The Chautauqua Dining Hall Wedding in Boulder, Colorado
Alli & Dylan | Chautauqua Dining Hall Wedding | Boulder Colorado | Mountain Wedding Photographer | Wedding Writer | Apollo Photojournalism
Kintish - Est. 2017
On a cloudless Colorado summer day, the Flatirons at Chautauqua Park in Boulder play second fiddle to no one. The greens and grays of the slanted rock faces humble all that meander along its worn dirt paths, but when Alli and Dylan danced as dinosaurs before the cliffs, the mountains knew there was something familiar yet admirable and new about them.
In the beginning, Alli and Dylan’s love was forbidden, a sacrifice to the bureaucracy of Americorps where greens and grays were not to date. It didn’t matter at first because Alli found Dylan repulsive, but eventually he won her over with snacks, silliness, and his patented pose for photographs. After a couple of years of hidden romance, Dylan literally yelled his love for Alli from the mountaintops of Big Bend, Texas, where they met for the first time.
Their lives in service to others was to continue in the Peace Corps in Paraguay after their celebration in Boulder, but for those few days they allowed their love to point inwards towards their own hearts.
Surrounded by sunshine, the hand-stitched chuppah provided the only shade for Alli and Dylan and her snacks as notes from Nathan’s guitar gently danced upon the breeze. By the time that golden hour struck and the sun tucked itself behind the mountains, they gazed upon one another with honeymoon eyes, kissing, just like they accidentally did when Alli arrived at the altar, forgetting tradition in a showcase of their genuinely awkward love.
From amateur poetry to Irish quotes and Jewish rites, all who spoke over glasses bubbling with champagne honored tradition in their own language. Alli and Dylan listened, laughed and cried, dancing through the night in their own way, whether it was a routine to Backstreet Boys and MMMBop, or inch-worming in a wedding dress, they never lost their balance with a reverence to the past as their hearts danced towards the future.
Outdoor Mountain Wedding | Boulder, Colorado | Chautauqua Dining Hall & Erny Photo CO Wedding Photographer
Smiling from ear-to-ear, Dylan Kintish and Alli Bell Kintish said goodbye to their guests as they filed out of their wedding venue, making their way down the stairs as a gentle rain began to fall in Chautauqua Park in Boulder, CO in August 2017. They only had seven months to plan this day and there was little flexibility as they were set to leave for Paraguay just a month later on a 2-year mission for the Peace Corps. This didn’t stop them from having a wedding that Alli’s dad would later call, “rough around the edges, but straight from the heart.”
From the get-go, Alli and Dylan knew that they wanted to focus on making their wedding day their own, knowing that would be a key to the happiness of everyone involved. “Don’t try to fit your wedding into someone else’s box. It should be a day that fits your personality and who you are, not the other way around,” Alli and Dylan wrote after their wedding.
I couldn’t think of a better way to word the day partners celebrate their love. It’s so easy to get lost in the planning of the ‘most important day in your life,’ shuffling through vendors, table settings, venues, DJ’s and travel arrangements.
Alli and Dylan set a great example of how they made the whole experience their own, letting all the conventional stresses of wedding planning fall to the green grass of Chautauqua Park like flower petals from the fingers of a smiling flower girl. To understand just how much they made this process their own, know that they got their engagement photos done in dinosaur onesies. (Who does that?! We loved it!)
Before the wedding we asked them, “What are you most looking forward to on your wedding day?” A lot of couples would say ‘to enjoy the most important day in their lives,’ or to ‘finally make their love official’ but Alli and Dylan selflessly responded, “[to have] all of our loved ones in one place!” Collecting loved ones under one roof is perhaps the most underappreciated aspect when stressing about planning a wedding because those in attendance will not remember the place settings, the food, or the angle that the tent was set up; they will remember the people tucked into their button-down shirts, the smiling faces shining more than the veneer of any gorgeous dress, and the couple that brought them all together.
Alli and Dylan enjoyed every moment of their outdoor Colorado wedding because they made it their own and they focused on the love in their lives and the love of the day. Now when they look back on their photos, they see no trace of the day that was ‘rough around the edges,’ and only see the moments that came “straight from the heart.
About Alli and Dylan
Alli and Dylan dated for four years before getting engaged at Big Bend National Park in Texas. They had recently both signed up for the Peace Corps and decided that they wanted to be married before they started their new adventure.
They believe that marriage means both loving and liking someone.When asked, they said that it is a mutual understanding that two people realize that they are stronger together as one, than they are apart.
I couldn't agree more.
Alli and Dylan's, your summer wedding was one of my favorites to date. Your zest for life is contagious and your love for one another is absolutely incredible to see. We love following your Pair-In-Guay Blog and we can't wait to hear about your next adventures!