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!

Alli and Dylan's Boulder Wedding at the Chautauqua Dining Hall

 

Alli and Dylan's Awesome Vendor Team: 

Wedding Photography:  Heather Huie for Apollo Fields

Boulder Wedding Venue: Chautauqua Dining Hall

Wedding DJ: DJ Drake

Alli and Dylans wedding cake and flowers were DIY. 

 Colorado Wedding Venue: Chautauqua Dining Hall, Boulder CO

Journalism:  Apollo Journalism

Heather is a Colorado wedding photographer! Contact her today!

Guanella Pass Campground Wedding Photography in Colorado

Emily & Ole's Wedding In The Woods | Colorado Campground | Apollo Fields Photojournalism

DIY RUSTIC WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY | CAMPGROUND INTIMATE WEDDINGS | ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHER ERNY PHOTO CO

Emily and Ole had a laid back wedding at the Guanella Pass Campground this past July. Celebrating with close family among the aspens and evergreens, their Colorado campground wedding was nothing short of perfect.  

During the ceremony, Emily read from her own personal journal, opening up her heart and sharing her intimate thoughts and feelings from when she first met Ole.

And I couldn't help but notice the leaves she had tucked inside her journal pages, dried out and preserved for years to come. As a nostalgic person myself, this made me love being a part of their day even more. 

And then I found out that Emily's bouquet, in all of it's beauty, was the dried version of the very first flowers Ole ever gave her. It turns out she had been saving them for this very day. I can't even put into words how amazing that is and how much I adored it!  

After the wedding, we drove up to the top of Guanella Pass for some intimate couples portraits of just the two of them. As soon as we arrived, you could see Emily and Ole relax. It was obvious that they felt most at home in the quiet of the mountains. Mt. Beirstadt stood tall in the background, which while unplanned was also awesome since that was one of the first 14ers Emily and Ole ever climbed together.  

This was their perfect wedding. From the do it yourself touches, to the breath-taking views, to them including their adorable French bull dog, Winston, and his adorable red bow tie. If they could do it all again, I'm not sure they could do it any better. 

Emily and Ole's Colorado Campground Mountain Wedding

Photography:  Apollo Photo
Journalism:  Apollo Journalism

Lindsey & Jeff's Colorado Winter Engagement Photography at Lake Dillon

Lindsey & Jeff's Winter Engagement Session | Lake Dillon, Colorado | Mountain Engagement Photography | Adventure Couple | Dog Lovers | Apollo Photojournalism 

Lindsey and Jeff are everything that I love about my Colorado couples:  they are fun and easygoing, outdoor enthusiasts, dog lovers, and down to earth.  Lindsey is bubbly and outgoing, and when I first met her she was planning a wedding while wrapping up her nursing degree.  Jeff is composed and polite, and when they first met, it was only fitting that they hit a park together to take their dogs on a walk together.  

They quickly connected over their love of dogs and nature, so we knew right away that we wanted the pups to be part of their engagement photos!  They wanted those epic Colorado mountain landscapes and Lake Dillon was the perfect backdrop.  It was a chilly Denver day, but the sun was out which made it surprisingly bearable.  However, by the time we made it up the mountain and out to Lake Dillon, the wind had picked up and the elevation was doing us no favors.  It was a balmy seven degrees Fahrenheit (are you picking up on the sarcasm yet)???  Oh my lord, it was FREEZING!  With the wind chill coming off the lake, the "feels like" weather report was well into the negatives.  

As soon as we stepped out of the car, I thought Lindsey and Jeff were going to want to reschedule.  No way they were going to want to shoot in this weather, I thought to myself.  But they just smiled and said, "Let's go!"  I loved their can-do attitude, embracing the harsh Colorado sun that was bouncing off the pristine snow, and absolute chill that was running over the lake.  We did take a few breaks to warm back up in the car and I kept having to warm my camera up in my jacket because it was struggling to keep up, but we got these awesome shots which made it SO WORTH IT!  

Lindsey was so sweet because as we were headed back to Denver, she thought the pictures were going to be horrible.  She said thought her face was all frozen and her eyes would be too squinty, but I sent her a sneak-peak that night and she was over the moon!  This is one of my favorite parts about my job, when the conditions are less-than-ideal and we can turn around and make epic photos anyway.  Any photographer can shoot beautiful pictures in optimal weather with diffused golden light, but I pride myself on being able to 'wow' my clients when it's freezing and we're only able to shoot in blaring direct sun, too!!  

Colorado Engagement Photography:  Erny Photo CO | Apollo Photo

Location:  Lake Dillon, Colorado