Colorado intimate wedding — Colorado Wedding and Elopement Photographer

During an intimate wedding atop a mountain in Colorado a bride and groom kiss while their guests cheer on either side of them

As a wedding photographer in Colorado I’ve seen a TON of different weddings throughout the years. Everything from giant gatherings where everyone the couple knows is in attendance, down to elopements where it’s just the couple and I there, and everything in between!! While I love all my couples weddings, and there is a place for each and every type of wedding, there are just SO many aspects to my intimate Colorado weddings that I LOVE! “But Katie, why would I want less people at my wedding?” I’m glad you asked!! Believe it or not, there are actually SO benefits to having an intimate wedding, so let’s go over some of them!

What is an Intimate Wedding

So first off, what exactly IS an intimate wedding? According to this article from The Knot, an intimate wedding is a wedding with a guest count usually in the range of 10-40 guests and never more than 50. This smaller guest size leads to a more intimate celebration for your wedding day, hence the name! From the venue you book to the overall feel of the wedding day itself, the difference between an intimate wedding in Colorado and a large one is night and day. Let’s take a look at 6 of my favorite benefits of Intimate weddings and how they differ from larger weddings.

6 Benefits of Intimate Weddings

A bride sits behind a groom and wraps her arms around him while they both sit in a canoe on a lake in Colorado with the mountains behind them

More Personal

First and foremost, with an intimate wedding in Colorado, you’re able to create a day with a more personal feel to it. With larger weddings, you often have to make sacrifices in terms of what your wedding day looks and feels like. Intimate weddings have a much smaller scale to them which lets you get more creative with how you structure your day. You’re able to include the traditions you want, you can cut out those that you don’t, and overall create a wedding day that really feels like YOU! After all, it’s your wedding, it should feel like it’s a dream day created around you right?! Some of my favorite intimate weddings have included a hike to their favorite scenic spot, snowshoeing back out to share their vows, canoeing out to have a moment together on a lake, or snagging some ice cream after your ceremony!

A bride and groom dance with one another during their indoor wedding reception at a venue in Colorado with guests seated behind them

More Venue Options

With a smaller guest count that comes with an intimate wedding you also have a much larger option of Colorado wedding venues to choose from for your day! Every wedding venue will have a maximum number of guests they allow for and that their space can handle. With that in mind it makes sense why having a larger wedding would lead to some of the coolest venues in the state to be unavailable to you.

With the smaller guest count of an intimate wedding that is much less likely to be the case, the only thing to be aware of then is if the venue has a minimum guest count. If you’re still in the early planning processes of your wedding and are looking into venues, be sure to check out some of my favorite wedding venues in the mountains of Colorado as well as ones near Denver for some inspo!!

Use Your Budget Purposefully

A huge draw to intimate weddings for a lot of couples in the flexibility that they give you when it comes to the budget! Let’s not beat around the bush here, even the most DIY weddings are often fairly expensive, and that cost only increases the larger the wedding gets. With smaller, more intimate weddings though something cool happens! With less people in attendance your food and drink cost will come down drastically. This means you can either save a good chunk of money OR spend that remaining money in other areas like your venue, your vendors, decorations, whatever you’re feeling really!

More Time With Your People

You’ve heard the phrase ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ and that is definitely the case on your wedding day! It’s a constant of any wedding day that no matter the amount of time you plan into the day, it is going to FLY by!! This fact leads to a feeling where at a larger wedding you don’t really have time to interact with your guests much outside of the initial greeting and congratulations as there are just SO many people to talk to and so many things to do! With an intimate wedding day in Colorado you’re able to spend more time with your guests and actually talk to them. It helps you create more meaningful memories with those people and in turn a more memorable wedding day overall!!

Less Stress

If you’re in the planning process for a wedding, or you’ve talked with someone who has planned a wedding, you know how stressful of a process it can be. Is it going to be the best day of your life and SO worth it in the end? Of course!! That doesn’t mean that all the prep, planning, and organizing that goes into it is any less of a stressor though. The good thing about intimate weddings though is that there is just overall less that you have to plan out. With an intimate wedding as well, it’s only you and your partners closest friends and family there, which means you can count on them to be there and be extra supportive of you if needed.

Eco Friendly

Last and DEFINITELY not least is that intimate weddings are on average better for the environment than their larger scale counterparts! With less guests comes less waste in terms of food, carbon emissions from travel, wedding favors, and all the other little details that come along with a wedding day. Living in Colorado and being surrounded by the sheer beauty of nature constantly, I find it so important to find areas to be sustainable in your wedding planning, intimate wedding or not! I mean I did write an entire blog about it, which you should definitely check out after this one!!

A bride and groom sit on a rocky cliff in the mountains of Colorado after their intimate wedding celebrations, their eyes are closed and they are touching their foreheads together

Things to Keep in Mind When Planning Your Intimate Wedding

Now that we have the benefits of intimate weddings in Colorado in mind you’re likely ready to start planning your own intimate wedding ASAP! There are just a couple other points I would like to cover first before you go though. Trust me they’re important for the planning process!

The Guest List

First up is the actual guest list of your intimate wedding in Colorado. With the guest count needing to be lower there are of course going to be people in your lives that do not make the cut for the actual day of the wedding. It’s important when you make your invite list with your partner that you talk about the guest list and come up with your “must have” people there. For anyone that does not make this criteria there’s no reason that your wedding day has to be the only celebration of your marriage. Plan out some sort of get together with those who won’t be attending the wedding, or invite them out for a dinner after and spend the evening with them on a more personal note.

Whatever you do, just know that it’s ok to not have every person you know at your wedding. This is your day and you deserve for it to be exactly what you envision it to be. If you know there are people who will not be attending that will be disappointed in knowing that, be sure to tell them early. Be honest with them about your vision and what you want your day to look like. It may be hard for them to hear, but in the end remember they do care for you and want you to have the happiest day possible!

Wedding Day Traditions

I mentioned earlier about cutting out wedding traditions that you don’t want as a part of your day from your intimate wedding in Colorado. While this is easily done in theory, in practice it can be more difficult depending on your families and their expectations. If you do plan on cutting out some traditions from your wedding day be sure to talk with your family prior similar to how you would with those not making the guest list. Being open and honest is SO important and is the best way to get them on board and even excited for the idea.

It is possible as well to find some sort of middle ground with some traditions as well. For instance if your family doesn’t think a first look is appropriate and that rather you should see one another at the ceremony for the first time, you can opt for a first touch instead! This lets you still get that intimate moment without technically seeing one another first. This is just one example, but you see what I mean. Get creative and have fun with it!!

Thank you for coming on this journey and going through some of the biggest benefits of intimate weddings in Colorado with me! They’re some of the most fun, unique, and simply put best wedding experiences I’ve been a part of. While they for sure aren’t for everyone, I do believe that every couple should seriously consider having one before ruling them out! For more wedding planning tips check out some of the other resources on my blog, and if you’re ready to book me for your wedding day send me an inquiry!!