YMCA of the Rockies Weddings in Estes Park

Gallery of YMCA of the Rockies Weddings Photos in Estes Park

YMCA of the Rockies Wedding Amenities

YMCA of the Rockies Wedding Pricing

Mountainside Lodge Weddings at YMCA of the Rockies

Sara Smith Chapel at YMCA of the Rockies

Overlook Chapel in Estes Park

Hyde Chapel at YMCA of the Rockies

Estes Park Ponder Chapel

The Walnut Room at YMCA of the Rockies

The Pine Room at YMCA of the Rockies

Assembly Hall Wedding Receptions at YMCA of the Rockies

Upper Cookout Pavilion Wedding Receptions

YMCA of the Rockies Wedding Information

YMCA of the Rockies Outdoor Ceremony Wedding Locations and Indoor Chapels

YMCA of the Rockies Wedding Reception Locations

 Phone: 970-586-3341

Website: YMCA of the Rockies Wedding Website

YMCA of the Rockies weddings are some of the prettiest weddings at the best prices that you’ll find in all of Colorado. If you’ve been searching for a beautiful Colorado mountain wedding venue for awhile, you’ll know that it’s not easy to find an affordable place to get married in the mountains these days. This unique family reunion style retreat is located right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park so it gets to share in the incredible mountain views that RMNP is famous for. It’s so close to Rocky Mountain National Park that you can walk on a trail from the Mountainside Lodge at the resort to Glacier Bay Campground inside RMNP in less than 30 minutes. 

There are a ton of really great choices for wedding ceremonies and receptions here. There is so much stunning scenery found at each of the wedding venues at YMCA of the Rockies that you’ll have a tough time choosing! With beauty and great prices there is a tiny catch though. This is a family-friendly, Christian organization that does not have a liquor license. You can serve bottled or canned beer (kegs are only allowed at the outdoor locations), wine, & champagne, but hard alcohol is prohibited. For some couples, this may be a deal-breaker which is why I mention it as a potential downside of booking this wedding venue. Still, there are so many upsides that I think it’s definitely worth exploring for couples on a tight budget that don’t want to sacrifice having a beautiful location for their wedding. 

YMCA of the Rockies specializes in hosting groups and family reunions so it’s no sweat for them to host your wedding too. This is a particularly great place to host a destination wedding since all of your family and friends can stay right there at great prices. YMCA of the Rockies has so many awesome amenities too that it ends up being an incredible value. Your wedding guests will be able to enjoy so many different activities like axe throwing, escape rooms, sledding, biking, star-gazing programs, yoga, swimming, snowshoeing, ice skating, horseback riding, fishing, archery and more! They have options for staying in private rooms just like a hotel or they can opt to spread out a little and stay as groups in the various cabins that are available. 

As mentioned above, YMCA of the Rockies weddings are truly some of the most affordable weddings you will find in the Colorado mountains. I’ve done my best to outline a rough idea of wedding costs for YMCA of the Rockies at each of the following locations that are available to rent below. They do have a $1,000 catering minimum and no outside catering is allowed when booking one of their wedding reception venues. Meals will cost you anywhere from $30 per person to $45 per person with some options for add-ons to your menu. All of the prices listed for each of the locations in the following section are based on 4 hour rental periods with a half hour clean up period after. You have the option to add on extra hours to your reception for $100 per hour if reserved prior to your wedding day. Please note, these prices are subject to change and it’s always best to reach out to YMCA of the Rockies directly to get the most up to date pricing information. They may have changed their rental rates and policies during Covid-19.

YMCA of the Rockies has many different wedding package options for couples looking to get married in Estes Park. They offer individual ceremony locations for those who only need a beautiful place to get married and are hosting a reception party elsewhere. They also have ceremony plus reception options and even reception only spaces too. They have some of the most beautiful outdoor chapels that I have ever seen but their indoor options aren’t bad either! 

If you had your heart set on a pretty outdoor chapel space but don’t want to book a reception with YMCA of the Rockies, you should definitely look into the Sara Smith Chapel. It has a very similar vibe to the Mountainside Chapel but with more trees and woods obscuring the views a little bit more than the former. It has cute bench style pews that can seat up to 150 guests and a simple stone altar at the front instead of a wood cross. I actually love the “aisle” at the Sara Smith Chapel even more than the one at Mountainside Lodge! Your Sara Smith Chapel Wedding ceremony cost will be $1,200 for a 4 hour block of time. If you reserve this chapel with a reception it’s only $600. 

Another absolutely gorgeous outdoor chapel at YMCA of the Rockies is the Overlook Chapel. Just as the name implies, there are incredible mountain views from the deck where you’ll get married at this outdoor chapel. As with the other outdoor chapels at this YMCA Retreat in Estes Park, there are cute little rustic wood benches for pews and they on a hill at this location making it so all of your wedding guests will be able to see your first kiss as a married couple a little more easily! I love that this outdoor Estes Park chapel looks west toward the mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park. You can host up to 100 guests at this pretty location and it’s available from Memorial Day until the end of October. The Overlook Chapel in Estes Park costs $1,600 to rent for your wedding ceremony and if you book it with a reception, you can reserve it for $800. 

It’s all about the great outdoors in Estes Park, but sometimes crazy mountain weather forces a planned outdoor ceremony to head indoors. Or you’ll want a nice cozy indoor wedding ceremony if you’re planning to get married at YMCA of the Rockies during winter. Hyde Chapel is one of the indoor chapel options available year round at this Estes Park resort wedding venue. It’s also the largest space available for hosting wedding ceremonies and can seat up to 400 guests inside. So all of the couples out there hoping to plan a large wedding might want to keep Hyde Chapel in mind for their wedding planning. Hyde Chapel costs $1,000 to rent it for a 4 hour block of time. That rate is cut in half and is priced at $500 if you reserve Hyde Chapel with a reception venue as well.

The other indoor chapel option at YMCA of the Rockies is the Ponder Chapel which is a simple and adorable modern little chapel with exposed wood beams and large windows. It’s the next best thing to hosting your wedding outdoors when you run into bad weather. You’ll be able to fit up to 120 guests at your indoor wedding ceremony at the Ponder Chapel. It’s $800 for a 4 hour block of time and as with the other available venues at YMCA of the Rockies, the rental rate is cut in half if you book it with a reception venue. 

YMCA of the Rockies has many different wedding package options for couples looking to get married in Estes Park. They offer individual ceremony locations for those who only need a beautiful place to get married and are hosting a reception party elsewhere. They also have ceremony plus reception options and even reception only spaces too. They have some of the most beautiful outdoor chapels that I have ever seen but their indoor options aren’t bad either!

The Walnut Room is a nice reception space with a parquet wood dance floor and a row of columns along one end of the room with string lights hanging between them. The wood beams running across the ceiling add a nice touch of rustic elegance to this simple space. You’ll be able to host 130 guests if you opt for a dance floor and up to 180 people without one. One really great feature to this wedding reception space is that there is an outdoor deck with mountain views right outside of the space. The Walnut Room at YMCA of the Rockies is only available to rent during late fall through the spring (October-Memorial Day) and will cost $1,000.

I think the Pine Room might be my favorite of the indoor reception venue options at YMCA of the Rockies. Yes, it’s quite a bit of wood on the inside, but it just has such a cute, cozy feel with that enormous stone fire place. It has a nice tall, vaulted ceiling with wood beams giving it a bit more of an open feel to balance out all of that wood on the inside. It also helps that there are a lot of windows on 3 of the walls at one end of this space letting in quite a bit of natural light on that side of the room. This wedding reception space is also only available for all dates from October-Memorial Day but I actually think it works perfectly as a cold weather winter wedding venue. You can also book it from Memorial Day-October, but only on Fridays and Saturdays. The YMCA of the Rockies Pine Room costs $900 to rent and you’ll be able to fit 80 guests with a dance floor (and 100 guests without).

The YMCA now has a huge reception space for weddings and other events at their newer and more sleek Assembly Hall. This room is huge and it has a little bit more of a conference room vibe than a dolled up wedding venue vibe, but I’m sure with the right decor it can really come to life. Plus, if you want to host a really large wedding, it’s going to be your best option at the YMCA of the Rockies since it can host up to 500 people inside. If you like this more sleek and modern vibe and are hosting something smaller, you can also have them divide the room and just rent a portion of it. An Assembly Hall wedding costs $3,000 to rent the entire space. You can rent ¾ of the space and host up to 350 people for $2,100 and you can divide it in half and host up to 250 people for $1,500. If you only need a ¼ of the Assembly Hall Space, it’ll cost $1,000 and can fit up to 100. One other nice perk of hosting a wedding at the Assembly Hall at YMCA of the Rockies is that they have a nice open air foyer space right outside the room with two large gas fireplaces.

Last, but not least is the Upper Cookout Pavilion which is the outdoor wedding reception option at YMCA of the Rockies. The Upper Cookout Pavilion is a simple open air space covered by a brown metal roof with stone pillars supporting it on the sides. It has simple picnic tables like the kind you might see in a cafeteria throughout that you can use. But, you also have the option of paying an extra $250 to have these removed and replaced with rounds if you prefer. The Upper Cookout Pavilion is only available part time though, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

There you have it for the main wedding rental options at YMCA of the Rockies. It’s possible they may have other off the beaten path ideas for couples who are hosting an elopement or doing a micro-wedding so be sure to reach out to them directly to get the full scoop on your options. And, if you are looking for an Estes Park wedding photographer to document your day, I’d love to be considered! I grew up not far from Estes and I’ve been photographing weddings in Colorado for over 15 years now. Take a look at the WEDDINGS page of my site and get in touch. I’d love to hear more about you and your plans!

I’ll go ahead and kick off this list of YMCA of the Rockies most popular wedding location which is the Mountainside Lodge. The beautiful, historic Mountainside Lodge is set apart from the other wedding venue choices at YMCA of the Rockies because they do not allow it to be rented as a standalone option. When you book your wedding at the Mountainside Lodge, you get access to the lodge itself which can sleep up to 38 people. YMCA of the Rockies requires at least a 3-4 night minimum stay for booking a wedding at the Mountainside Lodge. This beautiful location is only available from June-September.

You’ll also get to use the John Timothy Stone Mountainside Chapel which is a beautiful outdoor chapel that looks out over the rugged mountain scenery of Estes Park. There is a large, simple wood cross and adorable permanent little benches where your guests will sit during your ceremony. One feature I really like about the Mountainside Chapel is the nice long “aisle” walk way for the processional with lots of greenery which looks really nice in your wedding photos. And I’ve definitely created some of my favorite wedding photos in that nice green field just beyond the ceremony site with mountain views in the backdrop.

When you book a Mountainside Lodge wedding package at YMCA of the Rockies, you’ll also get to host an open air reception at the Mountainside Pavilion. The Mountainside Pavilion fits up to 120 guests at picnic tables. You have the option of having the staff remove the picnic tables and add round tables instead for $250. Rates for the Mountainside Lodge are $9,199 for a Thursday-Sunday stay and $7,899 for a Sunday-Thursday stay. Please check with YMCA of the Rockies to find out what the rates are for 2021 and beyond.

 Address: 2515 Tunnel Rd, Estes Park, CO 80511