Tracy Carolyn Photography

A bride.  A groom.  A dunk tank.  Welcome to the carnival themed reception!

Christine and Brandan decided to do things differently for their party, forgoing the usual DJ and dancing for carnival games and a dunk tank.  So once all the formal wedding-type stuff was complete, everyone headed outside to the back lawn to play games, eat cotton candy, and dunk their friends.

The dunk tank functioned as a fund-raiser for Alzheimer’s research (a family member suffered from the disease), and provided much of the entertainment for the evening.  At the end of the night, the bride herself climbed into the hot seat and was dunked for a donation of over $300.  Awesome.

Many thanks to Katie and Kayla, who helped with this wedding, and to Brandan and Christine for allowing me to be a part of it.  Definitely a wedding I won’t forget :)

An Estes Park mountain wedding with a carnival theme?  Yes, please!

Christine and Brandan were married last Saturday at the Aspen Lodge in Estes Park.  There were a few unconventional elements to this wedding.  All of the attendants were guys – no bridesmaids but bridesmen and groomsmen.  The programs were folded into fortune tellers (some people call them cootie catchers.)  And the reception featured a dunk tank and a Sno Cone machine.

But everything you need for a great wedding was still there – a happy bride and groom, a meaningful ceremony, friends and family having a blast, and a delicious smelling cake :)

See more from their carnival themed reception tomorrow!

After a short ceremony and a few quick photos (we had done nearly everything beforehand, thankfully), Holly and Cody danced their way into their reception just in time to miss the next rain shower.  The party continued uninterrupted by the storm, with guests happily seated beneath a tent braced well against the elements.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many single girls going out for the bouquet as there were at Holly and Cody’s wedding.  They were prepared to fight for it, too.  In the end, I think the bouquet suffered some serious blows from being bounced off hands (you can see it splitting apart mid-air in the photo Rachael captured.)  Pretty funny, actually.  Congrats to the tall girl in the front row who caught it :)

Many thanks to Rachael for second shooting, and to my lovely assistant Kayla for all that she does.  And a heartfelt congratulations to Holly and Cody, who were one of the happiest and most excited couples I’ve seen in a long time.  Best of luck to you both :)