Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or the link to view Rachel and Aaron’s wedding at the Broadmoor Hotel.

Outdoor ceremonies in Colorado offer a number of challenges, as well as unparalleled beauty and grandeur. This wedding ceremony on the Broadmoor Hotel’s West Lawn was no exception: rain threatened all morning long, in fact, the couple got sprinkled on during the couple shots (they saw each other before the ceremony). The wind gusted and whipped all day, the sun was in and out of clouds…

We love days like that. Our job as photographers is to adapt and change our shooting strategies according to the situation, and Char and I have seen just about everything Colorado has to offer in terms of weather, so we simply adapt, and thrive.

Honestly, I love challenges when it comes to photography. I love overcoming unflattering angles of sun, falling rain, driving wind, etc: all of those things can be used to a photographer’s advantage. Wind whips hair and veils beautifully, unflattering sun can be used to add dramatic effect at just the right angle and with remote flash, and rain brings a romantic melancholy to couple photography.

The difference between great and bad outdoor shots in Colorado is whether we’re simply at the mercy of the elements, or whether we can be flexible and use the elements as additional artistic tools. We’ve learned to allow Colorado to become an additional and welcome subject in our wedding photography along with the bride and groom! Fighting against what Colorado gives you never works.

Anyway, back to the wedding: after the ceremony, Rachel and Aaron held their reception in the exquisite Penrose Dining Room. It was a blast. A huge part of it’s success I credit to their exceptional DJ, Phil Peralta at Simply Entertainment. He was a true emcee. He set the appropriate mood for the different events of the reception, he was very good on the mic, and did some very unique and fun introductions. My favorite part of the reception came right before the father / daughter dance when Phil read a letter Rachel wrote about her dad. in it, she remembered how the Penrose Dining Room was where she went on her very first date… with her daddy. He took her out to dinner there, she wore a beautiful dress and that night he presented her with a necklace… and here they were again, dancing together in that very room.

Not a dry eye in the house! Her dad was sobbing, Rachel was crying, I was crying, Char was crying, and we’re both trying to see well enough through the fog of tears to capture this amazing moment! We did (Thank God), and the photo of Rachel wiping her daddy’s tears is so precious to me (as a both a photographer and as the proud daddy to my Ella…)

Rachel and Aaron: you planned a perfect wedding. We had a blast photographing it. What a day!