How to Plan a Fall Elopement in Colorado
Imagine - you want peak aspen foliage change for your fall wedding in Colorado but you have absolutely no idea when the leaves will change. You make all of the plans, you have your photographer booked, your family has their flights and hotels, the bachelorette party has been planned and YOU CANNOT CANCEL.
But then, the leaves aren’t changing. You’re stuck in an alternate universe where the aspen leaves never change and it’s evidently going to be summer until October. So how do you plan for those ideal leaf changing seasons?
Step 1 to Planning a Fall Elopement in Colorado:
Compare Fall Color Guides from Previous Years
Every year around mid august, news channels release their peak foliage maps. The way they calculate when leaves will change is by dividing the state into different sections, the northern “cooler” parts of the states changing earlier than the southern parts of the state. For example, colors around Steamboat Springs change earlier than colors in Breckenridge and summit county. Fall colors then change even later around Durango and Silverton. Here’s a map to show you an example.
On the left we have the fall color guide for 2019, and on the right the peak color map for 2020. You can see peak in Durango in 2019 was in late October, but in 2020 it was early October. Why is that?
Well mostly it has to do with drought and the amount of snowpack Colorado got in the previous winter. 2019 Colorado saw as much as 3x the amount of normal snowpack in many areas, whereas in 2020 we saw one of the worst droughts ever. So we can conclude that if winter has a lot of snow and heavy snowpack, it’s safe to assume the aspens will change around the same time as they did in 2019. Contrary, if there isn’t a lot of snow, and not a lot of spring rains, we can assume they’d change somewhere along the time of the 2020 map.
Long story short, after living in Colorado for 7 years, I think the third week of September is the best week to plan a fall elopement or wedding because there will always be peak colors somewhere.
Step 2 to Planning a Fall Elopement in Colorado:
Book Your Vendors Early
I don’t know if it comes to a shock to most people but would you believe that fall is most of Colorado wedding vendors busy season? The weather is cooler, there is less chance of afternoon storms in the mountains, and most kids are back to school, meaning places are less busy. If you want to book your dream vendors a month out from your fall weekend wedding in Colorado, you might come up with some hurdles. Because of this, its imperative you at least start the conversation with your vendors early in order to understand their availability! I typically book out 1 year in advance for fall weekends, and weekdays about 6 months in advance.
Step 3 to Planning a Fall Elopement in Colorado:
Choose a Weekday Date
Choosing a weekday instead of a weekend is a great choice for many reasons. First being that the above step doesn’t become quite as much of an issue, as most large weddings take place on weekends, leaving vendors still available months out on weekdays.
Another reason why I LOVE weekday weddings is because locations are less crowded, trails are less crowded, restaurants are less crowded, and just in general - everything is less crowded. If privacy is important to you on your wedding day, nothing helps cut down on the amount of people witnessing you say I do quite like a weekday wedding.
Step 4 to Planning a Fall Elopement in Colorado:
Locations
Another aspect of planning a fall wedding in Colorado that can help cut down on the amount of people around your ceremony spot is by having your location be a priority to mitigate that. By either picking a location that isn’t one of the top 10 locations for leaf peeping, by choosing private property or a venue with aspens, or by getting a permit with BLM or USNF land and having your ceremony quite literally in the middle of nowhere, you can help cut down on the number of people around.
I love exploring Colorado in the fall and have thankfully found some really cool off the beaten path locations that I love to share with clients to help them find their perfect fall wedding location.
Having a great location means you also can compare peak foliage maps from the years to find out when peak season will be!
Another important aspect to location scouting for a fall wedding is finding somewhere that actually has fall colors. Most aspens in Colorado sit around 5,000 to 12,000 feet. I know what you’re thinking, uhm, thats like the entire state of Colorado. But once you start getting above treeline into locations like alpine lakes or mountain summits, you start to loose that fall foliage and instead get undergrowth and tundra that change color. Still equally cool, but definitely not the same as a grove of aspens.
Step 5 to Planning a Fall Elopement in Colorado:
Know How the Aspens Change
The way that aspens work is pretty magical, their roots are literally a system of underground connections, which means that when one aspen starts changing, the rest eventually follow suit! The great thing about this means that if there are different underground root systems for different groves of aspen in the same area - you have the potential for some aspens to hit peak weeks later than their neighbors! Which means you can get some spots where there are weeks of peak color for aspens!
Step 6 to Planning a Fall Elopement in Colorado:
Consider Environmental Colors When Planning
Dream of eloping in a gold wedding dress in the gold aspens during peak fall change? UHM, HECK YEAH. One thing to think of when tying the knot in the Fall in Colorado is how the environmental colors change and how that impacts your photo.
Think of everything around you as a BIG reflector onto you - so if you’re in yellow aspens, or yellow foliage - all that glitters gonna act as a natural reflector onto you. Same goes for snow, lush green forests, etc. Consider these environmental factors when choosing all of the colors that are going to be in your elopement or wedding. From dresses, flowers, tux’s, cake, table decorations, backdrops, rugs, etc.
Long story short - make sure it pairs well with yellow/orange/gold because the overall tone of your image will be what environment you are in! Here are some of my favorite fall color palettes.
Planning a wedding around a season can be rough, but thats why vendors exist! We LIVE to take the weight off of your shoulders - reach out now for a free consultation to see if I’m a good fit as your photographer AND to help you plan the perfect fall wedding!
