Outdoor wedding sites include the Elkhorn Mountain Summit, the Main
Lodge Courtyard, locations around or near the Fall River, the Huck
Finn Pavilion, and the Lodge Front Courtyard. Other smaller weddings
have been held in numerous other locations including the Coach House
Deck, where there is a great backdrop of Man Mountain.
 |
Elkhorn
Mountain Summit: This location is our most popular,
where ceremonies have ranged from a very formal
ceremony, accompanied by a string quartet; to a
Western wedding where the bride on horseback towed
the groom before the Minister by lasso.
The
Summit offers some of Colorado’s most beautiful
mountains in the background for the ceremony.
|
As various of our illustrative photos of past wedding
ceremonies show; a wedding couple can choose from the
Mummy Mountain Range (West view), The Long’s Peak
Mountain with Twin Sisters (Southern view), the Estes
Park Valley with the downtown and Lake Estes (Eastern
view), or the summit of Man
Mountain (Northern view). We have an approximate equal
number of weddings facing each of the four alternatives;
and the decision belongs to the wedding couple.
|
| Wedding
parties typically request that the Elkhorn furnish
and set up chairs for portions of the attendees, primarily
the more elder family members and guests. Some wedding
groups prefer to have seating for everyone, and others
have gone to the other extreme, offering only limited
seating.
Travel
to the Summit is either by walking, it is an approximate
¼ mostly vertical mile from the Main
Lodge; it is surprising the number of guests chose
to walk; in 2002, we had two wedding ceremonies on
two successive weekends in late August, typically
the warmest of the summer, where almost all of the
250 persons/wedding selected to walk to the wedding
site.
|
|
The wedding couple generally use private vehicles for their
transport, as well as the older family members; there is a
limit of only two private vehicles permitted. The Elkhorn
furnishes transport in its USArmy 2.5 ton truck - this transports
some 25 persons and is a thrilling ride as the road is very
steep, and we travel at a typical 2 MPH speed.
|
The various courtyard wedding sites
are available; they are less expensive and much
simpler. The gallery
provides numerous illustrations of the courtyards
being used as the ceremony site. The
Main Lodge Courtyard faces the swimming pool
area and there is a pavilion which may be use, depending
on the weather. For smaller weddings [100-150] where
the following reception is held in the Main Lodge
Ballroom combined with the Courtyard area, this
is an ideal wedding site. Once the guests arrive,
they stay basically centrally located and it is
much easier to coordinate the entire wedding process
through each of the traditional steps.
|
Typically the Main Lodge Courtyard ceremonies/receptions involve
the guests eating the reception meal in the courtyard and
using the Ballroom for the post dining toasts, cutting the
cake and for dancing. The Elkhorn will set up a bar as may
be requested by the wedding party.
Other
Locations: These locations include riverside sites or the
Huck Finn Pavilion. These weddings
have been typically smaller in number and informal. There
are other unique locations on the Elkhorn’s property,
including one small wedding on the outside deck of the HayLoft.
|
|
