3 minute read
Unique & Beautiful
In Telluride, an unforgettable winter wedding with unbelievable timing
BY KATIE KLINGSPORN / PHOTOS BY LISA MARIE WRIGHT
Melissa and Jason Garvin were married on March 7, 2020 atop San Sophia ridge. Sunlight streamed through occasional clouds, the slopes around them were cloaked in snow and though they couldn’t have known it at the time, the world was on the verge of shutting down due to the pandemic. “We got married by the hair of our chinny chin chin,” Jason says.
In the case of Melissa and Jason, ignorance of just how close they were to mass closures was bliss. The Garvins and their 38 guests enjoyed an idyllic weekend skiing, snowmobiling and celebrating their love with a ceremony they say was one-of-akind. “It was everything we could have imagined and more,” Jason remarks.
The Fayetteville, Ark., couple, who met a decade ago through a friend of a friend, got engaged in May of 2019 at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Once they decided to tie the knot, the couple — she’s a nurse and he owns a direct-to-consumer online gift business — started thinking about the wedding. They made it a priority to do something distinct.
“One thing that we did not want to do was have it where we live because that’s kind of what everyone else does,” Jason explains. “We wanted it to be unique.”
They also wanted it to be small enough to be intimate. They looked into options like European castles and did a lot of online research before landing on an idea: “Melissa loves to go skiing, so we settled on a winter mountain wedding,” Jason says.
Telluride was attractive because it’s a place where they could hold the ceremony on the same mountain they skied on, the couple say, and where the lodging is immediately adjacent to the slopes. Neither had been here before. They flew in in August to meet with a wedding team from Telluride Ski and Golf, quickly cementing their decision.
“We went to San Sophia and, oh my gosh, the view is just breathtaking,” Melissa says. “I thought it was really pretty, just a really unique place.”
When the weekend arrived, they came in early and settled in to their lodging at The Peaks. Guests showed up, and a weekend of playing in the snow and spending time in Telluride ensued. Melissa
skied, Jason and his friends went snowmobiling with Telluride Outfitters, and they gathered with guests for their rehearsal dinner at Tomboy Tavern.
On their wedding day, Kylie Borchers styled Melissa’s hair, then the entire wedding party walked through Mountain Village and boarded the Gondola. Once atop San Sophia (a snowcat delivered Melissa and her bridesmaids), they were married by a dear friend. Temperatures dropped in the late-winter afternoon, but, says Melissa, it was a beautiful day.
Later, once they had taken sleighs to their reception at Gorrono Ranch, snow flurries moved in. DJ Ryan Smith spun tunes, guests dug into an elegant vanilla cake by Fig and Bloom and Lisa Marie Wright photographed the event.
Following a few days of R&R, Melissa and Jason flew out the following Thursday — the same day that officials cancelled the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament — just in time and with a bundle of memories.
Says Jason, “Everybody said it was the most unique, beautiful wedding they had ever been to.”
A Telluride wedding isn’t complete without the stunning backdrop of the San Juan Mountains. Main photo: Jason and Melissa’s wedding ceremony took place at San Sophia Overlook, with the town of Telluride nestled almost 1,800 feet below. Right, below: Gorrono Ranch, where the reception was held, offers a spectacular view of fourteener Wilson Peak to the west.
