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This couple featured on the journal today are so cute and spunky. I had a blast photographing them because they have a fun and goofy energy about them and were so totally head over heels for each other. They held their laid-back, family-only reception dinner in the private Tower dining room at The Fort restaurant which is a frontier-themed replica fort in Morrison, Colorado. I was looking at the Fort’s website and found it pretty interesting to read up on. I have lived in the area for a long time so I’ve always heard about the Fort, but I had actually never been to it. I didn’t realize it was based on the real Bent Fort which was Colorado’s first fur trading post built in 1834. This replica building was built in 1961 and originally was meant to be only the family home. But when the budget was busted, they decided to turn the lower level into a restaurant specializing in traditional foods of the American west. I also learned that the family adopted a black bear named Sissy who lived at the Fort with them until she died of old age the same year I was born in 1982.

But back to Samantha & John’s intimate wedding dinner reception; we began with some family formal portraits in the courtyard area with the adobe walls as the backdrop. This family was having a ton of fun posing for lots of candids together before I had Samantha & John follow me over the the red rocks for some romantic portraits of just the two of them alone. Keeping in mind the warnings of the signs posted everywhere to watch out for rattlesnakes, we gingerly walked around to capture some of the gorgeous views as the couple enjoyed each other’s company before dinner began. I made sure to capture some of the candid moments that were happening throughout their dinner as impromptu speeches were made and a delicious meal served. And I even got to photograph them cutting their cake as night fell. Check out some of the highlights from their sweet small wedding below!