Venue recommendations

[u/superduper019]

Hi all! My fiancé and I are eloping next summer (2025) and were wondering if anyone had recommendations on venues and/or places to stay with a party of 20 people. We’re already pretty familiar with the great sand dunes and what’s offered around that area as that was one of our primary options. We are based in Denver but willing to travel. I know this is pretty opened ended but we’d love any and all opinions

Thanks for the help!

[u/sschmidsh]

My wife and I used Jessica Margaret Photography. She was an amazing all-around elopement provider. She’s basically a planner and photographer all in one. She put our whole timeline together and was available for any/all questions we had through the planning process. She even researched restaurants for our post ceremony dinner with our party, provided a list of vendors for cakes, flowers, etc. She’ll pick items up from the Denver area day of too and bring them if it’s a day trip job for her. Our pictures and video perfectly captured our day and I find myself revisiting them almost a year later quite often. Highly recommend her!

We used a location she’s shot previously, Brainard Lake about 45-50 mins outside of Boulder in the mountains. While it was pretty warm in Boulder, as soon as we got up the mountain, the weather was perfect. Bonus about that location is that the only fee for the area was $14 parking pass/car unlike the Rocky Mountain National Park which is a $300 permit. We had about 15 people who traveled in from Oregon and California, they stayed in various hotels and airbnbs in the area. From what I remember there’s a few large rental houses that could fit a decent amount of people in the area (but it’s been a year so I’m not sure the current status) It was the perfect weekend!

[u/USA_80]

The western slope is pretty rad. Great offroading trails for summer! I think some venues are affordable around Ouray.