One of my favorite events to photograph is the Latin American celebration of a young girl celebrating her 15th birthday with her friends and family. This celebration is to mark the milestone of a young girl becoming a young woman in her community. Much like a wedding the celebrated youth has a court filled with her closest young friends and family that stand with her and do special dances throughout the event. The event is filled with elaborate ball gowns, tiaras, food and sweets as well as other activities such as photo-booths, entertainers and more!
Ariana’s family booked us for both photography and video coverage and we also provided a pre-party photo session so that we could photograph her in the beautiful red ballgown she had chosen so that photos could also be used in decorations during the event.
This event had everything: Aztec dancers who performed and blessed the Quinceañera and her family, an all female mariachi band that performed during the dinner and cocktail hour, low-rider vehicles for taking photographs with, photo-booth and a DJ who rocked the party late into the evening. Not to forget our company there to capture everything in photographs and video!
Check out the highlight video below:
And enjoy some photographs from the event:
Vendors who made this day possible:
Venue – Legacy Event Center
Mariachi – Mariachi Alma del Folklore
DJ – Aaron Fernandez
Dancers – Grupo Tlaloc
Catering: Tacos El Cuate
Photo & Video – Crystaline Photography & Video
This wedding was a destination wedding for this couple living in Ohio. Cara’s a Colorado girl at heart though having grown up in the state. Her parents did a lot of the heavy lifting with this event as her mother worked out most of the details before the big day with us. Not to say that they didn’t give us input as well, but the couple were so laid back about planning that they let Diane handle a lot of the behind the scene things! we had such a great time working with everyone and were blessed with an amazing day! Check out some of my favorite photos from this special occasion.
Vendors who made this day possible:
Venue: Willow Ridge Manor
Music: Digital DJ
Photographer: Crystaline Photography & Video
One of our favorite mountain venues to work at that’s within our free travel range is the Silverthorne Pavilion. This venue is great because it’s located in a mountain town with close proximity to I-70. You get all of the mountain views with a lot of great city amenities near by! Including lots of hotel accommodations to choose from. It’s one of the more affordable locations to host events in the Rocky Mountains! The pavilion has areas for couples to get ready on site, indoor and outdoor ceremony options and a great hall that includes a stage which is awesome for couples looking to host larger entertainment such as a band, etc. We’ve covered weddings at this location in every season!
Courtney & Tyler chose are basic photography package with just one photographer (myself) to cover their big day. Since everything was held all at the same place it was easy for me to cover every aspect of their big day! Check out some photos below from this amazing wedding!
Photography: Crystaline Photography & Video
Planner: Blue River Weddings & Events
Caterer: Black Diamond Gourmet Catering
Hair & Make-up: The Beauty Market
I get behind on posting photos from amazing photo-shoots purely because of how busy we are, so this session is about a year old! (yeah, yeah I know!) But I thought it would be fitting to show off just how amazing winter engagement sessions can be. Winter weddings are really starting to take off… maybe because there are savings to be had for booking an off season event. If you are a couple that loves the winter season, but are not quite willing to host your big day during the chillier months then maybe a winter engagement session will be just what you need. Wear your chunky sweaters, put on your over sized boots and venture out into the cold like Gaby & Chris did for some fun romantic photos!
Winter weddings are amazing! Late Spring in Colorado can even give you winter vibes such as this elopement at Sapphire Point on Lake Dillon near Breckenridge, Colorado. This spot is one of the most booked venues in Colorado due to it’s beautiful views and inexpensive price. It’s a lovely place to elope or host a very small wedding ceremony which is exactly what these two love birds did! They traveled out to Colorado to tie the knot in a very intimate self solemnizing ceremony with just myself and my videographer and then they hosted a reception back home over the summer. Check out some more photos and video from this amazing wedding!
Check out these romantic picnic set-ups done by Tie the Knot Bridal Creations at a brand new venue in Loveland, CO called Copper Falls Event Center. This romantic, quaint venue is perfect for elopements and small micro weddings as well as proposals! It offers a beautiful seasonal waterfall and on site accommodations for up to 8 guests. Perfectly situated between Estes Park and Loveland it’s a great jumping off point for those looking to explore the area.
Package deals will be available soon for booking the venue and the picnic set-ups together. reach out to Copper Falls to find out more!
Venue & Accommodations: Copper Falls Event Center
Stylist, Rental & Picnic Food Provided by: Tie the Knot Bridal Creations
Photography provided by: Crystaline Photography and Video
Fall is a very romantic time of year. A chill in the air gives couples the perfect time to snuggle up close and get some intimate photos together that showcase their love! I had a wonderful time following Stephanie & David around the church camp that Stephanie has been a counselor to kids attending for many years. She loves this venue, but it wasn’t quite what she wanted for her weddings so rather than use it to host their wedding we utilized it for some amazing fall portraits! Enjoy!
Cindy and David hosted a very small wedding in the chapel at Ralston Crossing Event Center last Spring. It was the perfect venue for this couple to share their sweet vows to each other and celebrate with cake and first dances in the pavilion behind the chapel after the ceremony. Ralston Crossing has both an indoor and outdoor ceremony site. The chapel works well as back up location for when the weather doesn’t want to cooperate. For this couple their plans were to use the chapel from the beginning due to their small event size and the time of year they were getting married. We utilized some of the amazing features on the grounds for taking photos with their wedding party and alone. Checkout some of our favorite photos from this lovely day!
Our annual Fall Mini Portrait Sessions will be taking place again this year with limited morning sessions on two days only! We are offering 20 minute sessions booked on the half hour on Saturday, September 16th and Saturday October 21st only. Sessions will begin at 7am with the last one starting at 11am. The session price is $175.00 and it includes 8 high resolution digital images from the photoshoot. Addtional digital images, prints and holiday cards will also be available to purchase in addition to the included digitals. You may also purchase all of the photos from the session after you view them for $250.00. This year both sessions will be taking place at Majestic View Nature Center – 7030 Garrison St, Arvada, CO 80004. We will be meeting in the parking lot right next to the center (not at the park entrance off 72nd Ave.) The center has restrooms available and some great photo opportunities near by! This is our one and only time a year that we offer short sessions at a discounted rate. The dates, timing and location are all set by our company for this special!
If you have never participated in a mini session before I want to share a little bit about the concept. Mini sessions were developed to give clients with stricter budgets a quick photo-shoot with their family in order to accommodate a large amount of groups in one day! This session is perfect for families with children with short attention spans looking to just capture the growth of their family for holiday cards and the like. These sessions are not intended for groups that may need a bit more time and care with their photos such as large extended family shoots, families with pets or families looking to pick and choose their location and willing to spend more time getting lots of different poses, looks and or clothing changes. A grandparent or two can also tag along with one immediate family, but grandparents with multiple children that have families of their own may need to look at purchasing at least two back to back session spots. We also will not allow pets to be included in these sessions because while we love pets, the sessions are just too short for us to have the time devoted to both getting the the attention of the animals and their family members. These sessions are also more suited for people that can be on time or early. We run a tight ship on mini session day and since sessions are booked back to back photos will start immediately at your contracted start time and end 20 minutes later. Late comers will only get the time-frame we have allowed for them, so once their time is up we’ll be done and moving on to the next group. All sessions are paid for in full to reserve your time-slot with no refunds unless we have a really bad weather day and have to reschedule. In cases like a bad weather day we will reach out to each family to see if there’s a day we can reschedule the session for and if there isn’t a mutually agreeable day within the next 2 months we will refund your money.
Check out some sample photos from last year’s session at Crown Hill Park –
Each session will include a couple different full family poses, separate groupings such as individual parents with children, children alone, parents alone and individual shots with a few different background options. Majestic View offers a lot of options in a close proximity while we won’t be moving around the entire park in a 20 minute session some walking will be needed. If anyone has any disabilities or needs special accommodations please let us know.
One thing we can not guarantee is how much the trees will have changed or the weather! I try to set these sessions around the peak of the fall foliage season with weekend dates that we still have open, but it always varies from year to year. This year we only have a couple Saturday mornings open because we are fully booked with event coverage on the weekends until November. I cross my fingers for a beautiful day with abundant color and leaves still on the trees! Be aware that nature is going to do what nature does and we’re just at it’s mercy! If the forecast calls for cloudy and overcast, but not torrential downpours we will still be doing photos! So please dress accordingly.
Our mini sessions can also be used for a special occasion, not just for a family portrait. We’ve had people utilize our mini sessions for quick engagement pics, maternity announcements, a 50th wedding anniversary, headshots and more! We’ve even accommodated a quick senior portrait session for a student that hated having his photo taken and was doing just the bare minimum photo in one outfit for a yearbook photo and some pictures for his parents. We will be happy to let you utilize your 20 minutes for any quick small portrait session you may need. If you are needing something other than traditional family photos please let us know when you reach out for booking so we can make sure to focus on what’s important in your photoshoot.
If you are interested in booking a time for one of these sessions please email us – info@crystalinephoto.com
Please include your family’s name, contact numbers for any adult participating, names and ages of everyone and date and preferred time slot. Please include two times in case we book your first choice. All bookings are first come first serve are not guaranteed until a contract and full payment has been received. If you have a larger family and are not sure if you will need extra time or not please give us some details and we’ll let you know if we think you will need two time slots.
Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs is one of the most iconic locations to tie the knot. It’s a very popular place to elope or host a very small wedding in our state and you can see why from the photos below. I captured this amazing couple last summer in this beautiful location! And had a great time following them around for an hour taking photos before their sunset ceremony and then the last hour was spent photographing the ceremony itself and sunset photos. One of the perks of this location is that as of 2023 they do not require a permit to do an elopement or take photos here, but because of the popularity I don’t know if that situation will last for much longer as the city of Colorado Springs is already floating the idea of charging at least a photo permit. This location is probably one of the busiest spots in our state for both tourist visits and weddings. If you are thinking about eloping at this location here are some tips to help make this an experience to remember for a lifetime. Here’s a link to their site to keep up to date on requirements – https://gardenofgods.com/events/weddings/
1.) Keep it small! An elopement should be either just the two of you, the officiant and the person(s) documenting the occasion. If you do want to have a few friends/family present I would highly suggest keeping the guest list to 10 or less. You can have up to 50 guests, but having that many guests at this location is very difficult. It’s very hard to coordinate large groups of people especially at a location where you can not reserve a spot to exchange vows.
2.) DO NOT ELOPE ON A WEEKEND! (If you can help it!) This couple chose a Thursday evening on my recommendation and we still had to wait for parking spots to open up and for other couples that were utilizing the amazing scenery to finish up so we could also take photos. Choosing a more off season time-frame will also help. November through April are a little slower for visits to the park.
3.) Choose vendors who are familiar with the location and can help you pick the best spots to do photos and take pictures at. An experienced photographer can recommend the best time to do photos, how to pose and come up with creative shots (even if it’s just the two of you!)
4.) Keep it relaxed and fun! No need to stress for an elopement!! If you’re doing a destination wedding here from another state just make sure you make an appointment before your arrival to get your marriage license a few days beforehand. And touch base with your vendors the week of the wedding to make sure everyone is on the same page.
We’re here to help make your day amazing! Reach out if you’d like to chat with us about elopement options. ~ Jamie
