Erica and Craig’s Raven Three Peaks is marked by spectacular mountain views and bright pops interspersed with black and white details. Not only is Erica a bride, she’s also a mountain wedding planner and she’s offering her best mountain wedding advice below. Mountain wedding photographer Sarah Roshan was on hand to capture every detail. She is a preferred vendor in the Mountainside Guide.
Erica + Craig
Silverthorne, CO
June 29, 2013
Why did you choose the Mountains for your wedding?
Because we love where we live! We wanted to share the beauty of this place with our family and friends since living here has become a huge part of who we both are.
Wedding Day Weather
Cloudy with sun during our ceremony
Number of guests that attended
65
What was your theme for your wedding?
Modern black and white with a pop of bold color.
Your budget
$15,000
Biggest Splurge
Having a fantastic photographer
Biggest Savings
Utilizing the tables and chairs that were provided to us at the venue
How did you choose to personalize your wedding?
We chose to highlight some things and to cut out different things. For example, neither my husband or myself like to dance, so we didn’t have a first dance. My husband loves dessert so we had a huge display of dessert options (from cookies, to rice crispy treats to cake!).
What was your favorite part of the reception?
Getting to spend quality time with our family and friends dancing and having fun! Most everyone stayed until the end of the reception, which really surprised us in a good way.
What are three things you’re super glad you did?
- Had a planner (yes, planners need planners to execute their wedding day too)
- Hired an awesome photographer – you can’t recreate that day so documenting the day was super important to us.
- Limited our guest list to include people that we really care about. It made our day intimate and really special.
What was the biggest challenge in planning your mountain wedding and how did you overcome it?
Considering I plan mountain weddings, it seemed that part of the process was fairly smooth. Challenges some of my couples face are the altitude and it’s affects on their guests. Sometimes it can be weather and other times it’s traffic to and from the city to the mountains for both vendors and guests. Most of our guests live up here at well or frequent the mountains on a regular basis so they were all familiar with these circumstances.How did you find and choose your vendors?
How did you find and Choose Your Vendors?
Working in the wedding industry I have had the opportunity to work with amazing vendors and not so great vendors. So I really had an insiders knowledge of the vendors I wanted to work with, which was a bonus. However, if I didn’t have this knowledge, I would have most certainly hired a planner that was knowledgeable about local professionals so that I knew I was getting good, quality vendors.
What is your best piece of advice to other mountain brides who are planning their weddings?
Hire local vendors or vendors that frequent your wedding venue. They will know the location you are getting married at and what it takes to get there (whether its on a mountainside, or up a windy dirt jeeping road) and can plan accordingly.
Silverthorne Wedding Vendors
Wedding Photography: Sarah Roshan Photography | Wedding Planning and Design, Bride: Erica Sarell Weddings + Events | Floral Design: Cori Cook Floral | Wedding Music: DJ Landry | Ceremony and Cocktail Music: Drew Reges | Venue and Catering: The Raven Three Peaks | Wedding Cake: Blue Moon Bakery
Mountainside Guide
Sarah Roshan is a distinguished member of the Mountainside Guide, an exclusive vendor directory featuring the best and most reliable mountain wedding vendors in North America. Mountainside Guide members are screened and vetted for quality of work, reliability, and professionalism, both among their peers and on review web sites.
See Sarah Roshan’s portfolio HERE.