Chilled Out Urban Bohemian Wedding in Denver: Tina & Rob

Tara Polly Photography

November 12, 2014

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Laid back couple Tina and Rob wanted a wedding that celebrated their love of Denver. Instead of doing anything traditional, they decided to plan their wedding as if it was their perfect day in the city. Their ceremony was held in the garden of The Populist and their reception at Infinite Monkey Theorem Wine Lab.

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“We met in Spring of 2011 when I was trying to get my furniture business off the ground and bartending nights to make ends meet”, began the groom. “Some old friends of mine walked into the bar and a man named Dexter introduced me to his lovely friend named Tina. We only had time to flirt for a couple minutes before I had to get back to work. On her way out I ran around from behind the bar and gave her my number. A couple days later we met up for drinks and hit it off.”

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“We love Denver and everything it has to offer. So we basically just asked each other, ‘What would our perfect day in Denver be?'” he replied when I asked him about their inspiration. “We would grab brunch at Pinche Taco, go record shopping, grab dinner at The Populist and drinks afterwards with friends at Infinite Monkey Theorem, then go dance the night away somewhere our friend Matthew was spinning. And that was that! We had our wedding plan! A love letter to Denver.”

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“One of our favorite things on the day was after the ceremony was over, during cocktail hour. Halfway through, a six piece Mariachi Band rounded the corner and played music over the patio. We opened the gates and the band led the march across the street to our reception at the winery. Cars were stopped in all directions as 80 people and a fully dressed Mariachi paraded down the street!”

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“But the very best thing about the day was the intimacy. We are a very relaxed couple and the entire wedding was very chill and informal. All of our guests we consider extremely close friends and our venue was really small, which made for all of our best friends getting close to each other. During the ceremony we passed our wedding rings through the crowd so each person could say a little blessing or give their love on their own. Tina and Tawny (her mother) did their mother/daughter dance to OutKast ‘Bowtie’. Tawny was both the mother and father for Tina growing up.”

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The couple implemented a few DIY elements to give their wedding a personal twist. They made their ceremony and photo backdrops themselves with the help of their party planners. “Instead of a photo booth we used our Instax camera with tons of film and let everyone get crazy with ’em”, Rob wrote. “We had an old wooden pallet to hang the pictures from and it turned into a collage by the end of the night. Paralleled to that, for our save the dates we used the same Instax Camera and gave everyone a unique polaroid of the two of us.”

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“One of our biggest expenses was Hey! Party Collective who helped us plan the wedding. At first, we both thought it was silly to get some random people to plan a party for us when we’ve planned tons of parties in the past. After getting through the preliminary wedding planning, we realized we needed some help. Christie and Nicole were worth every damn penny we spent. During the week of the wedding, we weren’t stressing out about the little stuff and got to enjoy all of our friends and family. We couldn’t have done it without them!”

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“There’s nothing we would have done differently”, he concluded. “It was exactly the vibe we wanted. Our advice to other couples would be that it’s incredible how many small things end up not mattering the day of. Make a list of the big things that matter to you both the most. Do those. Then let the rest fall where it may. Remember what a wedding is about. It’s not about flowers and dresses, caterers and rings. A wedding is about expressing your love to your partner in front of your closest friends and families. The rest is a blur. Enjoy yourself and enjoy the company you invited. The day of your wedding goes by very fast. Make sure to slow yourself down and soak it in. Consciously tell yourself to take a look around and remember where you are, listen to the sounds, smell the smells. Your wedding day is a sensory overload, so take some mental snapshots along the way.”

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