Wedding | The Greenbriar Inn, Boulder, Colorado

MAN. Pierce and Olivia are truly the best — so unbelievably servant-hearted, hilarious, silly, passionate, intentional, and just all the good things in life. Oh my goodness.

And if you want to hear about all the crazy wedding plans and how all the plans changed and came together, this is your one stop shop. So get excited to hear about EVERYTHING. Keep reading hehe 🙂

First off, let me start off on a more personal note with why this wedding means a lot to me. Olivia reached out to me back in February about being their wedding photographer, and I immediately said yes, with about zero questions asked. If you’ve followed along at all with my story, you know that I was also planning on going to nursing school, and had been accepted to two schools in February — both a couple of days before Olivia reached out. I wasn’t completely sold on these nursing schools yet, and was still deciding on what I wanted the next year of my life to look like. BUT when Olivia texted me and asked about photography, I knew from the bottom of my heart that I wanted to do it. That was all — photography brought me so much joy. And so this wedding kicked off the idea that photography was something I wanted to do full-time. These two gave me the space to dream and pursue a passion and I’m so unbelievably glad, because I wouldn’t have wanted the past year to look any differently. And so this wedding just means a lot to me personally and I’ve been SO EXCITED for it the past few months.

Anddddd so wedding planning commenced. The initial date for the Finley Wedding was actually November 22nd (whatt!!!) — yes, they moved their wedding up by MORE THAN A MONTH (we love COVID!!). But guys, it was a blessing in disguise. Pierce and Olivia were planning a big wedding in Pennsylvania and so when COVID hit, they knew they would have to downsize. However, Pierce is from Colorado and Olivia has always dreamed of having a small wedding and together they replanned the wedding for Colorado. WOW. I’m so proud of them and how hard they worked to make this dream come alive. As you can see, it was a beautiful wedding.

Andddd so October 11th came and the most beautiful celebration of Pierce and Olivia happened with their closest friends at The Greenbriar Inn. They didn’t have a first look, and instead took some time to have a first touch — where they both shed many tears (this was probably my favorite part of the day). It was absolutely precious.

The ceremony was absolutely beautiful — we took communion and they washed each other’s feet as a sign of humility, love, and service toward the other. It was just a lovely glimpse of Christ’s love for the church. How crazily beautiful.

Then we celebrated with alllll the portraits and it was sweet to see everyone so joyful. In addition, it was SO GOOD to see that Olivia and Pierce got to have time with every single guest — nothing was rushed and so they got to have intentional time with everyone who attended. Another wonderful highlight about having an intimate and small wedding.

We then did all the FUN reception things — signing the marriage certificate, three wonderful toasts by Olivia’s dad, Pierce’s brother, and MOH (LOTS OF GOOD TEARS WERE SHED), cake cutting, the beautiful and magical first dance (to the song in How to Train Your Dragon 2 – For the Dancing and the Dreaming), and cupcake cutting (also these cupcakes might have been the best thing that I’ve ever tasted in my life WOW).

And then we sent them off in STYLE with BUBBLES. Literally the cutest thing ever.

Anddd this is where it gets FUN. We decided before the wedding that we were going to get away and take photos at Indian Peaks, about a 45 minute drive from the venue. So as we left to get ourselves into the car, we see that the car is FILLED with balloons and decorations and flags (shoutout to the Finley siblings for all of this) and it was the sweetest gesture ever. Anyway, we piled in and headed out, and as we got closer to Indian Peaks, it started to snow more and more. And more and more. We did not have four wheel drive and so Pierce made the decision to turn us around before we got stuck (thank God for Pierce and his wisdom) and we decided to pullover and we found this magical lake by the side of the road. We jumped out, took photos for about 3 minutes (Olivia was a TROOPER) and we drove back to Boulder with so much adrenaline in our bodies. WHAT AN ADVENTURE. I love these two so much and for braving the cold to get some of the most beautiful photos I’ve ever seen. Truly magical.

WOW. What a trip. What a wedding. What a couple. These two are beautiful and wonderful and just everything!!! I’m so thankful for this opportunity and to have gotten to celebrate such an amazing couple in such an intimate way. WAHOO!!!!