When Jenn & Josh described their magical forest venue on the Uncompahgre Plateau outside Montrose, Colorado, where the evergreens grow thick and the evening light turns gold as the sun drops behind the trees, I knew we were preparing for an incredible day worth working on a holiday. It’s quiet out there. Private. Unplugged. The kind of place where you forget about anyone and anything else – perfect for focusing on the new adventure these two lovebirds were about to embark upon.
Jenn & Josh got married on a friend’s property tucked into the Uncompahgre, the kind of place you only get access to because someone who loves you offered it up. On the Fourth of July, no less — which meant this wasn’t just a wedding day, it was their holiday now, forever stitched into the biggest, loudest, most celebratory day of the American summer.
With around 50 of their closest people there with them, the whole evening had that intimate, everyone-actually-knows-each-other feeling — no sprawling guest list to manage, no strangers at the edges of the dance floor. Just the people who mattered most, gathered in the woods, as the light went more and more golden as the sun faded behind the towering evergreens.
They leaned into it, too. No shying away from the date, no working around it — they built the whole day around it. Colorful red, white & blue straws showed up at the bar. Light-up sunglasses got passed around before the sun even set. Glow sticks came out as the sky went dark, turning the dance floor into something that looked more like a celebration than a “wedding reception” in the traditional sense — which, if you know anything about how I like to shoot these days, is exactly the point.
The ceremony, beneath the trees
Jenn & Josh said their vows in the evening, surrounded by evergreens, as the light kept shifting more golden with every minute the sun sank lower behind the trees, just the two of them and about 50 people who love them, under a canopy that’s been standing long before either of them was born. There’s something about getting married in a forest like this one on the Uncompahgre Plateau: The trees don’t care if your vows are polished or if your voice cracks halfway through. The trees will be there (hopefully) longer than all of us, and the solitude of the remote forest makes the whole thing feel more sacred.
Dinner in the round, dancing under the stars
Instead of the usual head table and rows of seating, Jenn & Josh set up dinner in a U-shape wrapped around the dance floor — which meant every single guest had a front-row seat to the party as it started to unfold. With a smaller guest count, that setup felt effortless instead of crowded; no one was tucked in a back corner wondering what was going on up front. The fun was visible from every seat at the table. As the sun kept sinking behind the trees and the light turned deeper gold, then finally gave way to string lights, the whole space turned from “dinner” to “dance floor” without anyone having to get up and relocate.
A first scoop instead of a first slice
Here’s the detail I keep coming back to: instead of cutting a cake, Jenn & Josh shared a “first scoop.” They’d hired an actual ice cream truck to park on-site for the night — because if you’re getting married on the biggest summer holiday of the year, on one of the hottest days of the season, what says “celebration” more than ice cream with your closest people in line behind you? It’s the kind of detail that tells you everything about how a couple wants their day to feel: less performance, more genuine, unfiltered joy.
A day that looked like exactly what they wanted
That’s the thing about a wedding like Jenn & Josh’s — it didn’t look like anyone else’s, because it wasn’t trying to. It looked like glow sticks and string lights and a U-shaped dinner table under the stars. It looked like vows under evergreens and an ice cream bowl instead of a slice of cake. It looked like the Fourth of July, but for the two of them.
If you’re planning a wedding or elopement in the forests of the Uncompahgre Plateau outside Montrose — whether that’s a friend’s private property like Jenn & Josh found, or somewhere else entirely across the Western Slope or San Juans — I’d love to help you figure out what your day should actually feel like. Not what a wedding is “supposed” to look like. Yours.
