Memory Lane: 1 Year Ago, Our Mt Evans, Colorado Wedding (Professional Photos)

Photos on this post are all by Dan Hand, who was up for a crazy adventure

One year ago, Eric and I (with four of our close friends) woke up at 2:30am, got into our winter wedding finery, and drove up the side of Mt Evans in the drizzle, which turned to steady rain, which turned to snow and stopped at 5:20am. The result was the perfect winter fairytale wedding - in May.

We were married at sunrise (about 6am) at Echo Lake, about halfway up Mt. Evans. We had wanted to get married at the summit (since we were engaged on Mt. Bierstadt, which is connected to Mt. Evans via a sawtooth; Mt. Evans used to be named Mt. Rosalie in honor of Bierstadt's wife), but Denver got about 3 feet of snow the night before we arrived and the road was still closed. I'd say this was a pretty good substitute.

Four close friends - Amanda & Jarrod Johnson and Ryan & Nicole Van Klompenburg - came out to Colorado for the weekend to help us celebrate. It turned into a celebration of all 3 couples - Amanda had just finished her PhD, and Ryan and Nicole announced they were expecting their first baby! It was an awesome weekend on every level.

We wrote our own ceremony, and in Colorado, you don't need anyone to marry you - you can do it yourself! It's called "self-solemnization" and as soon as the marriage license is signed, you're legally married.

After we said our vows, we got into the lake. It was cold. It was awesome.

After the ceremony, we had a mini reception at the shelter with champagne and chocolate bars (we had chocolate bars on our Mt Bierstadt summit) and then headed to Chief Mountain up the road to do a hike.

We continued on after this to the summit, but the photographer and most of our friends turned around here and went back down. More photos of the hike and the other fun things we did during this weekend coming soon.

Happy 1st anniversary, Eric. This morning was one of my favorite mornings ever. I love you!