August in Colorado can be totally hit or miss. Not really because of weather, but because of wildfire smoke. The summer of 2021 we saw a lot of smoke from the California wildfires, yep it travels that far. On the day of Kim and Brett’s elopement, the smoke was thick. The mountains were blue and hazy and the air had almost a brown/green tint to it. Kim and Brett had planned a super chill day. They just wanted to experience mountains and hang out with their adorable puppy, Ruby. Kim loves trees so we also planned to hang out in a forest of aspen trees for a little while.

We started on the shore of the lakes, taking a short walk to get to a really private rocky beach. The couple decided to wait to say their vows until we were in the trees so we explored a little bit in the hot sun. Ruby thought it was the best thing ever and ran around sniffing everything. After some time by the water we headed to our next spot. This spot in the aspens is super special. I found it totally by accident, but its just this incredible spot that requires no hiking, but feels like the trees could go on forever. It is even more incredible in the fall.

Kim and Brett set up a little area for their ceremony. There were so many sweet, intentional details like the list of trail names in the area and Ruby’s Twin Lakes dog tag. Kim and Brett were high school sweethearts, but had grow apart, eventually married and had kids with other people, before finding their way back to each other. This made their ceremony super emotional.

After saying “I do”, we popped some champagne and soaked in some late afternoon golden sun rays. We wandered through the aspen grove where Kim and Brett took some time to just sit and hang out with Ruby. We had one last stop on our way back to the couple’s Airbnb and that was a different spot on the lake for sunset photos. The smoke gave us some amazing sunset colors and was the sun was super golden.

The Airbnb the couple was staying in was a super cute cabin. They cut the cake, Ruby got some too! And toasted with Colorado Mules to married life. It was one of those perfectly warm summer evenings and a peaceful end so a beautiful day.