1. Real Weddings

Cathy & Mike: A Summer Wedding in Beaver Creek, CO

A stone chapel on the banks of a brook provided the perfect setting for Cathy and Mike's summer wedding. The Bride Catherine (Cathy) Eldridge The Gro

A stone chapel on the banks of a brook provided the perfect setting for Cathy and Mike's summer wedding. The Bride Catherine (Cathy) Eldridge The Groom Michael (Mike) Curley The Date June 18 A chance encounter led to romance for Catherine (Cathy) Eldridge and Michael (Mike) Curley. Cathy (now 26 and an event planner) was on a girls’ night out in Vail when Mike (30 and a financial analyst) asked her to dance. They chatted long enough for her to find out he was living in New York. “And me being the little girl from Arkansas, I said ‘Wow, I’ve never even been there!’” Cathy remembers. Mike replied, “Look me up if you’re ever in NYC,” and Cathy gave him a business card. To her surprise, 10 days later she got an email from Mike, and the two started writing back and forth. A month later, Mike visited Vail again, and he and Cathy spent the weekend hanging out and getting to know each other. By the end of the weekend, Mike asked Cathy to consider visiting him in New York, and after that trip, their long-distance relationship was official. After five months of plane trips and emails, Cathy packed up, sold her car, and headed east. Three months after her big move, Mike made a move of his own: Unable to wait until dinner, he proposed to Cathy just after breakfast at his family’s lake house. Six months later, the couple returned to Colorado once more for their wedding.

Cathy and Mike wed in a late-morning ceremony at the Beaver Creek Chapel, a small stone chapel beside a brook. “It feels intimate and quiet and was also an ideal location for photos after the ceremony,” Cathy says.
The bride’s cake was covered in fondant with pearl dots.
Cathy wore a strapless, ivory and blush gown with a chapel train by Tomasina. The trumpet-style gown was covered in re-embroidered alençon lace and Austrian crystals.
Cathy worked with her friend, the bridesmaid dress designer Coren Moore, to come up with the perfect look for her seven maids. The two-piece, V-neck, halter dresses were done in pale pink silk faille. The designer now sells the style, which she named after the bride.
Guests took a break from the festivities before heading to SaddleRidge for the evening reception. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres were served in the garden and library, and dinner and dancing took place upstairs.
The bouquets were made up entirely of white, blush, and pink peonies.
The groom’s cake was chocolate with Mike’s initials done in white chocolate on top, while chocolate-covered strawberries surrounded the confection.