Venue: YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park, CO , Mountainside Chapel
Wedding Planner: Elise Seagren, Revel + Bloom
DJ: Trading Post Productions
Florist :Dashwood Floral formerly Posies and Pom
Rentals: Harvest Table Company
Photography: Drake & CO Photography + Films, Drake Busch and Kathryn Kim
Cake: Das Meyer
Rehearsal Location- The Other Side Restaurant
Cake- Das Meyer Bakery
Invitations- Wedding Paper Divas
Rehearsal Dinner Invitations- Artwork by Richard Skilton
Hair + Makeup- Liz with L Style Bar Beauty on Location Services
Officiant- David Garner (Home church preacher in Colorado)
Shuttle Buses- Imprint Events
Bistro Lights- Highlights of Aurora
Taylor's Ring- The Jewelry Exchange in Centennial, CO
Josh's Ring- Antler Rings
Josh's Boots- Boulet
Taylor's Boots- Luchesse
Dress- Maggie Sottero (purchased at Brickhouse Bridal in The Woodlands, TX)
Men's Attire- Men's Warehouse
How did you meet each other?
We were both attending Auburn University and signed up for a College of Agriculture spring break study program. We met at the Auburn University Stanley P. Wilson Beef Teaching Center where we all met to load up into mini vans for a spring break road trip to Texas.
What was the best memory of your wedding day?
Josh: Seeing Taylor for the first time
Taylor: Before we had our first look Josh almost walked in the cabin where I was getting ready and after he was shoo-ed away by my sister, Whitney, he was standing outside the cabin talking to my dad and my brother and brother in law and I was peeking out the front window of the cabin watching. I was like a kid, just so excited I couldn't stand it.
What would be some advice you would give to future couples as they plan their wedding day?
Elope. (We're only half kidding). Make sure you stay focused on each other, it's too easy to get influenced by everyone else's opinions and priorities and at the end of the day it should be about you and your new husband or wife. From the moment you start planning the smallest details will be all consuming and things will go wrong no matter how much you prepare and no matter how wonderful your vendors are something will go wrong, something won't be exactly as you envisioned and at the end of the day it doesn't matter at all. Don't sweat the small stuff. What actually mattered about our wedding day was how many friends and family traveled from near and far to witness us committing ourselves to each other in front of God.
As soon as we got engaged we kept it to ourselves for a full weekend so we could enjoy the time with Taylor's siblings and wouldn't have to spend all of our time on the phone. We did tell our parents and grandmothers immediately, but other than that we kept it quiet so we could just celebrate and soak it all in. After we told everyone, we also waited a month before we even started planning. We, again, wanted to just enjoy being engaged. Your engagement is such an exciting time, but it's also so short, so we wanted to make sure we enjoyed the small time while we could!
I (Taylor) woke up before all of my bridesmaids were up and walked down to our ceremony site and took around 40 minutes to just have some quiet time, think about how long Josh and I have looked forward to this day, and pray over our marriage. I know having that quiet time is what made me so calm all day.. Until I saw Josh, then I was just so excited I couldn't sit still.
Where did you go on your honeymoon?
Carey Driscoll with Beach Bum Vacations helped us orchestrate a phenomenal honeymoon in Moorea and Bora Bora. Carey was an absolute dream, took so much time to plan with us and offer suggestions and helpful budget tips and advice.
Josh found the overwater bungalows in Bora Bora before he even proposed and knew that's where he wanted to go for our Honeymoon. That was the first thing we booked after we got engaged. We knew it would be a more expensive honeymoon but it was more important to us to have a week vacation of our dreams than spend that extra money on one day of our lives.
We stayed at the Hilton in Moorea in a gardenn bungalow and the Tholasso Intercontinental Resort and Spa in Bora Bora in an overwater bungalow. In Moorea we went on an ATV tour of the island and saw the juice farms and some beautiful sight-seeing points in the mountains. We snorkeled around our resort and saw stingrays and coral and ate our way around the island at the local restaurants.
In Bora Bora we rented a vespa and rode it around the island for a day, went scuba diving, snorkeled with black tip reef sharks, lemon sharks, and stingrays, and as a wedding gift our sweet friends Caitlin and Luke bought us a private jeep tour of Bora Bora where a local Tahitian, David, took us to the peak of the mountain and told us about all of the French Polynesian legends and history while we watched the sun set.
We would go back TOMORROW if we could. It was the most beautiful, relaxing, and adventurous week of our lives and we highly recommend it to anyone!