patak Ranch, Snowmass

kelsie & joe

Kelsie and Joe came to me two months before their wedding at Patak Ranch, in Snowmass, Colorado, slightly panicked. Kelsie had planned a significant portion of their wedding herself. She had booked most of her vendors. She had a clear vision for what she wanted the day to look like. But she was completely overwhelmed and needed help getting across the finish line. 

I worked with Kelsie and Joe in those final two months to pull all the details together. We picked up loose ends, finalized vendor orders, went through checklists to discover what, if anything, had been forgotten, and built a timeline for the weekend that reflected the couple's priorities. 

As the week of the wedding rolled around, Kelsie and Joe were in for a surprise. Hurricane Milton - which was scheduled to hit the couple's hometown of Tampa Bay - was a Category 5 over the Gulf of Mexico. Kelsie and Joe began calling all their guests to figure out how the weather would impact their guests' travel from Tampa to Aspen. Kelsie and Joe caught the last flight out of Tampa Bay before the airport closed, and Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. Thankfully, their friends and family were all safe, but many would not be able to travel to Colorado for the wedding. 

The couple had some understandably big emotions around the last-minute change of plans. The support they showed each other, and the humor with which they faced these challenges was a testament to how strong their relationship is. We worked closely together over that final week to revise their seating chart for a smaller guest count. I kept vendors up to date with additional cancellations as they came in, and Joe kept the dad jokes coming. The expert vendor team we had in place rolled with every punch as we adjusted our plans. 

Despite the unfortunate stress, Kelsie and Joe shared a beautiful weekend celebrating their love with their closest family and friends.