Home

Steamboat Springs — For the bride and groom looking for a special site to exchange their vows, the Steamboat Springs area offers lots of options.

Many people who are married in Steamboat during the summer and early fall want an outdoors wedding, where mountains and woods serve as a stunning backdrop and meadows covered with wildflowers mean there's no need to decorate.

For snow lovers, the wintertime offers warm and cozy indoor sites and even snowy outdoor spots, most notably the Steamboat Ski Area where vows can be exchanged while skiing through fresh powder.

Throughout the year, the Yampa Valley also offers charming indoor wedding sites, some of which have a history dating back to the area's early days.

"The people who want to be married here like nature and like the mountains and like the outdoors, and they can have all of that right here," said Bev Sorensen with Glen Eden Resort in North Routt County.

The resort is a popular place for summertime weddings, where couples exchange vows outside near a river and then celebrate outdoors. The resort also has lodging, making it a one-stop place for the perfect wedding.

The resort offers smaller weddings in the winter, Sorenson said.

Other ranches across the area offer similar wedding opportunities, including Elk River Guest Ranch and High Meadows Ranch.

For any interested couple, it's a good idea to reserve a weekend early, as many sites start filling up for the summer before winter even begins.

Closer to town, there are sites such as Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp, Catamount Ranch and Club and the Steamboat Christian Church, all of which offer popular indoor and outdoor spots for the wedding ceremony. Some sites also offer space for the reception that follows.

The Steinberg Pavilion at Perry-Mansfield is a glass and log structure that gives couples the feeling of being outside, said Carrie Elkin, office manager at the school and camp. Many couples opt to have their ceremonies at one of three different sites on the camp's property and then go indoors for the celebration.

The sites are picturesque, with some having beautiful mountain backdrops and gorgeous views of the expansive valley below.

"It's a very ranch-like feel, it's outdoorsy," Elkin said. "The room speaks for itself, so you don't need to do a lot of decorating."

Mount Werner gives brides and grooms the chance to take their vows on a mountaintop amid fields of wildflowers or feet of snow. The spot provides breathtaking views of the Yampa Valley, and promises a site that the couple and their guests are unlikely to forget.

Couples have to pay a gondola fee and catering fee for the experience.

"Couples have discovered what makes getting married in the mountains so special," said Liz Wahl, executive chef for the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corporation. "All the traditional Saturday wedding dates were booked last summer by May and the Saturdays during the 2004 summer area already nearly 95 percent booked and filling up fast."

Hotels in the area, including the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel, offer a classy and convenient spot for indoor weddings.

Couples can find their own special outdoors niche in town at places such as the Yampa Valley Botanic Part, Fish Creek Falls and the gazebo at Soda Springs, or can hike up to any area in surrounding Routt National Forest land and exchange vows in a rustic location.

In Colorado, couples can be married by anyone they choose, so the chances to find a perfect and memorable spot for the wedding ceremony are seemingly endless.