love friends that are down for anything. He did an incredible job and we only cried a lil bit, laughed a lot.

For our vows, Drew and I adapted a song Tolkien wrote for The Hobbit, an author we both love and was my Dad’s favorite as well. We replaced “road” with “our love” and I added a lil flair to the end, including a line my good friend William Sarradet has used for a decade+ at the very end. Here they are:

The Road Goes Ever on by J.R.R. Tolkien

Our love goes ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Our love goes ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.
It will never go away, I will always love you.

We kissed, we cheered, we packed up and couldn’t wait to get back for the incredible meal we had lined up. Our Old Fulford wedding was a success!

 

7:30 pm – A Dad-Approved Dinner

When we got back to the house my Mom rushed us upstairs so they could put the final touches on things – we appreciated the moment to be alone and take a deep breath. It wasn’t long before we were told to come back down and were greeted by all our loved ones and a room full of romantic touches. From the roaring fire to the gorgeous tablescape, the smell of dumplings filled the air and our tummies were rumbling.

Our menu was inspired by things Drew and I love as well as a lot of what my Dad loved. Food is a thing in my family and Dad was always pretty particular. I think what Coria, our private chef, accomplished was quite on par. We paired each course with mead from Redstone Meadery, including their Juniper Honey Mead and Black Raspberry Nectar.

Old Fulford Wedding Menu

First Course: Charcuterie and dumplings 2-ways

Second Course: Crawfish bisque – a nod to our engagement party which was a crawfish boil

Third Course: Squid ink pasta with seared scallops

Fourth Course: Garlic crusted rack of lamb with roasted Brussel sprouts and heirloom carrots

Dessert: Grandma Kaki’s pumpkin cake and our divine two-tiered wedding cake from Ty’s Treats which was chocolate with chai buttercream on the bottom and white chocolate raspberry on top, lined with macaroons

While I had every expectation dinner would be amazing, I didn’t expect the mid-dinner break we had to take when all of the alarms in the house started randomly going off…for 20 minutes. haha! A nightmare to say the least. Really woke everyone up though!

 

11:59pm – Happily Ever After

By the time midnight rolled around Drew and I were beat. We said our farewells and retreated to the master suite to see about some jacuzzi tub action. I never put the plug in so we stood there for 30 minutes trying to understand why it wasn’t filling up. The hot water ran out and we kept troubleshooting for probably 45 min before giving up and just getting in bed with the fire going.

Won’t go into details about what happened next, but I can guarantee you it was good. 😉 haha!

I’ll be posting part 3 soon, come back for more on how we’ve adjusted to married life after our Old Fulford wedding! Looking for pandemic wedding planning tips? Head here!