September Wedding!

So the countdown has begun! Actually the countdown to my wedding began about two years ago. My Finance Paul and I live in SE Kansas, Paul is currently enrolled in Pittsburg State University (PSU)  he will have a summer graduation this July. For financial reasons we chose to get married after he finished school, thus the two-year engagement.
I’m the type of person who would prefer to blend into a group and not be the center of attention, and Paul… well Paul has a bit of social anxiety. :) I know, I know match made in heaven. For these reasons we have chosen to forego tradition and go with a destination wedding YAY! So I was thinking about the choices for our wedding shortly after the engagement and I presented Paul with the idea. We choose a place we would both like to visit/vacation someday and we go there for our honeymoon, and while were there we get married. :) Brilliant right, because lets face it who wants to drive hours and hours to go to someone’s wedding? Thus no big guest list and no hard feelings for not inviting everyone, and most important for our sanity no being the center of attention for a large group.
We chose Colorado, beautiful place and lots of beautiful things to see. It’s somewhere in the range of a 12-14 hour drive for us. My big sister / best friend and her fiance will be driving up with us, they vacationed in Colorado a few years ago. With a bit of online searching and a small budget I discovered that there are about six beautiful sites in Garden Of The Gods that you can get married for free (bring your own minister of course). Thinking twice about this however as I stumbled across a teeny tiny chapel tucked at the edge of Garden of the Gods, actually located on the property of a place called Rock Ledge Ranch. It’s called American Mothers Chapel and rents for 200.00 a day. Two hundred is not what I wanted to spend because when I said budget I meant itty bitty budget. But considering its Colorado in September I decided it was worth it, because it could be cold or raining or snowing or a mix match of those things. Plus, It looks like something out of a story book wedding to me, a little chapel tucked in the mountain side.

American Mothers Church @ Rock Ledge Ranch - Colorado

   

Okay, so when I said it was a teeny tiny chapel I meant it. According to the chapels rules and regulations contract I had to sign it seats twelve and stands three (bride/minister/groom) but that’s plenty big for my small wedding party of four, or so I thought. It seems that some people are actually willing to drive a ridiculous way for a wedding. Turns out Paul’s mom, dad, and sister and her adorable baby boy will be making the drive from Wisconsin to Colorado for the event. But, that’s just fine with us. We drove to Wisconsin this Christmas to spend it with Paul’s family where I got to meet them all for the first time. They are the type of people you meet and feel like you already knew them. :) Love them!
So,  the point of all this back story is really just to say that I will be posting some Wedding DIY’S in the near future, along with other this and that's.
Original Post: June 16th, 2012