Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Mallory and Emek’s wedding at The Gardens at Spring Creek and The Fort Collins Hilton.

Poor Mallory and Emek. This amazing, sexy, fun wedding really was the Wedding from Hell for these two lovely people. I mean it. Poor Mallory and Emek.

The wedding wasn’t the Wedding from Hell at first, in fact it was ideal until less than two months before the wedding. Then, Mallory called me one morning and said with more than a hint of stress in her voice,”We’ve lost our wedding venue.”

I’d never heard anything like that. I couldn’t process it at first, “I’m sorry what?”

“We have nowhere to get married. We’ve lost our wedding venue. He’s canceled all of his wedding contracts out of the blue.”

“Ummmm… who?” I said, “It’s like a month until your wedding. Who would do that?!?”

“It’s the Cottonwood Club. He’s just stopped doing weddings, apparently.” She was at a complete loss, you could hear it.

“I’m so sorry. What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I don’t know yet…”

I was speechless,”Can you get your deposit back?”

“I don’t know yet…”

Unfortunately, that wasn’t all: apparently the dress shop was really dragging it’s feet getting her wedding dress in. It wasn’t arriving, no one had any updates, no one knew when it would be there for fitting. And we’re talking months and months and months. So finally, a few weeks before the wedding, Mallory and Emek get a little tough, and demand someone tell them what is going on with the dress. The dress shop’s answer?

There is no dress, there was no dress, they don’t have the dress, there will never be a dress… and thanks for your money!

Again, “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?” Why couldn’t someone tell the couple this maybe, oh I don’t know, WHEN THEY ORDERED IT!

So Mallory had to scramble and find a new dress! We know now that Mallory and Emek’s experience was just the beginning of what has become allegations of major fraud and the investigation of the shop owner, Patty Burling.

So basically less that a month before their wedding day they had nowhere to get married and hold the reception and there was no wedding dress. I’m sure it was an absolute nightmare for them.

But soon after I got a much different call from Mallory, ” So the Cottonwood Club has dumped all of their contracts on other sites around town and we got The Hilton. Katie, The Hilton’s wedding planner is amazing. She’s really busting her butt to get us taken care of this quickly. It’s really turning into the wedding I never knew I always wanted!”

And that’s when I knew this was all going to work out, when she said that:”It’s really turning into the wedding I never knew I always wanted.” What an amazing spirit. What an amazing attitude!

Finally the wedding day came and it was perfect. I don’t know what her lost dress would have looked like, but I think the one she ended up with was sublime, and so, so, so flattering. It was incredible!

Mallory and Emek: We are so thankful and humbled to be part of your amazing day. Thank you for your enthusiasm and great attitude, even in the face of such stress and heartbreak over you initial wedding plans. Your wedding reinforced the idea that horrible things can happen during the course of planning a wedding, but if you keep in mind that all you need to have an amazing day is the two of you and your love (and an amazing photographer… *ahem*), then no amount of ruined plans can derail your day!

So shady wedding vendors nearly ruined this wedding, and awesome wedding vendors (like Katie at the Hilton) saved it. And an unsinkable mindset like Mallory and Emek’s made it amazing!