Granby Ranch Wedding Photos in Colorado

Granby Ranch Wedding Photos – Colorado Wedding Photographers

June 15, 2019 Granby Ranch Wedding Photos, Colorado — Oh, where to begin! Kaila and Justin’s wedding day was SO amazing. Even though things didn’t always go according to plan (we’ll circle back to that in a minute), the whole day was incredibly beautiful. I’ve been excited to share this wedding for SO long. If there were more hours in a day, I probably would’ve shared this whole wedding the day after it happened. Seriously you guys, these two are amazing! They are so in love with each other. And their guests sure knew how to have a good time!

How They Met

Kaila and Justin met on a dating app called “Coffee Meets Bagel”, when they were both living in Florida. Justin was the first connection Kaila had on the app, the first date she went on, and the last! (How many people can say that?!) When they had their first date, Kaila carried a taser in her purse, just in case. Justin took her to Lake Eola in Orlando for a festival and dinner. Which obviously landed him a second date and the rest is history!

How He Proposed

Justin took Kaila back to Lake Eola where they had their first date. They walked to the Chinese gazebo that overlooks the lake. Justin chickened out the first time and had them walk around the lake a second time before finally going back to the gazebo where he popped the question! When he got down on one knee, Kaila responded with, “Are you serious?!” And then said, “YES!!!” The next day they celebrated at Disney World!

A Hopeful Morning…

Kaila and Justin moved from Florida to Colorado when they were engaged and started planning their mountain wedding! Most of their family and friends came from out of town and not only did Kaila and Justin throw one heck of a party, they were able to share with everyone why they moved to Colorado and the beauty of this state!

All week, we had been watching the weather forecast. Even though things didn’t look great (daily afternoon storms in Colorado ALL summer), the morning was beautiful! We were hopeful we could have the ceremony at the top of the mountain because as you will see, the views are stunning! Kaila and Justin were getting ready in separate condos, hanging out with their bridal parties. Once the girls were ready, we made our way up the mountain on the ski lift. At this point in the day, you could definitely see some storm clouds forming over the mountains. We were starting to get a *little* nervous about having their ceremony at the top due to lightning. The girls finished getting ready in the yurt at the top of the mountain, then the guys made their way up the ski lift.

Granby Ranch Wedding – A Stormy Ceremony

Once everyone was ready, Kaila and Justin had their “first look” next to the aspen trees and then we were given the “okay” to move forward with the ceremony at the top as long as we moved quickly! The ceremony was absolutely beautiful and the views were as gorgeous as ever, even if the dark clouds made it look more dramatic than usual! In the middle of their ceremony, we were told that there was lightning just a couple miles away and everyone needed to be evacuated from the top of the mountain ASAP. So the officiant had to skip over a couple things, including their wine box ceremony (which they did later during their reception!). Kaila and Justin said their vows, kissed, and everyone had to be rushed off into the shuttles to head down the mountain!

Since the ski lifts were shut down and we were technically supposed to remain indoors, we were unable to take any photos at the top of the mountain with those gorgeous views! It was a little disappointing, but we ended up taking some fun photos on the lawn at the base. Their reception was SO fun. There were emotional toasts, the messiest cake cutting I’ve ever seen, and some amazing dance moves.

Oh, and keep scrolling to the end to see how we ended up getting some AMAZING sunset shots at the top of the mountain!

A Sunset “Reshoot” at the top of Granby Ranch

Because of uncontrollable circumstances (crazy Colorado weather), we did a reshoot just a few days after Kaila and Justin’s wedding. We made our way back to Granby and Kaila and Justin got ready again. Since the ski lift was closed, Granby gave us access to drive up to the top. Even if the ski lift had been open, they wouldn’t have let us go up again because YOU GUYS. It stormed AGAIN. The forecast said it would be clear all afternoon/evening. But as we made our way up the mountain, it started raining, hailing, thundering, and lightning.

We waited it out because we didn’t come all that way and Kaila and Justin didn’t get dressed up again just to be let down by another storm. So we waited and waited… eventually it was nearing sunset time (almost 90 minutes past the time of when we wanted to start photographing). FINALLY, the rain stopped and the lightning was getting farther away. Since we were running out of light, we took photos as quickly as possible, and we all got super muddy, but oh my gosh you guys, it was SO WORTH IT.

Kaila and Justin, it was such an honor to photograph your wedding (and reshoot sunset photos 😉 Thanks for having us be a part of your wedding at Granby Ranch!

– Shea + Jacob

Vendors

Also, a huge shout out to the following vendors for making Kaila and Justin’s Granby Ranch wedding so wonderful!

Venue: Granby Ranch

Officiant: Rev. Laura Summers

Wedding Planner: Melanie Rendleman – Rocky Mountain Wed

Food and Alcohol Caterer: Granby Ranch

Hair and Makeup: Michelle Helt (Kaila’s Mom!)

Florist: Flintwood Floral

Wedding Dress: Little White Dress

Dress Designer: Claire Pettibone

Wedding dress belt: Maria Elena

Bridesmaid dresses: Altar’d State

Tuxedos: The Black Tux

Wedding rings: Jangmi New York and Brilliant Earth

Wedding Cake: Ryan the Cake Guy

DJ: Jack with Elite Entertainment

Wedding Invitations: Leipard Prints (made by the bride!)

First Dance Singer: Marissa Roberts (friend of the bride)

Photographers: Shea McGrath Photography

Second Photographer: Jacob Tolley