A Black-Tie Mountain Wedding at Telluride Ski Resort in Telluride, Colorado

Brett Phillips (38 and a lawyer) and Luke Barefoot (36 and a lawyer) met through mutual friends in 2009, began dating the next year and moved in together the following year. They got engaged in 2014, during a 16-day trip to Namibia, overlooking the dunes. They knew they wanted to get married in the Colorado mountains since Brett grew up near Boulder and the couple have many memories of ski trips in the Rockies. They looked at venues in Aspen too, but “as soon as we drove into Telluride, we knew it was where we wanted to celebrate with all our friends and family,” Luke says. It wasn’t the easiest place to get to, “but it was the most spectacular place we could think of that didn’t require a passport.” They enlisted the help of wedding planners to bring their vision to life, focusing on the black-tie aspect, the tasting bar—including a “terrific selection of Colorado bourbons”—and the high-country scenery. Guests rode gondola cars up the mountain to the ceremony site. “The fact that Telluride runs a free gondola service year-round was a huge draw for us,” Luke says. “It was the most unusual public transport we’ve ever seen.” There was no wedding party, but as a way to honor those close to them, Luke’s sister and Brett’s best friend escorted them down the aisle. A violin and cello ensemble played Bach, Vivaldi, Brahams and one of their favorite Aaron Copland pieces, “Saturday Night Waltz.” After a moving civil ceremony, including a reading from the Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize same-sex marriage, guests moved to the cocktail hour on a multilevel wooden deck featuring heat lamps and a working fire pit. For dinner, everyone moved indoors to the upper level of the ranch, where guests sat at elegant tables decorated in shimmery navy and silver linens with pops of orange and yellow flower arrangements, candelabras and textured silver chargers. Dinner reflected regional specialties: seared elk short loin with Colorado cherry gravy or pistacchio-crusted Rocky Mountain trout with red wine butter. “Both were locally focused dishes that highlighted the amazing place we chose to get married,” Luke says. After dinner, guests moved downstairs for dancing and then headed to the Historic Bar at the New Sheridan Hotel for the after-party (also the location of the farewell brunch the next day). Luke says they were “extremely lucky” everything went according to plan, especially for the outdoor ceremony. “We could not have been luckier. We were graced with a bluebird sky, a blaze of gold aspen leaves on the hillsides and 65-degree weather for the ceremony,” he says. “We had an amazing time.” —Chrissy Sorenson