salida colorado wedding photographer
You may recall from Alicia & Micael’s engagement session, I met them on the beach in Cabo in a chance encounter. Well it was finally time for these beautiful people to get married last August!
It’s interesting how all you see of someone’s wedding day (if you don’t attend) are these happy photos. But you never know what they have been through in the week preceding the wedding. In this case, Alicia’s grandpa had been sick for a while, but his condition worsened the week before the wedding. Tragically, he passed just a few days before the big day. While they all knew he was with them watching from above, it was still so hard for Alicia & her family to experience such a low in a time that should have been all celebration. Add to that, Hurricane Harvey was making it’s way in the gulf heading straight for Corpus Christi where the rest of Alicia’s extended family lived. The hurricane wound up turning toward Galveston instead but her extended family was unable to make the wedding. Even through all that, this beautiful bride smiled & laughed her way through the wedding day. I truly admired Alicia & her attitude that day.
Vendor List
Getting Ready – Courtyard Marriott Littleton
Ceremony – St Frances Cabrini
Reception Venue – The Falls Event Center
Makeup & Hair – Amy Whitaker
Florist – Ed Moore Florist
Caterer – Cakes by Karen
DJ – David McHugh (DJ) and Eritrean Band
Photography – Haley Allen Photography
Alicia & Micael’s first moment together on the wedding day! She had said she was going to write a note to exchange & he said “Nah I won’t do that.” So she wound up not writing her note, but then he surprised her with one. haha! Funny how things go!
Ceremony
Mt Falcon Wedding Photos
I’ve gotta say the ride up to Mt Falcon with the wedding party was absolutely one of my favorites EVER! Alicia & Micael both come from larger families with lots of siblings who comprised their bridal party. Everyone was so much fun and none of them are shrinking violets! We danced and sang the whole way there.
Once up at Mt Falcon we had even more fun with the bridal party photos. Such a fun group up for anything. The guys danced to some Ginuwine and the ladies were owning it!
One of the things I love about Alicia & Micael is how they make each other laugh. It’s pretty clear how awesome they are together.
Their wedding had a few firsts for me – I witnessed my first Mexican lazo ceremony (pictured in the ceremony), as well as my first Eritrean reception entrance. If you’ve never been part of the latter, the women hold gladiolus stalks, the men march the bridal party into the reception with swords, and all surround the couple with song, dance & drums. Seriously the coolest way I’ve seen a bride & groom enter their reception in my entire career
Following dinner their siblings gave toasts with slideshows, including a really sweet moment in memory of Alicia’s grandpa.
Since they had already been introduced by Eritrean custom, they did the bridal party announcement before dances. You can see how spirited this group is!
– Tell me the story of how you met.
“Micael and I met when I joined my friend on a Sunday afternoon when she headed to meet her guy at a neighborhood bar to hang out. They had only been dating a couple weeks (they are now engaged !) So she was nervous to be the only girl and me, being single, jumped at the chance to go meet new guys!;) It ended up just being the four of us and Micael and I just hit it off. We even have a picture of us together on the day we met! I think both of us knew that night we met someone special:)”
– What is your favorite memory of your wedding day?
“The wedding was amazing..such a blur but so many special moments it’s so hard to choose. I will have Micael respond with his favorite moment but mine was being on the party bus and going up to take photos ! I loved just being away from the craziness and enjoying being with my new husband and all our friends and siblings! Plus the spot you picked was so lovely it was so nice being up there.”
– Will/Did you take a honeymoon? If so, where?
“We went to Jamaica, sandals resort in montego bay! All inclusive and we also got to swim with dolphins which was one of my bucket list items !:)”
– What advice do you have for other couples planning their wedding?
“As far as advice for other couples…I would say enjoy every moment and try to not let the little stuff distract you. My grandpa passed three days before our wedding and a hurricane prevented half my family from coming. I could’ve let that be my focus of the day and the sadness that was right under the surface rise up , but I had to push it down and literally live in the moment and I’m so glad I did. I was able to enjoy the wedding …I literally had to let everything else go. I couldn’t care about the details bc I had no room for it but I’m so glad I didn’t care because I was able to realize that in the end, it was our day. It was our time. It wasn’t going to be ugly..it would be fun no matter what! That’s the best advice I can give is to let the small stuff go. Delegate as much as possible and let it go. Enjoy the engaged time because it goes so quickly. Focus on building relationships with your future spouse’s family bc they helped fill my heart while I was so heartbroken, particularly during the wedding week. Finally, enjoy your fiance. Micael was so patient with me going through so much even when I took a lot out on him he was always there for me. I think going through that has brought us closer and ready to face more difficult times to come throughout our marriage. One thing we did as it got closer to the wedding was to have a date night out where we took an Uber and had absolutely zero conversation about wedding planning! It was fabulous:)”
What was it like working with Haley Allen Photography?
“As for you Haley, you were absolutely amazing!! So fun to work with, and so patient with the other vendors!! I recommend you to everyone bc the pics are amazing but to have someone fun to work with was priceless!” – Alicia
Congrats again Alicia & Micael and thank you again for trusting me to capture your beautiful day! Thanks to my second Devon Knudson too for working with me that day!