colorado wedding photography
Morgan Pirkle - Kept Record // Wedding + elopement Photographer Serving couples in estes park, denver, boulder, and throughout colorado
Warm, playful, nostalgic wedding imagery for couples planning a small wedding in Colorado.
Colorado is a place so full of interesting history, geological wonders, and fun attractions - it’s an amazing place to consider getting married! Whether you’re planning to elope with just your partner, or thinking of bringing along a handful of close friends + family, this page should help provide some information on what it takes to get married in Colorado. If you’re here, maybe you’re researching places in the United States to elope, or maybe you’re local to Colorado + ready to find out more about planning an elopement or a more intimate wedding experience. Either way I am SO STOKED you’re here + I can’t wait to dive in!
p.s. I explore + shoot weddings all across the U.S. If Colorado’s not your jam, check out this post from a Las Vegas Destination Wedding, or visit this page for information on eloping in Moab, Utah!
what makes colorado so special?
Colorado is the intersection of history far beyond any of our lifetimes: the landscape we now hike, camp, and climb on in places like Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Rocky Mountain National Park, are all thanks to prehistoric earth-altering geological events. Home to a seemingly endless variety of plant and animal life, Colorado has pockets of land that feels almost untouched by humans - a rare find in a world that sometimes feels so distant from nature.
keep the leave no trace principles in mind
wherever you visit in Colorado (and beyond!) make sure to follow the Leave No Trace principles so that future generations can enjoy these natural spaces too.
Here are the 7 principles in case you need a reminder!
Plan ahead + prepare
Travel + camp on durable surfaces
Dispose of waste properly (yes, your dog’s poo counts!)
Leave what you find — take only photographs ;)
Minimize campfire impacts
Respect wildlife
Be considerate of others
the best time to visit colorado
Colorado’s attractions bring in visitors year-round! Tourism + crowds for winter sports will be highest when the ski resorts are open and fresh snow falls regularly. For places like Vail, Aspen, and Breckenridge, expect high crowds in winter months. In Spring, aka “mud season,” you’ll find far fewer crowds in places like Gunnison and Montrose - but there will also be far less to do. Lodges and resorts typically use these months to conduct repairs and prepare for the next winter.
However, if you’re interested in hiking + scenic drives, May is a great time to visit! The biggest thing to keep in mind is to check for road closures, because this is the time of year when construction crews can access roads that snowfall had prevented them from repairing earlier in the year.
A hot tip from our hostess at Arrowhead Mountain Lodge in Cimarron, a small town about 30 minutes from Montrose: visit in early November, before the holidays! This lets you experience the area during winter + take advantage of snow sports without the massive crowds and long waits.
where to get married in colorado
Rocky Mountain National Park may be the first place that comes to mind if you’re thinking of an adventurous elopement in front of alpine lakes and snowcapped peaks. But heads up: the national park has gained so much popularity as a wedding destination in recent years, that they’ve had to enforce a strict limit on the number of weddings they allow each year. If this is the spot you have in mind, contact them today to learn about their requirements as far as fees, waitlists, and availability.
In the nearby town of Estes Park, we loved a day hike at Hermit Open Space in Larimer County. Here we hiked for hours, seeing only a handful of people the entire time. This area does require a permit and although the scenery varies from RMNP it is still gorgeous, and would allow you more privacy and peace than a crowded National Park. See their requirements here. An extra bonus: this space is dog-friendly and even horse-friendly, which means way more four-legged guests could attend than a wedding at Rocky Mountain National Park, where dogs can only use paved areas and can’t join you on the trails.
On one of the mornings during our visit in northern Colorado, a storm came in with fog really making the gorgeous pine trees pop, nearly hiding the nearby mountain range! It was a beautiful sight and reminded me of a northern Utah mountainous elopement just south of Salt Lake City.
We stayed in a more casual lodge in Estes Park, but on a morning walk around the lake we passed the more luxurious, upscale, lakefront Estes Park Resort. Rather than for a two-person elopement, this location may make more sense for those planning an intimate destination wedding (like this one in Lake Tahoe, California). I don’t know the details of their event policies, but I can already see it being such a beautiful place to get married! Family and friends could stay in a hotel block at the resort, meaning that you could truly have a chance to reconnect with the people you love most for a few days - not just your wedding day.
Northern Colorado isn’t the only place with amazing places to think about hosting your small wedding! I absolutely adored driving through the small town of Manitou Springs, not far from Colorado Springs.
We visited Garden of the Gods, Pike’s Peak, and the place we possibly enjoyed most along our entire roadtrip: Red Rock Canyon Open Space (not to be confused with Red Rocks Park + Ampitheatre, near Denver)
I can’t speak for the requirements and permit regulations of this area just yet (I’ll be doing more research in the coming weeks!) but I can say that it was a thousand times more fun than Garden of the Gods, which we felt was very crowded, a little too developed, and generally anticlimactic.
This open space was dog-friendly which of course, is a requirement for our outings, and had trails ranging in difficulty and scenery! From grassy meadows to striking red rocks, we were able to take in a lot of really beautiful moments. And you can see Garden of The Gods from here, too! It’s fair to say this space is a little more off the beaten path and the benefits are endless.
So you’re running off to elope?
i did the same thing!
More on what eloping is + planning our own elopement here
photos by Vic Bonvinci
Before shifting my business’ focus away from larger, traditional weddings and instead towards intimate weddings and elopements - and then expanding as a photography educator - my husband and I eloped! In January 2018, my husband and I eloped in Joshua Tree National Park, about two hours east of Los Angeles. The unconventional process of eloping was incredibly insightful (and at times, difficult) but the intimate experience of promising our lives to each other - unheard by a single other person on earth - was one of the most profound, defining moments of my life. Now I LOOOVEEE getting to help other couples in navigating the process with way less stress! While Colorado definitely has different landscapes, attractions, and a more mountainous vibe, the adventurous experience of eloping will have many of the same aspects that my husband and I experienced eloping in JTNP.
Hey y’all! I’m Morgan, the hands + the heart behind kept record.
I’m a wedding photographer, a desert elopement bride, a coffee addict through and through, and a dog mama to two sweet husky rescues named Lucy and Pepper. I mainly photograph weddings in Southern California, but my bags are always packed + I’ve always got a full tank of gas in my Jeep to serve you anywhere in the U.S.!
your colorado wedding day deserves to be documented - it’ll fly by, I promise! Preserve the memories, feelings, and adventures of your elopement with candid, warm photography from Kept Record.
ready to get married in colorado?
Morgan Pirkle loves pineapple on pizza, has never seen an episode of Stranger Things, and spends her free time hiking or cuddling with her two husky puppies, Lucy + Pepper. She’s a wedding + elopement photographer specializing in documenting emotional, candid moments and making her clients feel good in front of the camera (dad jokes + corny puns included with every collection). When clients work with her, they can relive their wedding day over and over through warm, nostalgic, documentary-driven images full of connection + authenticity.
Five stars aren't enough. STOP your search for a photographer because you've found her.
If you want to look back at your day and remember how you felt, see what other people were seeing that maybe you weren't, and instantly be transported back to a particular moment, hire Morgan. If you want a friend and a hype woman who happens to be amazing with a camera, hire Morgan! We were given Morgan's name from another photographer way back in 2019. Photography was one of the top priorities for my wedding day, and we were instantly drawn to the natural, candid nature of her photos. We met for the first time in Malibu for our engagement photos, which we absolutely adored. Morgan knows how to make anyone feel comfortable in front of a camera, even when doing silly walking photos or kissing in front of random passerby's. Our "big" wedding got postponed due to COVID, but we chose to get legally married on our original date in August 2020. Even though only a handful of people were going to be there, we knew we wanted Morgan to capture the day. Luckily, Morgan is an expert on elopements herself and not only agreed to take our photos, but essentially became our mini planner as well! Once we established our location, Morgan drove up to Santa Barbara wine country, took amazing photos, then packed up and moved to Utah THE NEXT DAY! Not to mention, she sent us our sneak peeks by 9am the morning after our elopement!!! We were absolutely blown away by her support and dedication in making our elopement feel romantic and special. We finally had our long-awaited "big" wedding in October 2021. With two full galleries and hundreds of emails exchanged over two years, we couldn't wait to work with Morgan again. As with the two times before, she made us feel incredibly comfortable on our wedding day and captured so many beautiful moments. Our family and bridal party were so complimentary of working with Morgan on the wedding day and of her photos. We haven't even gotten the full gallery yet but based on the sneak peeks, I know that I'm going to cry!! Thank you, Morgan, for preserving countless memories through your beautiful photos.