Della Terra Mountain Chateau - Estes Park Wedding Photographer - Elise & Eriksen

This was one of my favorite weddings of 2019. To start, I absolutely love Della Terra Weddings. Not only is the venue absolutely beautiful but the staff is amazing and all of the weddings there go off without a hitch. It’s also in Estes Park, which is also one of my favorite Colorado mountain towns, and home to the always amazing Rocky Mountain National Park.

This Estes Park wedding was wonderful because there was just so much emotion, everything ranging from tears to laughter, playfulness to drunken hilarity. One of my favorite parts of the day was when the man of honor (Elise’s brother) pulled out what he thought were Elise’s vows, but they actually weren’t, so a couple of Elise’s friends ran back to Della Terra and to grab the actual vows. The pause during that moment was filled with lighthearted bantering, and it made for some really lovely candid shots.

Another favorite part was the fact that everyone was super into the lawn games they had set up outside for guests. We watched an amazing game of Jenga between family members and friends, and then finished the night up with some epic dancing. Weddings like these fly by for me and sometimes it doesn’t even feel like work, because they’re so fun!

Amazing Team:

Photographer: Teresa Woodhull Photography, assisted by Tayler Carlisle

Venue: Della Terra

Wedding Planner: Della Terra

HMUA: Bella Capelli

DJ: Pure Sound Productions

Catering & Cake: Jubilations

Dress: Justin Alexander from Amanda’s Bridal

Colorado Wedding Photographer - Best of 2019

I know, I know. It’s March (almost April) and we are in the midst of an coronavirus pandemic, and now is when you choose to post about 2019?! Let’s be real here though. 2019 is looking like an ocean view suite in Maui compared to the under the highway hourly motel that 2020 is shaping up to be. I typically like to look forward, and in reality, there is no point in holding on to the past. But now more than ever I am finding reasons to celebrate and be grateful for what was, in hopes that we can one day soon be there again. I feel so much for my 2020 brides because this is uncharted waters for all of us. We can pretend to be fortune tellers all we want, but the truth is we don’t know how this year is going to turn out, but I for one want to do my absolute best to not put joy and celebrating on hold. As one on my lovely brides put it, we can’t postpose everything about life. It keeps going and threatens to leave us in the dust if we don’t keep up. We’ll slow down, quarantine, hopefully flatten the spread, and pray for the best, but eventually (and I of course don’t mean within the next couple of months - isolating is a must right now!) we will need to soldier on, perhaps with new extra sanitized and social distanced ways of living, but we’ll have to move on nonetheless. And with all the dire news lately I am feeling more than ready for reasons to celebrate again.

2019 was quite a year of growth for me, in the best of ways. When I first started my business 10 years ago, I didn’t know a single thing about being a business owner. All I knew is that I wanted to take pretty pictures for people because that’s what made me truly happy. If the last decade has shown me anything, its that The best part about this entire journey of mine has not only been to see my business grow and flourish, but also to learn about that side of me - the side that has been able to figure out the ins and outs of being a one woman show. It’s been scary at times, trying to rely on myself completely to put food on the table. But I’ve also found that I am stronger than I thought, and that ability to surprise myself has been priceless.

Thank you for taking the time to scroll through my 2019 weddings. I want to mention here that I shot this entire wedding season pregnant, with my last wedding of the year being 3 weeks before giving birth to my daughter Margot. Not to toot my own horn or anything ;)